Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

I purchased a secondhand paperback copy of Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant in Asheville, N.C. because this book was on my mental list of books to read this summer. At the last AP Literature conference I attended, teachers were discussing which books to teach at the end of the school year when senior students have lost their interest in reading the serious books on the AP reading lists. This title came up as a book students enjoyed. I'm not so sure. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant has shown up on the free choice novel lists several times in recent years. The novel is the story of Pearl Tull, whose three children have very different personalities. I guess I'm just not an Ann Tyler fan. She has lots of good novels to her credit, but I'm just not convinced what might make this one AP worthy. I'll probably add it to my lists for students because it is a pretty easy story to read.