accidental tourist title meaning

The Accidental Tourist

“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.

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

Based On The Novel by

Carol Littleton

Produced by

Charles Okun
Michael Grillo

Screenplay by

Frank Galati

Photographed by

John Bailey
John Williams

Directed by

Lawrence Kasdan

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The Accidental Tourist By Bill Bryson – Summary, Setting, Title and Questions and Answers

Table of Contents

The Accidental Tourist By Bill Bryson

INTRODUCTION

This is a story written by Bill Bryson about his adventures on planes. During these flights, he has had a number of negative incidents. He recounts all of these events, and we learn how he fails to enjoy his air flights and, despite being a frequent traveller, is unable to obtain an air card due to his negligence. Traveling has never been simple for him, he claims.

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The Accidental Tourist is a realistic fiction novel created in the United States. The book is unlike other works of American literature that aim to depict the moral landscape of postwar America. Anne Tyler, on the other hand, captures the moments that influence people’s lives. Tyler tells the story of a person’s struggle to cope with ordinary emotions. Her fiction isn’t historical, and she doesn’t try to blend modern society into it. Her writing style and subject matter are both straightforward but intelligent. Her story appeals to men since it includes a male protagonist who is fighting with his emotions. The Accidental Tourist is a subtle comedy and a love tale, but the focus is on personal emotional growth and healing as a result of bereavement. Tyler hopes to remind her readers of the goodness in regular people in her upbeat tale.

The title suggests that the story is about an accidental tourist who finds himself in uncomfortable or embarrassing situations while on tourist. When reading the text, one discovers that the tourist, Bill Bryson, travels regularly yet always ends up in an accident. He does not learn from his errors and continues to make the same errors. He forgets to put his frequent flyer card where it belongs, spills drinks while reaching for one, leaves a large portion of his coat outside while closing the car door, smudges his light-colored trousers several times without realising it, and many other seemingly insignificant things cannot be handled by him without making a mess. The title “The Accidental Tourist” is suitable since it’s entertaining to see Bryson get into accidents all the time at a time when travel is so accessible that it’s made the world seem small.

Value Points

✒️ The most difficult task for the narrator is surviving in the actual world. In a cinema, he was unable to locate the restroom and even forgot his room number.

✒️ He knew his card was in his carry-on bag, slung around his neck, at Logan Airport in Boston.

✒️ He yanked the bag’s zip in frustration when it became stuck. However, it eventually gave way, and the contents of the bag were scattered across a vast region.

✒️ The narrator found air travel to be quite perplexing. Someone pushed him from behind as he stooped over to tie his shoelace, pinning him to the ground.

✒️ Because the ticket was issued in the name of B. Bryson, he was not eligible for frequent flyer miles. W. Bryson’s name, however, appeared on the card.

✒️ The narrator was denied a first-class flight to Bali.

Bill Bryson travelled frequently by plane. His plane travels often leave him feeling anxious. In this lesson, the author discusses some of his travel-related experiences. He claims that he once travelled to England with his family. He was carrying a carry-on bag.

The difficulty began at the airport when the check-in personnel requested that he unzip the suitcase. He attempted to open the bag’s zipper but was unsuccessful. He tugged harder, and the rope broke. The contents of the bag fell out in a fluttering cascade. The newspaper clippings, various documents, pipe tobacco tin, magazines, passport, and coins were scattered over an area roughly the size of a tennis court.

Then he shares another event he has had. He claims that he once bent over to tie his shoelace on an aeroplane. Just as someone in front of him reclined his seat to its furthest extent, he found himself caught helplessly in the crash position. He was only able to extricate himself by tearing at the leg of the man seated next to him.

On a separate occasion, he spilled a soft drink into a lady’s lap. He repeatedly engaged in this mischief. However, this was hardly his worst flight experience. According to him, his worst encounter occurred during an aeroplane ride. He claims to have been writing in a notebook. he struck up a discussion with the lovely young lady seated next to him. He was sucking on the end of his pen. When he went to the restroom after approximately 20 minutes, he noticed that the pen had leaked, and his mouth, chin, tongue, teeth, and gums were suddenly navy blue and would remain thus for several days.

