French Braid

Tyler, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize whose books have twice received nominations for the Man Booker Prize, has created a distinguished literary career using much of the same characterizations and settings that are in evidence in French Braid. She is renowned for her short fiction as well as for her novels, and French Braid is notable for drawing on both literary forms, in that each of the eight chapters is set in a different chronological era, sometimes decades apart, and often focuses on a different protagonist. While the lengthy scope of the narrative implies a changing group of characters, the profound themes at work from the inception of the family remain present throughout each chapter.

In all her literature, Tyler focuses on relationships and, more specifically, on how they often do not function properly, failing to live up to the expectations and needs of the people involved. The seemingly perpetual conflict between women and men in various relationships is most obviously on display in the enduring distance between Mercy and Robin, to which Robin remains oblivious. Nearly all Tyler’s male-female relationships exhibit conflict, which she portrays sometimes explicitly and sometimes subtly. The pervasive element of conflict draws attention to those couplings that really do seem to work, such as the marriage of David and Greta, in which she speaks with a complete candor that he welcomes.

Reviewers often note that small elements loom large in Tyler’s novels, something quite apparent in the details readers may observe in French Braid. For instance, in describing Mercy’s move from her house to the studio, Tyler notes that Mercy, who never wears pants, has to go from wearing dresses to wearing skirts: The studio has no closet to hang dresses, but skirts can be folded without wrinkling. This quiet detail reveals Mercy’s nature—she is practical but intent on expressing herself in her own way.

Tyler’s work tends to draw heavily upon her own background. A longtime Baltimore resident, she displays a familiarity with the neighborhoods, railways, and surrounding metropolitan area. More to the point of French Braid, however, it seems evident that much of Mercy’s character emerged from Tyler’s background. As with Mercy, Tyler’s first love was painting. Also an actress in her youth, Tyler played a leading role in The Glass Menagerie, to which there is a subtle reference in Chapter 2. Finally, the demands of her life as a wife and the mother of two daughters forced Tyler to take years away from writing; thus, like Mercy, she lived two lives—a life of commitment to family, then a new life for herself in literature.