The Beginner's Goodbye

When I go to the library to look for books, I usually look in the T section to see if Anne Tyler has written anything new.  Lucky for me, I found one.  The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler was a very pleasurable book to read.  I love the way Tyler describes people, their relationships, and the towns they live in.  Often her characters are flawed and quirky yet I want to know them better.  I'd like to have Anne Tyler characters among my friends, they're that real.  The narrator in this one is Aaron Woolcott who works in a self-publishing company.  His customers have their memoirs printed and bound.  They have a series of "Beginner's" books, sort of like "The Idiot's Guide" series.  Woolcott's company has published the Beginners Guide to Divorce, Beginners Guide to Child Rearing, Beginners Guide to Marriage, Beginners Guide to College, Beginners Guide to Refurbishing a Kitchen, and Beginners Guide to Buying a House.  Woolcott is an ornery man and very sensitive to being helped.  He absolutely bristles when anyone tries to accommodate his limp or his less than fully functional right side of his body.  He is blunt, unsentimental, and somewhat lacking in social skills. His wife is also blunt, unsentimental and somewhat lacking in social skills and despite a 15 inch difference in height, are the perfect couple.  When she dies, Aaron learns how to say goodbye and being the quirky guy that he is, his mourning process is not typical.  Great book!