the accidental tourist review

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"Yes, that is my son," the man says, identifying the body in the intensive care unit. Grief threatens to break his face into pieces, and then something closes shut inside of him. He has always had a very controlled nature, fearful of emotion and revelation, but now a true ice age begins, and after a year his wife tells him she wants a divorce. It is because he cannot seem to feel anything.

"The Accidental Tourist" begins on that note of emotional sterility, and the whole movie is a journey toward a smile at the end.

The man's name is Macon Leary ( William Hurt ), and he writes travel books for people who detest traveling. He advises his readers on how to avoid human contact, where to find "American food" abroad and how to convince themselves they haven't left home. His own life is the same sort of journey, and maybe it began in childhood. His sister and two brothers still live together in the house where they were born, and any life outside of their routine would be unthinkable.

Macon's wife ( Kathleen Turner ) moves out, leaving him with the dog, Edward, who does like to travel and is deeply disturbed by the curious life his masters have provided for him. He barks at ghosts and snaps at strangers. It is time for Macon to make another one of his overseas research trips, so he takes the dog to be boarded at a kennel, and that's where he meets Muriel Pritchett ( Geena Davis ). Muriel has Macon's number from the moment he walks through the door. She can see he's a basket case, but she thinks she can help. She also thinks her young son needs a father.

Macon isn't so sure. He doesn't use the number she gives him. But later, when the dog trips him and he breaks his leg, he takes Edward back to the kennel, and this time he submits to a little obedience training of his own. He agrees to acknowledge that Muriel exists, and before long they are sort of living together (lust still exists in his body, but it lurks so far from the center of his feelings that sex hardly seems to cheer him up).

The peculiarity about these central passages in the film is that they are quite cheerful and sometimes even very funny, even though Macon himself is mired in a deep depression. Davis, as Muriel, brings an unforced wackiness to her role in scenes like the one where she belts out a song while she's doing the dishes. But she is not as simple as she sometimes seems, and when Macon gets carried away with a little sentimental generalizing about the future, she warns him, "Don't make promises to my son that you are not prepared to keep." There is also great good humor in the characters in Macon's family: brothers Porter ( David Ogden Stiers ) and Charles ( Ed Begley Jr.) and sister Rose ( Amy Wright ), a matriarch who feeds the family, presides over their incomprehensible card games and supervises such traditional activities as alphabetizing the groceries on the kitchen shelves. One evening Macon takes his publisher, Julien ( Bill Pullman ), home to dinner and Julien is struck with a thunderbolt of love for Rose. He eventually marries her, but a few weeks later Julien tells Macon that Rose has moved back home with the boys; she was concerned that they had abandoned regular meals and were eating only gorp.

This emergency triggers the movie's emotional turning point, which is subtle but unmistakable. Nobody knows Rose as well as Macon does, and so he gives Julien some very particular advice: "Call her up and tell her your business is going to pieces. Ask if she could just come in and get things organized. Get things under control. Put it that way.

Use those words. Get things under control, tell her." In context, this speech is hilarious. It is also the first time in the film that Macon has been able to extend himself to help anybody, and it starts him on the road to emotional growth. Clinging to the sterility and loneliness that has been his protection, he doesn't realize at first that he has turned the corner. He still doubts that he needs Muriel, and when she buys herself a ticket and follows him to Paris, he refuses to have anything to do with her. When his wife also turns up in Paris, there is a moment when he thinks they may be able to patch things together again, and then finally Macon arrives at the sort of moment he has been avoiding all of his life: He has to make a choice. But by then the choice is obvious; he has already made it, by peeking so briefly out of his shell.

The screenplay for "The Accidental Tourist," by Kasdan and Frank Galati , is able to reproduce a lot of the tone and dialogue of the Anne Tyler novel without ever simply being a movie version of a book. The textures are too specific and the humor is too quirky and well-timed to be borrowed. The filmmakers have reinvented the same story in their own terms. The movie is a reunion for Kasdan, Hurt and Turner, who all three launched their careers with " Body Heat " (1981). Kasdan used Hurt again in " The Big Chill " (1983) and understands how to employ Hurt's gift for somehow being likable at the same time he seems to be withdrawn.

What Hurt achieves here seems almost impossible: He is depressed, low-key and intensely private through most of the movie, and yet somehow he wins our sympathy. What Kasdan achieves is just as tricky; I've never seen a movie so sad in which there was so much genuine laughter. "The Accidental Tourist" is one of the best films of the year.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Accidental Tourist (1989)

121 minutes

Kathleen Turner as Sarah

William Hurt as MacOn

Ed Begley Jr. as Charles

Amy Wright as Rose

David Ogden Stiers as Porter

Geena Davis as Muriel

Bill Pullman as Julian

Robert Gorman as Alexander

Bradley Mott as Mr. Loomis

Screenplay by

• Frank Galati
• John Williams

Produced by

• Charles Okun
• Michael Grillo

Photographed by

• John Bailey
• Carol Littleton

Based On The Novel by

Directed by.

• Lawrence Kasdan

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The Accidental Tourist

Where to watch.

Rent The Accidental Tourist on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Generous with its characters' foibles and virtues, The Accidental Tourist is a thoughtful drama vested with insight into the complications of relationships.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Lawrence Kasdan

William Hurt

Macon Leary

Kathleen Turner

Sarah Leary

Geena Davis

Muriel Pritchett

Bill Pullman

More Like This

Movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist is a slow, sonorous and largely satisfying adaptation of Anne Tyler's bestseller of one man's intensely self-contained passage from a state of grief to one of newfound love.

