A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
"A Patchwork Planet" is a novel by Anne Tyler that features Barnaby Gaitlin as its first-person narrator, a departure from Tyler's previous works that typically centered on male protagonists. The story unfolds over the course of a year, beginning on New Year's Eve and concluding the following Christmas, as Barnaby grapples with his identity and societal expectations. Coming from a socially prominent family, Barnaby feels the weight of his family's shame due to his past, which includes a criminal record and a failed marriage.
Despite these challenges, he finds purpose in his job with Rent-a-Back, where he assists the elderly and ill, and forms connections with his clients. A significant plot point involves Barnaby's interactions with Sophia Maynard, a woman he initially admires but ultimately realizes shares traits with his ex-wife. Throughout the novel, Barnaby learns about the value of human connection and the importance of loving acts over material success. The title, "A Patchwork Planet," symbolizes the imperfections of life, akin to a quilt, suggesting that beauty lies in love and grace rather than in achieving social status or perfection.
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Subject Terms
A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1998
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Although Anne Tyler had previously used male protagonists in her fiction, until A Patchwork Planet she had never had a male first-person narrator. However, since the novel is about Barnaby Gaitlin’s discovery of his own identity, the author’s decision to let Barnaby tell his own story was a wise one.
A Patchwork Planet begins on New Year’s Eve and ends on the following Christmas. Whenever the socially prominent Gaitlins have one of their ceremonial gatherings, they make it clear that they are ashamed of Barnaby. In his youth, he was arrested for housebreaking and escaped punishment only because his parents paid a hefty sum as restitution. Barnaby has never repaid them. He dropped out of college, and though his family offered him a job at their Gaitlin Foundation, instead he took a job with Rent-a-Back, which assigns employees to perform chores for those who are ill or elderly. Barnaby has not even succeeded at marriage. His wife, Natalie, left him because he lacked both money and social standing. Now remarried and living in Baltimore, she discourages his visits to their daughter, Opal, whom Natalie is rearing to be as snobbish and superficial as she is.
At thirty, Barnaby is pinning his hopes on a visitation from the Gaitlin angel, which showed one family member how to make a fortune and kept another from losing everything. At the beginning of the novel, Barnaby toys with the idea that a beautiful young woman whom he observed in the Baltimore train station may indeed be that angel. Although he later realizes that Sophia Maynard is not a supernatural being but an ordinary bank employee, he recognizes her as an energetic woman who he thinks has a loving heart. Unfortunately, he misjudges her, for when her elderly mother accuses him of stealing money from her, Sophia believes that Barnaby is guilty.
Although eventually the missing money is found, Barnaby breaks off with Sophia, who he now knows is a carbon copy of his former wife. However, the incident has shown Barnaby how many people admire him. His clients besieged his employer with requests for his services, thus making sure that he would not be fired. Moreover, one of his fellow employees, Martine Pasko, risked her own job in order to help him. Although, as the story ends, Barnaby has still not had a visitation from the family angel, he now believes that Martine may well be its earthly manifestation.
A Patchwork Planet derives its title from a quilt representing Planet Earth that Barnaby’s client Mrs. Alford was determined to finish before she died. With its imperfect pieces and its uneven stitches, the quilt seemed to be a metaphor for human life. It fell as short of perfection as Barnaby Gaitlin does. To her grieving daughter, however, Mrs. Alford’s quilt seemed beautiful. As Barnaby comes to see, it is loving acts, not material objects, that give life its meaning, and a person who has the skill and the inclination to perform such acts of grace is truly successful.
Sources for Further Study
Booklist. XCIV, March 1, 1998, p. 1045.
The Christian Century. CXV, July 29, 1998, p. 726.
Library Journal. CXXIII, April 15, 1998, p. 117.
Los Angeles Times Book Review. April 19, 1998, p. 58.
The New York Times Book Review. CIII, April 19, 1998, p. 12.
The New Yorker. LXXIV, July 13, 1998, p. 75.
Publishers Weekly. CCXLV, March 16, 1998, p. 51.
Time. CLI, April 27, 1998, p. 80.
The Times Literary Supplement. June 19, 1998, p. 25.
The Washington Post Book World. XXVIII, May 3, 1998, p. 4.