Despite his frequent flying, he never received an air card. Ile claims that he used to fly 100,000 miles a year but was unable to obtain an air card due to his negligence or other factors.

Setting and Structure

Like many of Anne Tyler’s works, The Accidental Tourist is set in Baltimore and focuses on ordinary persons and the events that define them. Anne Tyler takes the reader on a tour through pre-1985 Baltimore, while presenting the human struggle to endure life’s unavoidable realities, including family, death, and love. Twenty chapters make up The Accidental Tourist. The progression of storyline and themes mirrors the phases of mourning, which are denial, suffering, idealisation, and transference.

In the first five chapters of the work, Macon and the incidents that have led to his current mental state are introduced to the reader. His unstable upbringing with a flighty mother and “stodgy” brothers and sister, as well as his marriage to Sarah and the death of their son, Ethan, have all led to his existence as an orderly, emotionally contained man. Edward’s misbehaviour affects Macon’s life of inactivity once he breaks his leg and relocates to his grandfather’s house, despite the fact that he is satisfied with being completely cut off from the outside world. When Muriel begins to train Edward, Macon is compelled to dig under the surface of a different way of life as Muriel shares her own experiences to him. Macon begins to change, and his family begins to view him with suspicion. However, Muriel and Julian, his boss, accept his personal changes, and Macon himself eventually accepts them as well. Despite briefly returning to his spouse and home, he ultimately realises his improved personal power and vows to pursue his new life with Muriel. Macon’s ultimate decision in Paris is not simple, but it is conclusive indication that he has completed the emotional healing process.

Questions and Answers of Accidental Tourist

Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow in one or two lines.

I) The zip on the bag was jammed. So I pulled on it and yanked at it, with grunts and frowns and increasing consternation. I kept this up for some minutes but it wouldn’t budge, so I pulled harder and harder.

1.Which bag is being referred to in this extract? Ans: When Bryson and his family arrived at Logan Airport in Boston on their way to Europe, he had a carry-on bag slung around his neck. This is the bag that is being referred to in this context. 2. What had happened to the zip on the bag? Ans: The zip of the bag had become stuck, and despite Bryson’s best attempts, it was not possible to unzip the bag. 3. Why did Bryson want to open the bag? Ans: Bryson wanted to open the bag to take out his frequent flyer card and avail its benefits. 4. What happened when Bryson pull harder and harder at the zip? Ans: When Bryson pulled harder and harder at the zip, the bag gave way abruptly and its entire contents spilt over, creating a mess. Very Short Answer Type Questions I. Who was Bill Bryson? Ans. Bill Bryson was a frequent air traveller. 2. How did Bill Bryson find himself during his air travels? Ans. He found himself always uneasy during his air travels. 3. Where was Bill going when the zip of his carry bag broke? Ans. At that time he was going to England. 4. What happened when the zip of the bag gave way? Ans. Everything within the hag-newspaper cuttings, other loose papers, tin pipe tobacco, magazines, passport. English money-ejected on the road. 5. What happened to Bill’s finger? Ans. Bill gashed his finger on the zip and blood was shedding in a lavish manner. 6. Why did Bill lean over in the plane? Ans. He leaned over in the plane to tie a shoelace. 7. What did Bill do to the lady travelling with him on one of his plane journeys? Ans. He knocked a soft drink over the lap of the lady twice. 8. What happened when Bill’s pen leaked? Ans. His mouth, Chin, tongue. teeth and gums were now a striking scrub-resistant navy blue. 9. Who was the accidental tourist? Ans. Bill Bryson was the accidental tourist. 10. What type of person was Bill Bryson? Ans. He was a confused person. SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS Q.1. What does Bill Bryson tell us about his habit of getting confused? Ans. Bill Bryson states that he is easily puzzled by the activities that others find enjoyable. He claims he cannot remember the details for long. He continually fails to remember them. When he is staying at a hotel, he must visit the front desk twice or thrice to inquire about his room number, as he describes. Q.2. What happened at London Airport when the author was going to England on a long journey with family? Ans. When the author was embarking on a lengthy journey to England, he encountered problems at the London Airport. His business card was in the carry-on luggage. When he attempted to unzip it, he was unsuccessful due to a jammed zipper. When he tugged it vigorously, it snapped and all of the contents of the bag fell to the ground. Q.3. Narrate briefly the incident of spilling a soft drink on to a co-passenger in a plane by the author. Ans. During one of his travels, the author spilled drink on the lap of the lovely lady seated next to him. The flight attendant attended to her cleanliness. The attendant handed him a replacement drink, which he once again spilled on the woman. The woman regarded him with a stupefied gaze. Q.4. What two reasons does Bill Bryson give for the absence of air miles cards with the hint? Ans. He claims to be a regular flyer. He must fly one million miles annually. However, he lacks additional air miles cards. Because he forgets to request air miles while purchasing a ticket. And occasionally, the air-station clerk provides an explanation for the unavailability of air miles cards. Q. 5. What is the ‘most outstanding thing’ that the writer, Bill Bryson, thinks he is not good at? What does this reveal about Bryon’s traits? Ans: The author Bill Bryson believes that living in the actual world is the “most outstanding thing” he is not good at. This demonstrates that he is so preoccupied with his own ideas that he fails to behave normally and causes accidents. LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS Q.1.How would you describe Bill Bryson as an accidental tourist? Give two instances from the test. Ans. Bill Bryson was such a tourist who remained almost all the year round on an aeroplane. Many accidents take place with him. So he is called an accidental tourist. The two incidents from the text are mentioned below.