By Variety Staff

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The Accidental Tourist is a slow, sonorous and largely satisfying adaptation of Anne Tyler’s bestseller of one man’s intensely self-contained passage from a state of grief to one of newfound love.

William Hurt is an uptight, travel book writer from the slightly eccentric, financially comfortable Leary family of unmarried middle-aged siblings in this essentially simple narrative story awash in warmth and wisdom about the emotional human animal.

Weighty tone is set from the opening scene where Kathleen Turner, having just made tea for Hurt upon his return from a travel-writing excursion, calmly informs him she’s moving out. Then, in a series of strange, unpredictable and out-of-character encounters with his unruly dog’s trainer (Geena Davis), Hurt finds himself in another, vastly different, relationship. Davis is unabashedly forward, poor, openly vulnerable, a flamboyant dresser and most importantly, has a sickly son (Robert Gorman) who fills the parental void in Hurt’s life.

Popular on Variety

That Hurt remains expressionless and speaks in a monotone, except at the very end, puts a damper on the hopefulness of his changing situation. Davis is the constant, upbeat force in the proceedings. Turner is equally compelling and sympathetic throughout.

1988: Best Supp. Actress (Geena Davis).

Nominations: Best Picture, Score, Adapted Screenplay

• Production: Warner. Director Lawrence Kasdan; Producer Lawrence Kasdan, Charles Okun, Michael Grillo; Writer Frank Galati, Lawrence Kasdan; Camera John Bailey Editor Carol Littleton; Music John Williams Art Bo Welch
• Crew: (Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1988. Running time: 121 MIN.
• With: William Hurt Kathleen Turner Geena Davis Amy Wright Bill Pullman Ed Begley Jr

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The accidental tourist.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan

After the death of his son, travel writer Macon Leary seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon's wife is having similar problems. They separate, and Macon meets a strange, outgoing woman who brings him 'back down to earth', but his wife soon thinks their marriage is still worth another try.

William Hurt Kathleen Turner Geena Davis Amy Wright David Ogden Stiers Ed Begley Jr. Bill Pullman Robert Hy Gorman Bradley Mott Seth Granger Amanda Houck Caroline Houck London Nelson Gregory Gouyer Bill Lee Brown Donald Neal Peggy Converse Maureen Kerrigan Jake Kasdan Paul Williamson Walter Sparrow Todd J. Adelman Meg Kasdan David Q. Combs Jonathan Kasdan Thomas Paolucci Neana N. Collins Roland Riallot Audrey Rapoport

Director Director

Lawrence Kasdan

Producers Producers

Lawrence Kasdan Charles Okun Michael Grillo

Writers Writers

Lawrence Kasdan Frank Galati

Original Writer Original Writer

Casting casting.

Wallis Nicita

Editor Editor

Carol Littleton

Cinematography Cinematography

John Bailey

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

John Malkovich Phyllis Carlyle

Production Design Production Design

Art direction art direction.

Tom Duffield

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Cricket Rowland

Stunts Stunts

Composer composer.

John Williams

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup makeup.

Leonard Engelman Vincent Callaghan

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Lynda Gurasich

Warner Bros. Pictures

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 23 dec 1988, 03 jan 1989, 06 jan 1989, 24 feb 1989, 10 mar 1989, 05 apr 1989, releases by country.

• Theatrical PG
• Theatrical U
• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical limited PG

121 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Sam Meltzer ★★ 9

An extremely bland and forgettable movie with one of the worst color pallets I’ve ever seen. You’d think that the screenplay and the performances would be strong but you can tell that no one clearly cared even in the slightest so BRAVA!! Of course the Oscars nominated it… 😒

Review by Mary Conti 2

**Part of the Best Picture Project**

In which Geena Davis plays a quirky woman who seems to have very little of a life beyond her desire to get William Hurt out his depression and see the value of life again.

IF ONLY THERE WAS A TROPE TO DESCRIBE THIS KIND OF WOMAN.

Review by DNA cinephile🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★

The Accidental Tourist. 1988. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

Lawrence Kasdan’s screenplay of Anne Tyler’s book is brilliant. The script was well written. However, Geena Davis could have been given more lines. Nevertheless, in my opinion, Davis’s character Muriel was the best medicine for Hurt’s character Macon. Macon’s son died and due to this Macon was extremely depressed. In addition, his wife Sarah portrayed by Kathleen Turner asked for separation. Macon continues grinding away at life but not thriving until he meets Muriel who has a son of her own named Alexander. 

With the aforementioned variables at play, the film moves with great cinematography and an adequate score. This is not an action packed suspense or thriller but, it is a…

Review by Dylan ★★½

“I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them.”

This is unquestionably a forgotten film of American cinema. Since I don't see many people logging it on here, I wanted to watch it for myself and give my unsolicited opinion. The plot is surprisingly gripping, and the film has strong dialogue and a solid script. While subtle in nature, which might bore others, I did not find this aspect to be a major issue. I enjoyed how the film examined the various meanings of love and conveyed the idea that you don't really have to live life according to a schedule. However, I thought…

Review by claireeliza ★★★ 1

William Hurt: "oh no woe is me Geena Davis and Kathleen Turner are fighting over me pls help me"

Review by Lebowskidoo 🇨🇦 🎬 🍿 ★★★★

"It's wrong to think we could plan everything, as though it were a business trip. I don't believe that anymore. Things just happen."

