While reading Noah's Compass, I thought a lot about a writer's terrain. I have read all of Anne Tyler's novels. She has a certain territory that she covers. The books are often set in Baltimore. The characters are often loners and introverted. They are often idiosyncratic, gently quirky. She is a master of this world.
Noah's Compass begins with Liam Pennywell being forced out of a teaching job he has held for many years. Instead of fighting against it, Liam acquiesces to the situation and decides to move across town to a more modest apartment to cut down on costs. He moves wtih the help of his daughter's boyfriend and the one person he considers a friend. At the end of the day, with the job done, they leave Liam who soon goes to sleep and then wakes up in the hospital with a head injury. He has been badly beaten by an intruder.
I couldn't wait to read what would happen next. It was as if Anne Tyler started out in her wheelhouse and then took a sharp left turn. There were several intriguing threads mentioned. His sister suspected his daughter's boyfriend. That seemed interesting. But nothing ever comes out of that, he becomes the standard, sweet, funny figure that populates Tyler's fictional world. There is mention later on of an arrest, and the mother of the young man comes to ask Liam to meet with the boy, to perhaps help him with his sentence. But the meeting never takes place. Again, I think it was a missed opportunity for Tyler to venture outside her world.
What happens instead is Liam becomes involved with a young girl, someone he sees at a doctor's office helping an older man with a head injury. Liam becomes fascinated with the notion of having a "rememberer," someone who would be with him and help him figure out what exactly happened. It was one of those times when I, as a reader, just wanted to put my hands on the driving wheel and steer away from this story. I wasn't really interested in this romantic relationship. I wanted to read more about this introvert who was in a potentially dangerous situation with not much wits about him at the moment and see how he would survive. I had caught a glimpse of gritty from Tyler—there were bite marks on his hands from the altercation—and I wanted to see more of that side. I wished the boyfriend had been the druggie that he was rumored to be. I wanted to see more of this friend. Was it just that he wasn't a great friend or was something more going on? I wanted to know. I wanted to see Liam come face to face with his attacker. I wanted more of those fleeting glimpses that occasionally tantalized on the page.