Bill Bryson was a tourist who spent nearly the entire year on an aeroplane. He is involved in numerous accidents. Therefore, he is termed an accidental tourist. The two events from the text are listed below.

i) When his carry-on bag’s zipper breaks, all of his belongings spill out. The newspaper clippings and other items tumble downward in a fluttering manner. The coins are tossed around randomly. The tobacco tin without a lid ejects its contents in a frantic manner. About the size of a tennis court, these creatures are dispersed across this area.

(ii) During one of his trips, the author spilled soda on the lap of a lovely woman sitting next to him. She was cleaned up by the flight attendant. The attendant handed him a new drink, and he once again threw it at the woman. The woman regarded him with an expression of astonishment. Q. 2. Bring out the humour in the story “The Accidental Tourist”. Ans: “The Accidental Tourist” is a humorous story of the various mishaps brought on by a confused and clumsy individual. The author who narrates the incidents, Bill Bryson, discusses his experiences in a humorous manner. In describing how he disorganised the contents of his carry-on luggage while searching for his frequent flyer miles card, he refers to the contents as “a hundred meticulously organised paperwork.” When he cuts his finger on the zipper and sees his own blood, he justifies his hysteria. The fact that he is pinning himself in a crash posture while tying his shoelaces is yet another humorous occurrence. When he thoughtfully sucked on the end of his pen, he turned his mouth, chin, tongue, teeth, and gums navy blue. He resembled a clown due to his ink-stained mouth. In addition, the ‘essential ideas’ he describes were simply reminders to purchase socks and carefully hold drinks. The tongue-in-cheek tone of the anecdote is enhanced by his wife’s request that his children open food containers for him. His inability to receive frequent flyer points because the name on the card did not match the name on the ticket is yet another humorous incident. His explanation for not travelling to Bali, namely that he cannot go so long without food, is really humorous.

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Thursday, March 30, 2017

The accidental tourist: a wistful tale of emotional healing, 4 comments:.

"Wistful." The perfect description. I am often baffled by the Academy's choices in the music categories. Too often. "they store their groceries in alphabetical order" Sounds like something on the autism spectrum, if some of my son's quirks are anything to go by. An interesting quirk. "one of his tips is to always carry a book on planes, so you can read and not have to interact with other passengers" I always have a book with me. Doesn't everyone. Or is that one of my quirks. H'm.

I saw this film years ago and had forgotten all about it until your post. Clearly, I need to see this again. Caftan Woman (above) nailed it when she said "wistful" is the perfect description. I completely agree.

I missed The Accidental Tourist when it was in release and somehow never caught up to it. I suspect it's Geena Davis, an actress I never warmed to for some reason. Body Heat, on the other hand, I own and have watched time and again. A masterful neo-noir - with an excellent score by John Barry, by the way. As for the Academy - its voting habits seem to me a mystery in so many key categories...

Such interesting characters and relationships. I normally don't happen to read books about relationships per se, but this one was captivating and far more interesting in its every-day events and twists as the main character works his way through grief over the loss of his only child. As different a journey for the reader as it is for the main characters. Luzia Highly recommended KRW Personal Injury Lawyers

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The Accidental Tourist

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

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

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Lawrence Kasdan

William Hurt

Macon Leary

Kathleen Turner

Sarah Leary

Geena Davis

Muriel Pritchett

Bill Pullman

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The Accidental Tourist

56 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist is a literary fiction novel that follows the character-driven story of Macon Leary, who must navigate life following the death of his son and the dissolution of his marriage. The Accidental Tourist was originally published in 1985 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Accidental Tourist is Anne Tyler’s 10th novel and one of her most recognized works. This study guide follows the paperback Berkley edition released in 1986.

Plot Summary

Macon Leary is a writer based out of Baltimore who creates travel guides for people who must travel on business but do not want to be bothered with discomfort or unexpected experiences. Macon is an expert at finding the most comfortable and convenient solutions to average problems. While driving back from a beach vacation, Macon’s wife, Sarah , informs him that she wants a divorce. It’s been a year since their son, Ethan, was unexpectedly killed, and the two have grieved in very different ways. After Sarah moves out, Macon restructures their house, creating a multitude of systems and contraptions to maximize comfort and convenience. When it comes time for Macon to go on his next trip for work, he goes to board the family dog, Edward . He learns Edward is blacklisted from the vet for biting a worker last time he was boarded. Desperate, Macon finds another vet, where he meets Muriel Pritchett. Muriel is talkative and great with dogs. She agrees to let Macon board Edward and proposes that she give Edward obedience lessons. Macon declines and goes on his trip. When he returns, he commits to more systems to run the house. As these systems break down, Macon has an accident, resulting in a broken leg.

Macon moves in with his siblings, Rose , Charles, and Porter, while his leg heals. The Leary siblings are as peculiar as Macon with their habits, rituals, and organizational tendencies. They don’t answer the phone, eat baked potatoes often, and play the same made-up card game they’ve played since they were children. Macon’s siblings complain about Edward’s behavior, but Macon struggles to do anything about it because Edward belonged to Ethan. Finally, after being bit on the hand, Macon reaches out to Muriel, who has persistently tried to get Macon to hire her ever since they met. Muriel is great with Edward and helps Macon teach Edward things like sitting, staying, and walking on a leash. Edward struggles to learn to lie down, so Macon calls the vet. The clerk informs Macon that Muriel is out that day because her son is sick. The next time Macon sees Muriel, he asks how her son is, and she loses her temper because he wasn’t supposed to know about her son yet. Macon fires Muriel in the same scene because she harshly punishes Edward. As Macon’s leg heals, he struggles to overcome his grief from Ethan’s death and his separation from Sarah. When Sarah invites Macon to dinner, he proposes they have another baby to resolve their marital issues, but Sarah instead tells Macon she wants a divorce and cites his seemingly callous reaction after Ethan’s death and lack of comfort to her as her reason.

After Macon gets his cast off, he flies to New York for work. He visits a skyscraper restaurant, where he has a panic attack after realizing he’s distanced himself from everyone he’s ever cared about. He calls home to ask for help despite his siblings being states away and learns that Edward is misbehaving and has cornered Charles in the pantry. Macon has no one else to call to help Charles and take Edward, so he calls Muriel and asks for her help. Not only does Muriel agree to rescue Charles, but she also comforts Macon and talks him down from his panic. When Macon returns from New York, he allows Muriel to begin training Edward again, and the two begin to spend a lot more time together. Muriel tells Macon all about her life and her son, Alexander. She invites Macon to come to dinner at her house, but Macon is afraid to do so, thinking it will feel like he’s finding substitutes for Sarah and Ethan.

When Macon goes to deliver a letter to Muriel to explain why he won’t have dinner with her, she surprises him with her tenderness, and Macon opens up about his grief regarding Ethan and the way he’s distanced himself from everyone. Muriel invites Macon to sleep in her bed, and he allows her to lead him to her room and tuck him in. Macon begins to spend much more time with Muriel and Alexander, eating dinner with them, helping Alexander with his homework, and joining them at Muriel’s parents’ house for Christmas. Macon’s relationship with Muriel heals him and helps him become less distant from the people around him. He moves in with her and gets to know the people of her street better than he ever knew his own neighbors. He forms a special bond with Alexander, teaching him to fix household items and taking him shopping for clothes.

Eventually, Muriel’s tendencies begin to wear Macon down. He is bothered by her misuse of words, her persistence, her insecurities, and her chaos. Muriel tries to convince Macon to take her to France, but Macon tells her no. Muriel presents Macon a calendar for the current year to show him she’s picked out a wedding day for them. Macon tells her he’s not interested in marrying again because he thinks only perfect couples get married, which leads to an argument and more tension between the couple as time passes.

After encountering Sarah at a wedding, Macon finds Sarah reaching out to him more and more during a trip to Canada. Sarah calls him in every city, at first asking if she can move back into their house because her lease is ending, then just wanting to talk about the weather. She hints that she wants to get back together with Macon and tells him she wishes she were with him in Canada. When Macon lands back in Baltimore, he drives home to Sarah instead of driving to Muriel’s house. They rekindle their relationship, much to Muriel’s heartbreak. Macon and Sarah begin to put their lives back together, buying new furniture and reassembling the house after it was damaged in a snowstorm during Macon’s absence. When Sarah is not around, Macon finds himself longing to talk to someone. He calls Muriel to ask about Alexander’s allergy shots, and Muriel scolds him for having the audacity to contact her about Alexander after abandoning them.

When Macon leaves for France, Muriel shows up on his same flight, having booked the same hotel. Muriel insists that Macon needs her, and Macon feels Muriel will be extremely unprepared to travel in Paris. Macon does his best to avoid Muriel, and she gets along fine without him. He eventually agrees to have dinner with her at a Burger King in Paris, where Muriel fills Macon in about the people on her street. She asks him to come to bed with her, but Macon declines. After several days in Paris, Macon starts day trips to other cities. When he goes to invite Muriel to join him, he throws his back out and becomes incapacitated. He calls his publisher to inform him of the delay, and word gets back to Sarah, who shows up in Paris to take care of Macon. She informs Macon that she saw Muriel, and he tells her that she followed him to France on her own accord. Sarah becomes excited about having a second honeymoon with Macon while they’re in France. One night, she asks Macon why he didn’t do anything to stop Muriel from getting on the plane with him. Macon doesn’t have an answer and realizes he’s never made any major life decisions on his own. Everything that has happened to him has resulted from passively accepting things. He stays up all night thinking and eventually decides to return to Muriel, realizing she is better for him.

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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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The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler

The accidental tourist themes.