This is a quiet little movie. Sure, it won awards and has movie stars, but it's still just a simple, soft-spoken story, not the usual Hollywood flash. It's a comedy/drama, dipping a toe in both equally, like life itself, I suppose.

William Hurt plays Macon Leary, a travel writer whose son has died tragically and then his wife leaves him. His dog, a corgi named Edward (the real star of the show, a major scene-stealing fuzzball), has not been the same since Mason's son died. Enter Muriel, a kooky dog trainer, who takes an instant liking to…

Review by Luke Bonanno ★★★½ 1

Lawrence Kasdan was a busy guy in the 1980s. In addition to penning a trio of iconic blockbuster screenplays for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he wrote and directed a number of his own films. Two of those films went on to compete for major Academy Awards, the better known of which is the Boomer-defining 1983 dramedy The Big Chill .

Kasdan's other Oscar contender, 1988's The Accidental Tourist , is one of the decade's many forgotten awards movies. It won Geena Davis the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and competed for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay and yet it is a film that no one discusses or recommends or even considers including in a Best of the '80s retrospective.

I'm struggling…

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★

After the passing of his son in a shooting, a man's life whose work is tour around around the world starts to crumble down but there might be life at the end of the tunnel.

Before there was "Solo: A Star Wars Story," Lawrence Kasdan wrote a movie that encapsulates to perfection the word average. Its hard to call this romantic movie, a bad movie, but its also hard to call it good. The script has his moments, there are some endearment and cute moments, but it felt all generic.

Performances are serviceable, though if you are really into dogs you might get pissed at Geena Davis' character's form of training, which often than not borderlines into the realm of animal cruelty.

All in all, if you are seriously into romantic movies from the 80s, you may enjoy this, otherwise I guess you can skip this.

Review by Christian Ryan 11

I’m sorry, but unless Lawrence Kasdan is working off a George Lucas story, with ample pulp to drown out the pretention, his writing just comes off as fucking unbearable to me. I bailed on this after 45 minutes to go listen to my ten-year-old practice violin. She’s been playing for about three days now, and shows zero inclination for the instrument, but still manages to make better noise with it than this overrated hack can make with his pen.

Review by Colin the dude ★★★ 6

Are we just never going to talk about William Hurt being in 5 Best Picture nominees in 6 years? And this was when you were limited to 5 slots. Brad Pitt starred in 4 consecutive nominees but 3 of those were when the field was widened to up to 10 films. Bill Hurt was on an Oscar bait tear in the 80s and everyone's forgotten it.

Review by Scout Tafoya ★★★★

Absolutely offensive that when you search for William Hurt on here the first things that show up are those hideously chintzy Marvel posters. Also wanted to say Hurt could still show up in Robin Hood or The King's Daughter and make those movies great for a few seconds.

www.rogerebert.com/tributes/william-hurt-1950-2022

This is a movie that makes for a fascinating time capsule now (Bill Pullman doesn't have the voice yet!). Pretty amazing to think there were once movies about relationships and loss that were only occasionally hamstrung by an overeager subtext. Shot competently if not particularly expressively, with an eye towards rendering environments in as melancholy a fashion possible in order to reflect the mental state of our sad sack hero.…

Review by Cole Duffy ★½

Genuinely awful. The best performance comes from the dog.

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Revisit: the accidental tourist.

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The late, great Roger Ebert once called Lawrence Kasdan’s 1988 drama The Accidental Tourist , the most delightful film of the year, but “also seemingly one of the most depressing.” That’s an accurate description of this gentle and sympathetic comedy about a man mourning the loss of his son. Kasdan’s film is so impossibly well-managed tonally that one finishes it in a kind of daze. Scenes of purely human comedy and tragedy with a tempo as relaxed and unpredictable as life itself play against the backdrop of a story about grief and, in some ways, coming back to the land of the living.

Kasdan, the great filmmaker behind 1983’s The Big Chill and 1991’s Grand Canyon , is the reason for this expertly executed tightrope walk. Adapted from Anne Tyler’s novel of the same name, the film follows Macon Leary (William Hurt), an author of travel guidebooks whose marriage to Sarah (Kathleen Turner) is slowly disintegrating a year after the murder of their son Ethan. Ethan was the lone victim of an armed robbery, and Macon is still haunted by the fatherhood of which he was cheated by total chance. To put the nail in the coffin, Sarah announces one morning that she is leaving Macon and has rented an apartment in the city.

The set-up perhaps doesn’t pass the smell test of comic potential, but as scripted by Kasdan and Frank Galati, the movie is a comedy about people rather than their situations. We chuckle and smile upon recognizing the natures of these characters and their witty and sometimes sardonic interactions, but we aren’t meant to guffaw at slapstick or scatology. Simply through the performances by Hurt and Turner, and Geena Davis as another significant character (as well as Amy Wright, David Ogden Stiers and Ed Begley Jr. as Macon’s idiosyncratic siblings), we fall into the unique and downright huggable rhythms of these people. This is most apparent in the first encounter between Macon and Muriel Pritchett (Davis), the canine trainer whose kennel boards Macon’s dog Edward when Macon must take one of his trips to write a new guidebook.

The chemistry between Macon and Muriel – between Hurt and Davis – is palpable right from the start, though the grieving Macon is unable to see it. We notice Muriel’s eyes and demeanor, though, immediately drawn to this handsome man and taken by his manner of speaking and his pure emotional honesty. In his grief, the man has let his guard down a little, and Hurt does an enormously effective job of differentiating the character’s interactions with this woman, whom he likes and is amused by but does not know, and with Sarah, whom he knows very well but no longer feels any connection to.

Davis, in an Academy Award-winning performance, is phenomenal in her reading of Muriel as a woman who falls quickly and desperately in love with this sad-eyed and bewildered man, technically abusing her position as his dog’s temporary caretaker to check in on Edward after their business relationship has ended and taking it upon herself to invite him to dinner. The relationship blossoms – not out of a sense of falsely romantic hullabaloo but out of a necessity on the part of these people, both having recently undergone divorces, to connect with another human. Almost serendipitously, then, Macon and Muriel have found each other.

As follows with the unpredictability of life, the movie has surprises in store – among them being the fact that romances can move more like rollercoasters than straight paths. Macon and Sarah reconcile after a realization of each person’s priorities, and they later fall apart again, not because the story needs them to but because the characters seem so real, so genuine, and so fragile. We come to realize that Macon and Muriel would have been better served to be together for as long as Macon and Sarah have, but through coincidence that places the latter pairing in their home once more, the characters also receive an opportunity to learn that lesson in a hard, truthful way.

In case one hadn’t realized just yet, The Accidental Tourist is not really driven by plot, though a pair of events does cause a minimal amount of drama as it enters its final third. A back injury handicaps Macon on his trip to Paris, where Muriel and Sarah (unbeknownst to each other) have followed him in order to win him back and to be his caregiver, respectively. This leads not to false drama or histrionics but to another hard truth for everyone involved. It’s also followed by a final scene that, with a nod and a reciprocated smile (and, for what it’s worth, almost no dialogue), perfectly caps a gentle, honest comedy about fundamentally good, flawed people.

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The accidental tourist, common sense media reviewers.

A mature, well-made film for teens and adults.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

An unwed couple live together, but the sex is only

Parents need to know that this is a serious film that deals with adult themes of loss, sex, and depression. As such, it's not recommended for all but the most mature preteens and teens. Kids may have a hard time relating to the adult problems and may be disturbed by the weakness of adults portrayed here. They may also…

Sex, Romance & Nudity

An unwed couple live together, but the sex is only suggested. A married couple start to undress each other, but nothing is shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this is a serious film that deals with adult themes of loss, sex, and depression. As such, it's not recommended for all but the most mature preteens and teens. Kids may have a hard time relating to the adult problems and may be disturbed by the weakness of adults portrayed here. They may also be unsympathetic to the carefully drawn characters that resonate with adults. But for families dealing with divorce and other turmoil, the film might be a good way to open the subject of coping with loss and changing family structures. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, Macon (William Hurt) writes travel guides for globetrotters who want adventure-free trips. A year after his young son's death, Macon is further damaged when his wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner) announces she's leaving him. Depressed and alone, Macon's only remaining companions are his bizarre siblings and his dog. The dog's strange behavior leads Macon to Muriel (Geena Davis), a wacky dog trainer who lives alone with her young son. Macon finds Muriel forward and rejects her romantic overtures, but Muriel persists and Macon eventually moves in with her. When his wife Sarah calls, Macon attempts to return to his old life, but realizes that Muriel's extraordinary openness -- her "oddness" as he calls it -- brings him out of his shell and makes him a better person.

Is It Any Good?

This emotionally harrowing story will be tough going for most children. The depiction of a man who has shut down emotionally -- who no longer experiences life on any level -- is quite foreign to most children. They might be confused by seeing such weakness in an adult, as many kids believe that grownups are always strong and in control. And kids might not be ready to appreciate some of the movie's subtle strengths, like the wonderful eccentricities of Macon's family.

Still, there is good deal to admire in this Oscar-nominated picture. The poignant screenplay was adapted from Anne Tyler's best-selling novel, and the cinematography evokes a sense of timelessness. The acting is strong throughout, especially Geena Davis in her Oscar-winning turn as an eccentric animal behaviorist. Hurt is perfectly cast as the guy who writes travel guides for business travelers who don't really want to go anywhere. But there's complexity and a wry wit beneath his chilly exterior. Audiences will smile when he says "I really don't care for movies. They make everything seem so . . . close up."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the mature themes discussed in this film, including overcoming loss and the fallibility of parents and other adults. What loss has each family member experienced, and how have they dealt with it? How can families use loss to bring them closer together?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 3, 1988
• On DVD or streaming : February 21, 1995
• Cast : Geena Davis , Kathleen Turner , William Hurt
• Director : Lawrence Kasdan
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 123 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : mature themes and sexuality.
• Last updated : October 7, 2022

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The Accidental Tourist Review

01 Jan 1988

121 minutes

Accidental Tourist, The

In the words of Leary's wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner), he writes for businessmen "so they can travel to the most wonderful exotic places in the world and never be touched by them."

Leary also travels through life without being touched by it. His child was shot dead in a hold-up, and while his wife tries valiantly to come to terms with it, Macon buries the tragedy. One stormy night she walks out, exasperated, and he is left alone with only his dog (the wonderful Welsh corgi Edward) and his bewilderment. Well and truly on a down-curve, he breaks his leg, returns to his eccentric family, refuses to answer the phone and is dragged reluctantly into a relationship with Edward's trainer Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis, who won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her wonderfully quirky performance).

