Summary
Chapter Ten opens with Muriel visiting Macon for a training session with Edward. She divulges much about her personal life, such as how her son, Alexander, was not planned and how her first marriage was tumultuous. Muriel suggests to Macon that he should get together with Alexander, as her son does not have enough men in his life, and Macon declines. Later, the Leary siblings plan for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner and Rose reveals she has invited Julian to come. Macon is not exactly pleased with the fact that his sister is dating his boss.
The evening before Thanksgiving, Porter’s children, Danny, Liberty, and Susan, come to the Leary household. The children and adults eat carry-out pizza for dinner. There is the smell of turkey in the air and Rose explains she is roasting the turkey all night using a slow-heating method of cooking. As a result, the turkey comes out for Thanksgiving dinner quite dry and not fully cooked, so no one eats it. Rose breaks out crying, accusing her family of trying to embarrass her in front of Julian.
At the next training lesson, while walking Edward in the park, Muriel is telling Macon about that having a baby was what broke up her marriage, as her ex-husband Norman abandoned any interest in Alexander after the child became sick. Eventually, this leads to their divorce. As Muriel tells Macon this very personal story, Macon feels “some kind of connection” to her and abruptly kisses her. Muriel’s “pressing” quality causes Macon to draw back and apologize for the kiss. They continue walking the dog.
Macon takes his niece Susan, the daughter of Porter, on his work trip to Philadelphia. On the train ride, while Susan sleeps, Macon thinks about how Ethan had rarely accompanied him on his trips. Macon takes Susan around to the various hotels and restaurants that he has to review. At dinner, she recalls a story of Ethan and then apologizes for mentioning him. This makes Macon realize that Ethan’s cousins also miss him. Susan becomes tipsy after one cocktail and chats endlessly to Macon through the meal.
At the next dog-training lesson, Edward has learned to lie down. This pleases Muriel. She tells Macon that he didn’t need to apologize for kissing her the other day. Macon explains that he is still not legally divorced. He wants to say that he is not ready for an intimate relationship, but he cannot get the words out. Muriel talks about all the strange and creative ways she has tried to make money over the years. She invites Macon over for dinner the next night with her and Alexander. During the lesson, Muriel needs to stop by the doctor’s office to pick up her son from an appointment. Macon gets to meet Alexander, who is a very small, sickly boy with many allergies. Muriel expects to see Macon the next day for dinner but Macon feels like he can’t bring himself to come, missing his own family.
That night, Macon contemplates calling Muriel to tell her that he would not come for dinner. He wants to express that his son died, but he realizes that he has never before said this out loud to anyone. He decides to write a letter instead. He drives to Muriel’s house, which is in a bad neighborhood of the city, to hand-deliver it. When she opens the door, Macon blurts out the story of Ethan and says that he is not up to being around children again. Muriel brings him into her house and listens as he spills his heart out about the difficulty of coping with grief. She insists that he lie down to rest in her bedroom, and they end up sleeping together. In the middle of the night, Macon sees the scar on Muriel’s stomach from her Caesarean section and feels that Muriel must somewhat understand the pain Macon has been through.
Macon starts to spend more and more time with Muriel. Rose becomes worried when Macon often misses family meals. Rose says that she doesn’t want to pry into his personal life, but she is clearly curious about Macon’s budding relationship with Muriel. One night, he brings over pizza to Muriel’s house. When Macon arrives, Alexander says he cannot eat any because of his allergies. Muriel is on the phone with her mother, complaining that she doesn’t care enough about Alexander’s health. Muriel is delighted to see Macon, and Macon feels happy that someone appreciates his presence again.
One day, when Macon goes into Julian’s office to hand in a work draft, he finds out Julian is planning to propose to Rose on Christmas. He already has a diamond ring ready for the occasion. Macon takes another trip for work, and this time he brings Muriel. They fly on a small commuter plane; as they fly over many roofs of houses, Macon has a sense of all the different private lives these houses contain.
Macon starts to settle into an orderly routine. He feels that he has no room in his life for anyone besides Muriel, who is very extreme and unpredictable to him. There are things about her that he does not like, such as her ceaseless talking and her focus on superficial things like makeup. He does not love her, but he loves “the surprise of her.” One time, Macon tries to teach Alexander how to fix a kitchen faucet, even though Muriel argues he is too weak to do it. Muriel invites Macon to Christmas dinner to meet her family. Macon doesn’t want to go, but he does anyway.
Analysis
These pages are marked by the growing relationship between Macon and Muriel. In Chapter Ten, after Muriel shares about her first marriage and son’s illness, Macon kisses her. In the moment, it is what he is impulsed to do, yet at the same time, he also feels that it wasn’t the sort of “connection he’d intended.” Macon has struggled with human contact and communication perpetually in the book, and this serves as an example of how, in a moment of interpersonal intimacy, Macon is stumped as to how he ought to behave. In this case, with a woman who has clearly shown attraction to him, Macon confuses this moment for romantic attraction, getting himself into a relationship with her that will slowly unfold throughout the rest of story.
They take their relationship to the next level—a sexual encounter—when Macon goes over to Muriel’s house and finally, for the first time in the novel, expresses his feelings, sharing about the death of Ethan, which he has managed to never before speak about to anyone before. The surfacing of this emotional honesty provides relief for Macon, who has been holding onto his grief for so long, as well as making him more susceptible to Muriel’s sexual advances. In this way, he finds himself in a relationship where, he admits to himself, he is not in love but rather enjoying the comfort of being with another human again—a relationship in which he can feel wanted by another.
Yet we can already see the signs that Macon has embroiled himself in something to which his heart is not quite fully committed. There are aspects of Muriel that irritate Macon, such as her endless chattering of a superficial nature or the way she sees her son as being continually ill and fragile. When Muriel invites Macon to Christmas dinner with her family, Macon’s first instinct is to say no, yet he feels he cannot, already too immersed in their relationship. We can also intuit that being around Alexander brings up for Macon his paternal instincts that were abruptly halted after the death of Ethan.
The absence of Ethan seems to trail Macon wherever he goes, whether at family gatherings, or meeting Alexander for the first time, or taking a trip with his niece, Susan. When Susan shares with Macon that she misses her cousin Ethan, it finally occurs to Macon that the death of his son has not only affected him but also their entire family. This moment illuminates for the reader that Macon’s tends to isolate himself, which has made his experience of grief all the more painful and challenging. By never mentioning his son and locking away his feelings, Macon keeps himself from fully healing from the trauma of losing a child.
From the months Macon has spent with his family, the reader learns much about the Leary children and the many quirks they share. Perhaps their greatest common trait is that of resistance to change and protection of their routine. This is evident in the way Macon’s siblings spy on him while he does dog-training lessons with Muriel, curious yet also rather skeptical about his new relationship. It is also there in Macon’s protectiveness of Rose as he observes her soon-to-be engagement with his boss, Julian. Macon cannot believe that Julian, who leads a very different type of lifestyle, could be the right fit for his sister. We see the classic Leary resistance also in the way that none of the siblings are willing to talk directly about Ethan in the same room as Macon as if he had never died.
Despite the seriousness of the subject matter in The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler manages to interweave many humorous moments, particularly through the eccentricities of her characters. Muriel’s strange ways of making money, for instance, brings not only a deepening of our understanding of the characters but also some much-needed comedic relief as they navigate many painful and awkward experiences.