Before The Accidental Tourist has even begun, Macon and Sarah Leary have lost their son in a tragic and senseless way. This loss has directly led to their own relationship also disintegrating. Throughout the book, we see how the couple separately deals with their grief. For Macon, it is a particularly difficult struggle. Instead of trying to confront his pain head-on, he suppresses it with his many strange "systems" of organization that he implements, reflecting this resistance to fully dealing with his own emotions. Among all of the Leary siblings, there is this common reluctance to acknowledge the reality of death and loss. Macon is frustrated by the way no one has uttered Ethan 's name since he was killed; it is not until his niece Susan speaks about Ethan that it occurs to Macon that others also mourn his son.

As the book progresses, Macon somewhat comes to terms with Ethan's death, realizing that the only way to truly heal from grief is not to forget Ethan but rather to imagine him as still alive through memory, co-existing in a parallel realm. Yet Macon's ultimate choice at the end of the book—to leave Sarah for Muriel Pritchett —also demonstrates that part of him wants to start anew and cast his old life with Ethan and Sarah into the past, in order to protect himself from more potential loss and have some sense of control over his destiny.

Love and the loss of it haunt the entirety of The Accidental Tourist . The story shows Macon grappling to discover the true meaning of love. It is clear that he loves Sarah and his son Ethan, but he has lost both of them. As a result, Macon struggles with motivation to live, feeling that, through loss, love has been taken from him. Yet Macon gradually comes to recognize that connections with others—whether it be with his deceased son or his estranged ex-wife—endure, despite separation. This is one of the central currents of the novel.

Macon is faced with distinguishing between comfort and true love. When he first parts from Sarah, he misses her deeply and can't imagine life with any other woman; Sarah is the one who "gets" him and his eccentricities. When Muriel crosses his path, he initially resists opening up to her, but when he finally does, he is magnetized into her very different and colorful world. He falls in love with Muriel for totally different reasons than his attraction to Sarah; her contrasting nature helps Macon to come further out of his shell and embrace the messiness of life that he has long feared. For him, this is a new view of love that is something beyond his comfortable routine. His ultimate choice to be with Muriel over Sarah, despite his persevering feelings for his first wife, is a decision to embrace the sort of love that challenges him and helps him to become a better person.

Macon has a strong tendency to isolate himself, whether it be physically or emotionally. After Ethan dies, he locks himself even more deeply in his own emotions, refusing to share his thoughts and pains with his wife Sarah, leading to their separation. Macon often reflects on how he has difficulty communicating with others and has isolated himself in a sort of shell that prevents genuine contact with the outside world. Yet this is his comfort zone, and he has a hard time leaving it. Ironically, Macon writes tour guides for a living, but even when he ventures off to exotic foreign cities, he remains in his own bubble, staying in hotel rooms until he can fly back home again to familiar surroundings. He even hides behind a large book on every plane and train ride in order to avoid any social interaction. Starting a relationship with Muriel is one way Macon starts to come out of his isolation to embrace a different type of life.

One common characteristic of the Leary family is the need for control. Macon, for instance, uses a highly controlled routine to feel safe in the world. After a tumultuous childhood, where their unstable mother Alicia was frequently moving the children around, the Leary siblings have learned to cope through implementing strict and often strange modes of organization. This is exemplified after Macon's separation, when he invents bizarre ways of dealing with chores, such as creating a "body bag" so he does not have to wash his linens. His sister Rose is also fond of tightly organizing the household regimen, demonstrated in the way she alphabetically arranges the groceries.

Yet even with all the effort to control, Macon is still left helpless when it comes to his unruly pet dog, Edward . Of course, Edward is merely a mirror for the emotional chaos that Macon suppresses through his carefully planned "systems." The process of training Edward runs parallel to Macon beginning to allow his own inner fears to be tamed, coming out of his self-imposed alienation to date Muriel. He starts to realize that despite his desire for stability, life will never be controllable or predictable: even after the tragedy of losing his son, he still must open up and take risks in life.

