Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler is a character-driven novel about Micah Mortimer, a real creature of habit, stuck-in-a-rut kind of a guy. He lives a small life in a Baltimore apartment where he works as the building superintendent and also employs himself as a tech guru, the Tech Hermit, which says a great deal about him.
Micah has a set pattern to his day, a firm pattern for the days of the week; for example, Monday was his day to mop floors in the kitchen and bathroom, and vacuuming day was Friday. He isn’t open to a change in his routine so he is easily frustrated by two unconnected events: his friend Cass seems to be pressuring him with her concern about being evicted from her apartment and a teen named Brink turns up announcing that he thinks Micah is his father.
At times funny, especially when the hermit is among his siblings for a family outing about which he has asked if he has to attend, at other times deeply compassionate as he comes to realize the problems other people have in their lives.
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