Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
First edition cover
AuthorAnne Tyler
IllustratorFred Marcellino
LanguageEnglish
PublisherKnopf
Publication date
March 12, 1982
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages303 pp
ISBN0-394-52381-4
OCLC7732718
813/.54 19
LC ClassPS3570.Y45 D5 1982

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a 1982 novel by Anne Tyler, set in Baltimore, Maryland. It is Tyler's ninth novel. In 1983 it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,[1] the National Book Award,[2] and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Tyler considers it her best work.

The book follows the lives of three siblings: Cody, Ezra, and Jenny, and explores their experiences and recollections of growing up with their mother, Pearl, after the family is deserted by their father, Beck. The novel ends with Pearl's funeral, and a surprise occurrence.

The novel examines how siblings may share the same events yet experience them differently; e.g. Cody remembers his childhood as a harsh time. He blames himself for his father abandoning him and considers himself left to the mercy of an angry mother who favors Ezra. Meanwhile, Ezra remembers his childhood fondly and creates a nostalgic family-themed restaurant.

  1. ^ "Fiction". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  2. ^ "National Book Awards - 1983". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 14 January 2014.