Noah's Compass
A Novel
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3.8 • 62 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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 and spare 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Not for everyone
Anne Tyler is not an author for everyone. She is not a populist author. She takes her time building characters and defining plots. You don't so much read her novels - you experience them. She is not an immediate writer, you need to enjoy her style which is extremely realistic, which sometimes translates as slow moving.
I liked Noah's Compass a lot, but still preferred Breathing Lessons. Tyler writes literature, not populist books like James Patterson or Michael Connelly (I like both of these writers, don't get me wrong).
The Beginner's Goodbye
I love her style of writing but when my husband asks me whats happening in my book(he likes Westerns, spy, etc.) I say "Nothing" and he rolls his eyes.
Wonderful
The last person who reviewed this book on here obviously doesn't get Anne Tyler. This book was just as enjoyable as the Accidental Tourist. A good read.