Anne Tyler, The Clock Winder

Cecilia Donohue (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1973

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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With her fourth published novel,

The Clock Winder

(1972), contemporary U.S. novelist Anne Tyler took great steps forward in establishing the themes and motifs with which she would become most closely associated. These include offbeat protagonists who reject mainstream life paths and can be counted on to take unexpected action; random meetings and rapid interactions among strangers that end up bearing lifelong impact; the symbolic and literal implementation of time as catalyst for life changes; and the significance of home as both physical domicile and emotional touchstone. Also, this work firmly cemented Roland Park, Maryland, USA, a suburb of Baltimore, as the signature setting for Tyler’s stories.

In The Clock Winder, Pamela Emerson is the Roland Park resident to whom readers are first

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718 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "The Clock Winder". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1265, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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