Title: Redhead by the Side of the Road
Author: Anne Tyler
Publisher: Knopf 2020
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 192
Rating: 3/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Ebook; MMD 2020
Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever. An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach, and a funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.
This was not the book for me at all. I’m not a fan of character studies or more specifically, character studies of very blergh people. Every page of this very slim novel was a slog. I just couldn’t connect to any characters or find any joy throughout the book. I just didn’t care about the story or the people in it.
Next up on the TBR pile:
