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American novelist and short-story writer, whose keen ear for dialogue and life-like characters have won critical acclaim. Several of Tyler's novels focus on loneliness, isolation, human interactions of eccentric middle-class people living in disunited families. ....

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.... followed by The Tin Can Tree, and A Slipping-Down Life. From 1967 Tyler worked as a full-time writer. She won in 1977 an award from the American Academy for Earthly Possessions. Her novel Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982) explores tensions inside a family seen from the perspective from each member in turn. Absentminded Ezra, the youngest son, runs the restaurant of the title, and comes in contact with various characters seeking emotional fulfillment. The Accidental Tourist won in 1986 National Book Critics Circle Award and was made into a film in 1988, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. It tells a st ....