The Clock Winder

by Anne Tyler

Book Overview

With wondrous observations and bittersweet humor, the beloved best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author tells the story of an unsuspecting young woman who becomes the North star that helps a stumbling, dysfunctional family find its footing.

Mrs. Emerson, widowed with seven adult children, lives alone in crumbling Victorian mansion outside Baltimore with only a collection of antique clocks to keep her company. Elizabeth Abbott--twenty-three...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449911799
• ISBN13: 9780449911792
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

What?

I guess I'm too left brained, but this story just meandered for me. For the life of me, I can't figure out the point of this story. The family dynamic was purely toxic. Cannot recommend you waste your time.

Tyler herself doesn't like it - but you will!

Anne Tyler has said she wouldn't like to claim her first four books, which include "The Clock Winder." Reading that caused me to go back and reevaluate this novel, which has long been one of my favorites by her. Ms. Tyler has high standards, as befits an excellent writer. In retrospect, "The Clock Winder" doesn't measure up to her later work. Some of the characters are poorly defined (I've always had a hard time keeping all the Emerson siblings straight) and the plot turns to melodrama when she needs to jog the story along. Still, there's an underlying sweetnesss that shines through despite the structural defects. I'd still recommend this gem of a novel.

An early Anne Tyler, and still one of her very best

Anne Tyler's "The Clock Winder" is the story of Elizabeth Abbott, a sort of aimless 20-year old girl taking a year off from college. When Elizabeth wanders into the lives of the Emerson family, she becomes, as Mrs. Emerson so tellingly describes things early in the book, "the center of the asterisk." Elizabeth is trying to earn money to go back to college for her senior year--even though "my grades were rotten"--and on her way to interview for a long-term babysitting job, she ends up helping Pamela Emerson move some porch furniture. Mrs. Emerson asks her to stay on as a handyman, to replace the one she fired that morning, and Elizabeth cheerfully agrees as long as she can "live in." This innocent beginning to the story belies the complexities and emotional connections that are made and broken in the rest of the book. Without giving away too much of the plot to those who've never had the pleasure of reading it, it's safe to say that Elizabeth's presence has an emotional impact on several of Mrs. Emerson's sons--one of whom feels strongly enough about her that he does something terrible. This is the event which finally completes Elizabeth's long metamorphosis from determinedly carefree, irresponsible girl to full-grown woman--a woman who understands, finally, the effect that one person can have on another without even meaning to. The writing is superb and the plot develops organically, fully, and with a resolution which makes perfect sense. Anne Tyler was in full control of her considerable gifts back in 1972 when she wrote this, and aren't we lucky that she was!

The Locked Door of Time

Elizabeth is a wandering free-spirited college student of the mid-1960's. Though she does not wish to influence anyone, her influence is in fact enormous. Hers is the gift of making people want to live, as though their lives were actually turned back to a past point in time when they were younger, with a natural desire to persevere. When she accidentally convinces her employer's troubled son to commit suicide, she herself gives up on life, as though she finally understood that the past cannot be turned back. At last, a call for her help convinces her to take command of the uncertain future. A heartbreaker, and enthralling.

What an eccentric family!

Half-way through "The Clock Winder" I felt sad and find it kind of dark.However,after reading it, it gave me a sense of fulfilment not only because I had finished it finally but it gave me a feeling that I couldn't really describe.(I should said that mostly what I felt after a Anne's novel, that make me keep going back for more..)The Emersons is a weird ,not the average family, Mrs Emersons just lost her husband and just fired her handyman. She met Elizabeth(the main character) who soon become her handyman of the household and sort of got involve with the whole family. Mrs Emersons 7 children mostly eccentric,crazy or different gave a intriguing and exciting storyline. Founding out all of their life-stories were part of the fun of reading this novel. Elizabeth's own feeling and thoughts were complicated and she did get involved more than her even wanted. Her complex relationship with 2 of the sons added some spices to this eventful book. As usual this novel is filled with inner feeling and human relationship,love and suffering,etc... Anne did a great job to justify things and events and in the end,I felt it was a story well-told.

Populated by the most wonderfully quirky people!

The Clock Winder, is one of Anne Tyler's best. I have fallen in love with all the quirky characters who inhabit her books.I am particularly moved by Elizabeth Abbot, in this story, who enters as a stranger on the periphery and is metamorphosed into the essential core of the Emerson family.Though each of the characters displays an array of idiosyncracies, some charming and others downright sinister, Elizabeth the "Handyman" reveals the beauty of simply being the best version of yourself on the planet!This is lovely, rich material and a delight to read. Be warned: Ms. Tyler is addictive, you will never be able to read just one of her novels!