Eccentricity

Many of Anne Tyler 's characters in The Accidental Tourist are highly eccentric. This is ironic, considering that Macon and Sarah crave to live some elusive "normal" life after the death of their son. They begin to tire of the eccentricities of one another. Sarah, especially, has grown weary of the Leary family's peculiar habits and rituals, such as the endless rules to their after-dinner card games. Both Sarah and Macon discover, however, that "normal" does not really exist. Macon dates Muriel, who has a slew of her own strange qualities. Sarah dates a man whose eccentricities bother her, to the point that she cuts off the relationship.

Macon, who is a quietly observant character, often notes the strange people who populate his neighborhood or the foreign places he visits. His awareness of the little quirks of others brings him a sort of comfort and deeper understanding of humanity, even while he keeps his distance. For instance, the highly frightened old woman he meets on one plane ride helps him to feel more stable and normal.

Modern marriage

The marriage of Macon and Sarah—along with its dissolution—is a central component of the novel. In older times, marriage was seen as an unbreakable vow, where the couple is supposed to work out differences for the sake of the union. In more modern times, divorce has become extremely common, with slight disagreements becoming fodder to permanently part ways. This is at play in Macon's relationship, where the death of a child draws the two apart instead of bringing them closer. In this time period (the 1980s), it has become more acceptable to take space apart in order to figure out which each partner truly wants. Even when Macon is with Muriel, he declines her marriage proposal, remarking that the formality of marriage is overrated. In one way, we can see Macon's point of view, yet in another, it is clear that Macon's argument is less a philosophical one than it is a reflection of his fear of commitment.

Good and evil

Even in the seemingly tranquil suburban setting that Anne Tyler's characters occupy, the battle between good and evil appears as a prominent theme in the story. Macon and Sarah's son, Ethan, has been killed randomly and brutally while at a fast-food restaurant. This senseless death shatters his parents' lives, waking them up to the fact that evil is not an abstract concept but rather something that can deeply touch anyone at any time. After Ethan's murder, Sarah in particular struggles with living in what she now considers to be a dark and evil world.

Despite the obvious evilness that lurks in society, Macon comes to see that there is also much good, such as in the benevolent encounters he has with strangers while traveling. In this way, the novel underscores the idea that good and evil begin in the small and trivial interactions of daily life and that each person has the choice of which side they wish to perpetuate.

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The Accidental Tourist Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Accidental Tourist is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Standing water in the road is compared to a wide lake.

A wide lake, it seemed, in the center of the highway crashed against the underside of the car and slammed it to the right.

How does Macon meet Muriel?

Macon meets Muriel when he hires her to train his dog.

How is Macon described in Chapter 1?

From the text:

He was a tall, pale, gray-eyed man, with straight fair hair cut close to his head, and his skin was that thin kind that easily burns.

Study Guide for The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist study guide contains a biography of Anne Tyler, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist Summary
Character List

Essays for The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler.

The Accidental Acceptance: Family and Modernity in 'The Accidental Tourist' and 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant'

