![]() ![]() ![]() Tightly wound, bound to routine, blind to the cues that the universe sends him, in. Tyler believes in kindness, and this is rare in our agitated times. But Micah Mortimer in Tyler’s new novel, Redhead by the Side of the Road, might be her saddest oddball yet. It is all done so easily and with such a light but assured touch that you find yourself caring. Now, two unexpected encounters, one with a teenager on the run, threaten his self-sufficiency and push him towards engagement at a level deeper than he finds comfortable. He has let commitment to others slip by him, though he has a tepid relationship with a woman friend. He runs a one-man computer repair business and lives in the basement of an apartment block rent-free because he acts as a sort of janitor. ![]() He has made a tolerable life for himself by excluding much of life. She wonders about a man like Micah Mortimer, the central figure – if you like, the hero – of her new novel. She is a masterly examiner of the unexamined life. Yet her stories hold your interest and please because they are rooted in her curiosity about the way we live, feel and think. The narrative is on the face of it unexciting. Her novels, all or almost all set in Baltimore where she lived for more than 40 years, are rarely packed with striking incident. He repeats himself and the repetitions are somehow different. You might say she is like a landscape painter who keeps returning to the same scene in different weathers. ![]()
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