Anne Tyler is the master of quirky. Her characters often live lives that fit them rather than society, and in which they can find family. Not our main character in Clock Dance. After a tough childhood, Willa has given up a promising academic career to marry and to live a life acceding to the wishes of her two husbands and two sons. She was "Little One", the pet name of her second husband. Like so many at the beginning of the women's movement, and sadly even today, opportunities went unrecognized or unaccepted, or are too few or too challenging. Her life is reflected in the sand-colored landscape of Arizona. "It wasn't her landscape, not her natural landscape; but it would do."
Willa does make one quirky choice, however, and in that choice lies at least the possibility of change.

The only thing bad about this book is that it ended. The story is a simple one about an old man mourning his wife, a girl with a nose ring and a busy-body neighbor. It's that simple, but oh how these characters can get into your thoughts and your heart. The key character in an Elizabeth Berg novel is or comes to be firmly confident in his own life, no matter how offbeat she may seem to others, and how in answering his own life questions she influences those lucky enough to know him or her. As Arthur says: I am the audience. I am the witness. I am the great appreciator, that's what I do and that's all I want to do."

Meet the modern-day Lily Bart. Like her predecessor, Evelyn Topfer Beegan is a young woman just below the peak of New York City social life who will go to great lengths to reach the top and there find a permanent place. Who is she? And how much of her desperation is her own, and how much is it that of her mother? As with Edith Wharton in The House of Mirth, Stephanie Clifford in her first novel seems to know whereof she speaks. We do not get clichés about the rich; they are real people and their situations are unique and believable.
Though I sometimes cursed Evelyn, I cared for her and sympathized with her. I am sorry the public will have to wait till August for publication because this would make a great summer read, especially if one is lucky enough to go to the Hamptons or the Adirondaks.

This is a quirky and often funny book -- with a very serious undercurrent. Anyone familiar with Lena Dunham's "Girls" and/or the films "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "Juno" will enjoy this book and perhaps understand it.
Remove your critical judgment and enter into the heroine's world.

And besides, it contains a Pet Library and Richard the parrot.

In reading this book, I felt I was reading a Nancy Drew for grownups. It involves the lives of two young girls and the mysterious death of their babysitter. As they progress from pre-teen to older teen to young women, their lives change, profoundly influenced by their traumatic experience and by their early interest in the occult. It isn’t until they reunite much later that many questions are answered. We learn of the changes, both inward and outward, through the narrator, Nora.
The book was a fast read, interesting, and hard to put down. I would recommend it especially for teens and young adults, though people of all ages might find it enjoyable.