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Title details for Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler - Available

Noah's Compass

A Novel

by Anne Tyler
Arthur Morey
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.
Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.
His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.
We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 5, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415965580
      • File size: 261356 KB
      • Duration: 09:04:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Like Noah in the flood, Tyler's protagonist, Liam Pennywell, is a likable, unmoored figure. Having lost his job at 60, he feels too old to search for another, too young to retire. Arthur Morey offers a Liam whose pleasant voice grows on listeners; he makes us care for this unambitious man who thinks more eloquently than he speaks. Morey capably narrates passages that showcase Tyler's humorous observations, set like gems among pitch-perfect conversations between Liam and those who make up his world, including acquaintances, daughters, and an ex-wife. Morey portrays a variety of memorable characters, though his fretful-sounding voicing of Liam's girlfriend may take getting used to. Listeners drawn into this quirky, intimate narrative will be quite willing to overlook such a small detail. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 21, 2009
      Like Tyler's previous protagonists, Liam Pennywell is a man of unexceptional talents, plain demeanor, modest means and curtailed ambition. At age 60, he's been fired from his teaching job at a “second-rate private boys' school” in Baltimore, a job below his academic training and original expectations. An unsentimental, noncontemplative survivor of two failed marriages and the emotionally detached father of three grown daughters, Liam is jolted into alarm after he's attacked in his apartment and loses all memory of the experience. His search to recover those lost hours leads him into an uneasy exploration of his disappointing life and into an unlikely new relationship with Eunice, a socially inept walking fashion disaster who is half his age. She is also spontaneous and enthusiastic, and Liam longs to cast off his inertia and embrace the “joyous recklessness” that he feels in her company. Tyler's gift is to make the reader empathize with this flawed but decent man, and to marvel at how this determinedly low-key, plainspoken novelist achieves miracles of insight and understanding.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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