Lesson Plan for The Accidental Tourist

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to The Accidental Tourist
Relationship to Other Books
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The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Publication Date: April 9, 2002
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN-10: 0345452003
ISBN-13: 9780345452009
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The Accidental Tourist (1988)
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The Accidental Tourist (1988)
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"The Accidental Tourist (El turista accidental)" (1988). 'Main Title'. JOHN WILLIAMS
THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST
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The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist is a 1985 novel by Anne Tyler that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985 and the Ambassador Book Award for Fiction in 1986. The novel was adapted into a 1988 award-winning film starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Geena Davis, for which Davis won an Academy Award.
The Accidental Tourist movie review (1989)
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 ...
The Accidental Tourist (film)
The Accidental Tourist is a 1988 American romantic drama film directed and co-produced by Lawrence Kasdan, from a screenplay by Frank Galati and Kasdan, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Anne Tyler.The film stars William Hurt as Macon Leary, a middle-aged travel writer whose life and marriage have been shattered by the tragic death of his son. It also stars Kathleen Turner and Geena ...
The Accidental Tourist By Bill Bryson
The title "The Accidental Tourist" is suitable since it's entertaining to see Bryson get into accidents all the time at a time when travel is so accessible that it's made the world seem small. Value Points. ️ The most difficult task for the narrator is surviving in the actual world. In a cinema, he was unable to locate the restroom ...
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
The Accidental Tourist: Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. With William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Amy Wright. An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles.
The Accidental Tourist Summary
The Accidental Tourist opens with Macon and Sarah Leary driving back home to Baltimore in the rain after a vacation at the beach. When Macon refuses to stop the car, Sarah suddenly announces that she wants a divorce. She accuses Macon of being incapable of comforting her, especially after the tragic murder of their 12-year-old son, Ethan.
The Accidental Tourist: A Wistful Tale of Emotional Healing
Kathleen Turner as Sarah. Based on Anne Tyler's 1985 award-winning novel, The Accidental Tourist (1988) is a wistful film filled with quiet surprises. It's a decidedly sharp change of pace from the first collaboration between William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and director Lawrence Kasdan. That would be 1981's sexy film noir Body Heat, in which ...
The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist. After the murder of their young son, the marriage between Macon (William Hurt) and his wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner) disintegrates, and she moves out. After a freak accident ...
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Accidental Tourist was the 1985 novel by Anne Tyler (born 1941). A finalist at Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Award Circle for Fiction. the novel was adapted into a 1988 award-winning film starring William Hurt (as Macon Leary), Kathleen Turner (Sarah, his estranged wife) and Geena Davis (Muriel, the dog trainer).
The Accidental Tourist Summary and Study Guide
Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist is a literary fiction novel that follows the character-driven story of Macon Leary, who must navigate life following the death of his son and the dissolution of his marriage. The Accidental Tourist was originally published in 1985 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.The Accidental Tourist is Anne Tyler's 10th novel and one of her most recognized works.
The Accidental Tourist Symbols, Allegory and Motifs
Symbol: Edward. Edward is a vital part of the narrative, serving as a catalyst for Macon to meet Muriel through the regular dog training sessions. The disruptive behavior of Edward symbolizes the repressed animal nature of Macon, who constantly tries to push down his emotions in order to feel in control. The aggression of Edward peaks when ...
The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler 1985 Introduction Author Biography Plot Summary Characters Themes Style Historical Context Critical Overview Criticism Sources For Further Study Introduction. When The Accidental Tourist was published in 1985, Anne Tyler was already a well-established and successful author. Her tenth novel soon became a best seller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
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. Lawrence Kasdan. Director, Screenplay. Anne Tyler.
The Accidental Tourist
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 ...
The Accidental Tourist Summary
Summary. PDF Cite Share. Sarah and Macon are driving home from a vacation. A year earlier, twelve-year-old Ethan Leary had gone to summer camp in Virginia. One evening, he and another camper had ...
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Synopsis. 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).
The Accidental Tourist Study Guide
The Accidental Tourist is a novel written by the American author Anne Tyler in 1985. The novel revolves around a protagonist named Macon Leary, a middle-aged writer of travel guides. Macon and his wife of 20 years, Sarah, struggle to maintain their relationship after their son is tragically killed in a random murder at a fast-food restaurant.The couple decides to separate, sparking a deeply ...
The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist is a 1985 novel by Anne Tyler that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985 and the Ambassador Book Award for Fiction in 1986. The novel was adapted into a 1988 award-winning film starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Geena Davis, for which Davis won an Academy Award.
The Accidental Tourist Themes
True love. Love and the loss of it haunt the entirety of The Accidental Tourist. The story shows Macon grappling to discover the true meaning of love. It is clear that he loves Sarah and his son Ethan, but he has lost both of them. As a result, Macon struggles with motivation to live, feeling that, through loss, love has been taken from him.
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
A site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy. Author interviews, book reviews and lively book commentary are found here. Content includes books from bestselling, midlist and debut authors.

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