Everything you ever wanted to know about that weird old experience called life is invariably explored with insight and humour by this American writer. On arriving at her 13th and most recent novel, Ladder of Years, I had begun to suspect that Tyler's formula was beginning to unravel. However in this clever study of passive subversion, her seventh book, first published 20 years ago, all the qualities that have made her so popular are well in evidence.
Dominated by her bizarre mother's fantasies, Charlotte is also sick of her gloomy husband and has already decided to leave when she is kidnapped by an inept bank robber. They set off, sustained by a diet of junk food and the bank robber's personal problems. Poor old Charlotte. All she ever wanted "was for people to think I was normal."