Somehow, The Accidental Tourist manages to be both deeply sad and deeply funny. Hurt's performance is quite extraordinary—baffled by life's injustice, cynical and emotionally barren, he conveys his character on many occasions with merely a facial expression: he is mesmerising to watch. Macon's mad family, Edward the dog and Geena Davis' pushy, slightly bonkers Muriel Pritchett balance his melancholy, and the end result is a quiet, gentle and amusing film. Hardly a smile crosses Macon's heart-broken face until the very last shot, when his slowly unfolding grin, as he realises he's made one good decision at last, is a joy to behold. The sort of video you may well want to immediately rewind and sit through all over again.

Looking at Film from Every Angle

Review: The Accidental Tourist (1988)

Wesley Lovell

The Accidental Tourist

Source Material

Review You can feel the ’80s permeating off this film from the eccentric fashion to the contemporaneous dialogue. Perhaps it made more of an impression in its day, but today it seems hopelessly out of date. The only reason the film succeeds at all is the magic of Geena Davis who enlivens much of the production while William Hurt and Kathleen Turner seem to suck the life out of their own scenes. Davis is the only actor to display anything in the way of credible emotion despite seeming loony for the early parts of the film. Desperate to find someone to be with, she shamelessly flirts with a travel guide writer attempting to kennel his dog while he flies off to write his next book.

Hurt’s writer is damaged goods having lost his son to a senseless act of violence. His only really good scene is when he must identify his son’s body) and his wife has left him because he’s been unable to connect with her. For much of the film Hurt’s performance seems to make sense, but even after he’s realized what he wants to do and who he wants to be with, he doesn’t seem to perk up emotionally leaving us wondering what kind of life it must be to live with him. His family is unnecessarily quirky and doesn’t really seem to be of need to the plot except to stretch it to its two-hour length. David Ogden Stiers, Ed Begley Jr and Amy Wright appear, opine and evaporate. There are a few kernels of wisdom within the framework of the film, but overall it’s a rather pale film lacking imagination or interest. Review Written July 26, 2010

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One response to “Review: The Accidental Tourist (1988)”

This is not a ‘pale film’ but a classic that bears repeated viewing. Finely nuanced characterisation and well-paced plotting throughout. Fully deserving of oscar nominations.

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THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST

by Anne Tyler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 1985

How do "impossible" couples evolve? In this most recent, luminous novel by Tyler, a "fairly chilly" man, muffled in loneliness, learns that a man and a woman can come together "for reasons the rest of the world would never guess." One can leave the principality of self to tour another's—to love "the surprise of her. . .the surprise of himself when he was with her." Macon Leary, married to Sarah, is an author of travel books for businessmen whose "concern was how to pretend they had never left home"—who want safe and comforting accommodations and food, who want to travel "without a jolt." Macon and Sarah, devastated by the senseless murder of their 12-year-old son in a fast-food shop holdup, are about to part. Sarah will leave this man that she claims remains "unchanged," who refuses to argue with the knowledge that the world is vile. Immobilized by a broken leg (was that accident an unconscious wish?), Macon will settle in with the family he started with—two brothers (one divorced) and sister Rose—in ultimate safety, where like plump, brooding fowl, the four deliberate in soothing converse, rearrange the straws of domesticity, Enter the "impossible" Muriel Pritchett, shrill as a macaw, single mother of a pale, wretched young boy, scrabbling for a living at various jobs, and existing messily on a cacophonous Baltimore street. Muriel has arrived at the Leary compound to whip into line Edward, Macon's pugnacious Welsh corgi who's fond of treeing bicyclists and family members. Muriel cows Edward while talking nonstop, and gradually Macon will find himself in "another country" of noise and color, where red slippers with feathers are necessary accessories to a woman in the morning. From a perspective where Macon feels he's a "vast distance from everyone who mattered" and a marriage where he and his wife seem to have "used each other up," Macon will find in foreignness his own "soft heart." Again in Tyler's tender, quiet prose, a delicate sounding of the odd and accidental incursions of the heart. Tone-perfect, and probably her best to date.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1985

ISBN: 0345452003

Page Count: 356

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1985

LITERARY FICTION

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More by Anne Tyler

BOOK REVIEW

by Anne Tyler

THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

by Claire Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

More About This Book

SEEN & HEARD

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

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by Mark Z. Danielewski

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’The Accidental Tourist’

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Reviewed by Larry McMurty

• Sept. 8, 1985

IN Anne Tyler's fiction, family is destiny, and (nowadays, at least) destiny clamps down on one in Baltimore. For an archeologist of manners with Miss Tyler's skills, the city is a veritable Troy, and she has been patiently excavating since the early 1970's, when she skipped off the lawn of Southern fiction and first sank her spade in the soil which has nourished such varied talents as Poe, Mencken, Billie Holiday and John Waters, the director of the films ''Pink Flamingos'' and ''Polyester.''

It is without question some of the fustiest soil in America; in the more settled classes, social styles developed in the 19th century withstand, with sporelike tenacity, all that the present century can throw at them. Indeed, in Baltimore all classes appear to be settled, if not cemented, in grooves of neighborhood and habit so deep as to render them impervious - as a bright child puts it in ''The Accidental Tourist'' - to everything except nuclear flash.

