Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

"From beginning to end, she thought, she'd done everything wrong."-Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

Second chances, do-overs, reinventing oneself, rebirth, awakenings--are they wish-fulfillment fantasies? Can we change our lives? Or are we wound up by childhood experiences and genetics and parental models to whirl across the stage of a life we have no control over?

This is the essence of Anne Tyler's novel Clock Dance, the story of Willa, a woman who comes at life slant, passive and bending.

The story follows the life of Willa from her childhood in 1967 and through marriage and motherhood, the loss of her spouse and remarriage. She has never asserted her own needs, doing what is expected or what keeps others happy.

A phone call from a stranger informs that her son's ex-girlfriend has been shot and the neighbor is tired of caring for the girlfriend's child, Cheryl. The neighbor thinks Willa is the girl's grandmother. Willa has longed for grandchildren and decides to leave Arizona for Baltimore to care for the child. Her husband disapproves.

What happens in Baltimore changes Willa's life.

I read the novel in a day, enchanted by the characters and Willa's journey of discovery.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through First To Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Clock Dance
by Anne Tyler
Knopf Publishing Group
Publication July 10, 2018
ISBN: 13 9780525521228

SPOILER ALERT VERSION
After a Goodreads friend complained I told too much, I excised the following from my review.

The story begins in 1967 when Willa and her younger sister are children. Their mother is temperamental and unreliable, their father long-suffering and depressed. Willa picks up the pieces when her mother disappears for days at a time.

Ten years later finds Willa surprised to be the love interest of the older Derek, a jock and BMOC, "rescued from handsomeness" by freckles. He pushes her into leaving school to marry him, and pregnancy soon derails her plans to finish her degree. Derek's fatal flaw of angry impatience with others brings an early and tragic death, leaving Willa with two children to raise.

"Now she settled into the dailiness of grief-not that first piercing stab but the steady, persistent ache of it, the absence that feels like a presence."

2017 finds Willa remarried to Peter, an older, childless man, a successful and handsome lawyer who, though retired, still puts his business first. Peter is condescending and self-centered. Willa's children are grown and her sister is emotionally and physically distant. Willa is struggling to find meaning and purpose in her life.

A phone call from a stranger informs that her son's ex-girlfriend has been shot and the neighbor is tired of caring for the girlfriend's child. The neighbor thinks Willa is the girl's grandmother. Willa has longed for grandchildren and decides to leave Arizona for Baltimore to care for the child. Peter thinks she is crazy.

Nine-year-old Cheryl is no poster-child with her round tummy and pudgy cheeks. She loves baking and the Space Junk cartoon series. Cheryl is also wise and grounded. And looking for a grandmother in her life.

As Willa becomes enmeshed in Cheryl's world and neighborhood, she defies Peter's demands, until she must decide how she will spend the last of her life.