Echoes of Wordsworth and Coleridge resound in "The Accidental Tourist"

Anne Tyler, who lived a "Romantic" childhood in mountain-terrained communes of North Carolina, borrowed ideas from Wordsworth and Coleridge for her 1985 novel The Accidental Tourist. Reflections of these Romantic poets are seen primarily in images but are also seen in Tyler's simple writing style. Macon Leary, the protagonist of the novel, is a wandering writer who loves the English language, but struggles to communicate his feelings verbally, a reflection of Romantic ideology. Other motifs include home as a place abandoned as well as a refuge for the mind and body; the destructive and renewing powers of the city; physical heights used for inspiration and reflection; and endurance after tragedy. Tyler, who is married to a psychiatrist, parodies the Romantics when she brings endurance into the self-help age of the 1980s. Macon Leary not only endures but, with assistance, triumphs.