From this rich dust of custom, Miss Tyler is steadily raising a body of fiction of major dimensions. One of the persistent concerns of this work is the ambiguity of family happiness and unhappiness. Since coming to Baltimore, Miss Tyler has probed this ambiguity in seven novels of increasing depth and power, working numerous changes on a consistent set of themes.

In ''The Accidental Tourist'' these themes, some of which she has been sifting for more than 20 years, cohere with high definition in the muted (or, as his wife says, ''muffled'') personality of Macon Leary, a Baltimore man in his early 40's who writes travel guides for businessmen who, like himself, hate to travel.

The logo on the cover of these travel guides (''The Acciental Tourist in England,'' ''The Accidental Tourist in New York,'' etc.) is a winged armchair; their assumption is that all travel is involntary, and they attempt to spare these involuntary travelers the shock of the unfamiliar, insofar as that's possible. Macon will tell you where to find Kentucky Fried Chicken in Stockholm, or whether there's a restaurant that serves Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ravioli in Rome. Macon himself is so devoted to his part of Baltimore that even the unfamiliar neighborhoods he visits affect him as negatively as foreign countries.

Like most of Miss Tyler's males, Macon Leary presents a broad target to all of the women (and even a few of the men) with whom he is involved. His mother; his sister, Rose; his wife, Sarah, and, in due course, his girlfriend, Muriel Pritchett - a dog trainer of singular appearance and ability - regularly pepper him on the subject of his shortcomings, the greatest of which is a lack of passion, playfulness, spontaneity or the desire to do one single thing that they like too do. This lack is the more maddening because Macon is reasonably competent; if prompted he will do more or less anything that's required of him. What exasperates the women is the necessity for constant prompting.

WHEN attacked, Macon rarely defends himself with much vigor, which only heightens the exasperation. He likes a quiet life, based on method and system. His systems are intricate routines of his own devising, aimed at reducing the likelihood that anything unfamiliar will occur. The unfamiliar is never welcome in Macon's life, and he believes that if left to himself he can block it out or at least neutralize it.

Not long after we meet him, Macon is left to himself. Sarah, his wife of 20 years, leaves him. Macon and Sarah have had a tragedy: their 12-year-old son, Ethan, was murdered in a fast-food joint, his death an accidental byproduct of a holdup.

Though Macon is as grieved by this loss as Sarah, he is, as she points out, ''not a comfort.'' When she remarks that since Ethan's death she sometimes wonders if there's any point to life, Macon replies, honestly but unhelpfully, that it never seemed to him there was all that much point to begin with. As if this were not enough, he can never stop himself from correcting improper word choice, even if the incorrect usage occurs in a conversation about the death of a child. These corrections are not made unkindly, but they are invariably made; one does not blame Sarah for taking off.

With the ballast of his marriage removed, Macon immediately tips into serious eccentricity. His little systems multiply, and his remaining companions, a Welsh corgi named Edward and a cat named Helen, fail to adapt to them. Eventually the systems overwhelm Macon himself, causing him to break a leg. Not long after, he finds himself where almost all of Miss Tyler's characters end up sooner or later - back in the grandparental seat. There he is tended to by his sister. His brothers, Porter and Charles, both divorced, are also there, repeating, like Macon, a motion that seems all but inevitable in Anne Tyler's fiction -a return to the sibling unit.

This motion, or tendency, cannot be blamed on Baltimore. In the very first chapter of Miss Tyler's first novel, ''If Morning Ever Comes'' (1964), a young man named Ben Joe Hawkes leaves Columbia University and hurries home to North Carolina mainly because he can't stand not to know what his sisters are up to. From then on, in book after book, siblings are drawn inexorably back home, as if their parents or (more often) grandparents had planted tiny magnets in them which can be activated once they have seen what the extrafmilial world is like. The lovers and mates in her books, by exerting their utmost strength, can sometimes delay these regroupings for as long as 20 years, but sooner or later a need to be with people who are really familiar - their brothers and sisters - overwhelms them.

Macon's employer, a man named Julian, who manages to marry but not to hold Macon's sister, puts it succinctly once Rose has drifted back to her brothers: ''She'd worn herself a groove or something in that house of hers, and she couldn't help swerving back into it.'' Almost no one in Miss Tyler's books avoids that swerve; the best they can hope for is to make a second escape, as does the resourceful Caleb Peck in ''Searching For Caleb'' (1976). Brought back after an escape lasting 60 years, Caleb sneaks away again in his 90's.

Macon, less adventurous than Celab Peck, is saved from this immolation-by-siblings through the unlikely agency of Edward, the Welsh corgi. Unnerved byy the dissolution of his own secure routine, Edward begins to crack up. He starts attacking people, including Julian and Macon's brothers too, one of whom, in a brilliant scene, Edward trees in the family pantry at the very moment that Macon is experiencing an anxiety attack in a restaurant on top of a building in New York.

Re-enter Muriel Pritchett, the dog trainer Macon had met earlier when forced to work out emergency boarding arrangements for Edward. Muriel is everything the Learys are not: talkative, confrontational, an eccentric dresser, casual about word choice. She lives with her sickly child, Alexander, in a Baltimore neighborhood that is not much less foreign to Macon than, say, Quebec. Muriel is also very different from Sarah.

Nonetheless, to the horror of his family, Macon moves in with Muriel. His indifference to his former life is os great that he doesn't even get upset when the pipes in his own house burst, ruining his living room. Muriel, despite her apparent unsuitability, ''could raise her chin sometimes and pierce his mind like a blade. Certain images of her at certain random, insignificant oments would flash before him: Muriel at her kitchen table, ankles twined around her chair rungs, filling out a contest form for an all-expense-paid tour of Hollywood. Muriel telling her mirror, 'I look like the wrath of God' - a kind of ritual of leavetaking. Muriel doing the dishes in her big pink rubber gloves with the crimson fingernails, raising a soapy plate and trailing it airily over to the rinse water.''

Macon, a fairly keen self-analyst, recognizes that while he does not exactly love Muriel, he ''loved the surprise of her, and also the surprise of himself when he was with her. In the foreign country that was Singleton Street he was an entirely different person.''

Surprise, however, is not quite enough; not to ne so wedded to the familiar as Macon. Sarah, the not-yet-divorced wife, though a singularly articulate critic of Learys in general and Macon in particular, finds that all her criticisms do not entirely invalidate Macon as a mate. She wants him back, Muriel wants to keep him, and a fierce tussle ensues, one in which Macon takes a largely spectatorial interest. He cannot entirely resist the suitable Sarah, nor forget the unsuitable but vivid Muriel.

The final scenes of this drama take place in Paris, where the two women manage to corner him. Even as Macon is aking his decision, he is reassured by a sense that in a way it is only temporary, life being, in his scheme of things, a stage from which none of the major players ever completely disappear.

''The Accidental Tourist'' is one of Anne Tyler's best books, as good as 'Morgan's Passing,'' ''Searching for Caleb,'' ''Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.'' The various domestic worlds we enter - Macon/Sarah; Macon/ the Leary siblings; Macon/Muriel - are delineated with easy skill; now they are poignant, now funny. Miss Tyler shows, with a fine clarity, the mingling of misery and contentment int eh daily lives of her families, remind us how alike - and yet distinct - happy and unhappy families can be. Muriel Pritchett is as appealing a woman as Miss Tyler has created; and upon the quiet Macon she lavishes the kind of intelligent consideration that he only intermittently gets from his own womenfolk.

TWO aspects of the novel do not entirely satisfy. One is the unaccountable neglect of Edward, the corgi, in the last third of the book. Edward is one of the more fully characterized dogs in recent literature; his breakdown is at least as interesting and if anything more delicately handled than Macon's. Yet Edward is allowed to slide out of the picture. Millions of readers who have managed to saddle themselves with neurotic quadrupeds will want to know about Edward's situation.

The other questionable element is the dead son, Ethan. Despite an effort now and then to bring him into the book in a vignette or a nightmare, Ethan remains mostly a premise, and one not advanced very confidently by the author. She is brilliant at showing how the living press upon one another, but less convincing when she attempts to add the weight of the dead. The reader is invited to feel that it is this tragedy that separates Macon and Sarah. But a little more familiarity with Macon and Sarah, as well as with the marriages in Miss Tyler's other books, leaves one wondering. Macon's methodical approach to life might have driven Sarah off anyway. He would have corrected her word choice once too often, one feels. Miss Tyler is more successful at showing through textures how domestic life is sustained than she is at showing how these textures are ruptured by a death.

At the level metaphor, however, whe has never been stronger. The concept of an accidental tourist captures in a phrase something she has been saying all along, if not about life, at least about men: they are frequently accidental tourists in their own lives. Macon Leary sums up a long line o fher males, Jake Simmes in ''Earthly Possessions'' is an accidental kidnapper. The lovable Morgan Gower of ''Morgan's Passing,'' an accidental obstetrician in the first scenes, is an accidental husband or lover in the rest of the book. Her men slump arond like tired tourists - friendly, likable, but not all that engaged. Their characters, like their professions, seem accidental even though they come equipped with genealogies of Balzacian thoroughness. All of them have to be propelled through life by (at the very least) a brace of sharp, purposeful women - it usually takes not only a wife and a girlfriend but an indignant mother and one or more devoted sisters to keep these sluggish fellows moving. They poke around haphazardly, ever mild and perennially puzzled, in the foreign country called Life. If they see anything worth seeing, it is usually because a determined woman on the order of Muriel Pritchett thrusts it under their noses and demands that they pay some attention. The fates of these families hinge on long struggles between semiattentive males and semiobsessed females. In her patient investigation of such struggles, Miss Tyler has produced a very satisfying body of fiction.

Larry McMurty's most recent novel is ''Lonesome Dove.''

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The Accidental Tourist

• An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles.
• After the death of his son, Macon Leary, a travel writer, seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon's wife, seems to be having trouble too, and thinks it would be best if the two would just split up. After the break up, Macon meets a strange outgoing woman, who seems to bring him back down to earth. After starting a relationship with the outgoing woman, Macon's wife seems to think that their marriage is still worth a try. Macon is then forced to deal many decisions — Justin Sharp <[email protected]>
• After the murder of their young son, the marriage between Macon and his wife Sarah disintegrates, and she moves out. After a freak accident puts him on crutches, Macon goes to stay with his quirky siblings at the family home, where he meets the spirited Muriel, a dog trainer with a young son of her own, with whom he begins a friendship. When Sarah learns about this, she attempts a reconciliation and Macon is forced to make a decision. — Jwelch5742
• Macon Leary is the author of a travel book for people who want to travel with the minimum fuss and as little impact as possible on their lives. Arriving back from a working trip, his wife announces she can no longer deal with the fact that he is dealing with the death of their son the same way that he travels: with minimum impact. Macon subsequently meets the quirky Muriel, who it seems is just the opposite to Macon. — Murray Chapman <[email protected]>
• Macon Leary (William Hurt) is a Baltimore writer of travel guides for reluctant business travelers, which detail how best to avoid unpleasantness and difficulty. His marriage to his wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner) is disintegrating in the aftermath of the murder of their 12 year-old son, Ethan (Seth Granger). Sarah feels living with Macon she is losing the will to live and wants to reset her life. Sarah is also angry that Macon has no passion or loud emotions, he is very subdued. Sarah eventually leaves Macon, moving out of their house and into an apartment. Macon has a bad back that keeps resurfacing. Macon is pursued by Muriel Pritchet (Geena Davis), an animal hospital employee (Macon had met Muriel when he had to leave his dog with her at her hospital for care-taking, when he had to go away on a business trip. Macon was desperate as his regular animal shelter had refused to take in Edward due to his biting habit) and dog trainer with a sickly son Alexander Pritchett (Robert Hy Gorman) (Alexander is allergic to many many things and is almost always at the doctor's). Muriel is very chatty, while Macon is the quiet, reserved type. After he falls down the basement stairs and breaks his leg, Macon returns to his childhood home to stay with his eccentric siblings. Rose Leary (Amy Wright), Porter Leary (David Ogden Stiers) & Charles Leary (Ed Begley Jr.). Rose is super organized and has kind of like an OCD. Macon eventually hires Muriel to put his dog Edward through much-needed obedience training (as it was Edward which led to Macon falling down the basement stairs in his house. Plus Edwars also attacked Macon's employer Julian Edge (Bill Pullman) when he came to visit him at his sibling's house) (Julin also reminds Macon that he is running very late with his guidebook). Although Muriel at first seems brash and unsophisticated (she thinks Rose is Macon's ex-wife or something till he corrects her that Rose is his sister), Macon eventually finds himself opening up to her and trusting her (She is able to train Edward and befriend Macon in the process). Muriel had got married because she got pregnant, but then something went wrong during the pregnancy and Alexander was taken out by c section early. Muriel can never have kids again. Julian, meanwhile is attracted to Rose and joins the family for dinner to spend more time with her. One day Macon criticizes Rose's cooking (she had cooked the turkey at a wrong temperature), in front of Julian. Rose gets real upset and she thinks Macon wants her to take care of the boys forever and is thus trying to drive Julian away from her. Muriel continues to pursue Macon and invites him over for dinner at her place.. Macon is very resistant and tries to get out of it by saying something came up. But Muriel confronts Macon and he reveals that just last yr he lost his son in a holdup at an hamburger joint. Hence he is not ready to socialize yet, nor spend time with Alexander. Muriel quietly hugs Macon and wins him over. She takes him to her bed and they snuggle. Macon spends more and more time at Muriel's and gets more involved in their lives. eventually Macon moves in with Muriel Macon completes his book and delivers it to Julian. Julian tells Macon that he is going to propose to Rose. Porter talks to Macon and tries to warn him and say that Muriel is not good for him.. Macon wouldn't have any of it, and instead finds himself bonding with Alexander (taking him clothes shopping and saving him from school bullies). Macon wants to put Alexander into private school and this upsets Muriel as Macon is not sure if he is committed to her for the next 10 yrs or not.. Muriel tells Macon that he is not sure of what he wants and wants him to get himself sorted. Macon says he doesn't want to get married and this upsets Muriel even more. Rose gets married to Julian. Sarah is Rose's Matron of Honor. When Sarah's apartment lease is up, she moves back into their old home and suggests to Macon that they start over. Macon leaves Muriel, and he and Sarah set up house once more. Meanwhile Rose has moved back as she worried about her brothers without her to take care of them. Macon suggests Julian that Rose has OCD and he should give her some organizing job that she can immerse herself into. When Macon visits Paris for research, Muriel surprises him by showing up on the same flight and stays in the same Paris hotel, recommended by Macon in one of his travel guides. She suggests that they enjoy themselves as if they are vacationing together. Macon insists he is there strictly for business, and although he shows concern for how Alexander is doing, keeps Muriel at arm's length. During Macon's last night in Paris, Muriel asks to go with him, and despite an early flight she tells him he doesn't have to reply just now. Waking up in the middle of the night Macon decides to call Muriel but his telephone malfunctions. Macon gets up and while trying to fix the cord, hurts his back and becomes bedridden. Muriel knocks on his door waking him up but before he can decide what to do Muriel assumes he has gone already and leaves. Mustering the strength to go to the front desk, Macon phones Julian (and finds that Rose is now working for Julian and organized the entire office) to inform him of his back pain. Sarah comes to Paris (This was also organized by Rose), to care and make day-trips for him in order to complete his travel guide. Sarah proposes that after finishing the day trips if he is feeling better they can go sightseeing, reschedule the flight for a latter date and make the trip a second honeymoon to which Macon agrees. However, Sarah tells him that she has run into Muriel when she arrived and as such continues to question Macon about his attraction to Muriel, angering Macon. The next morning, Macon dresses while Sarah still sleeps, then wakes her to tell her that he is going back to Muriel. On his way to the airport, Macon spots Muriel hailing a taxi and tells the driver to stop. Thinking the driver stopped for her, Muriel bends to gather her luggage and catches sight of Macon in the taxi. She smiles, and Macon returns the smile.

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