One of a trio of Tyler paperback re-releases from Vintage, Celestial Navigation (1996) begins with a character so weird you wonder if you'll ever be able to get under his skin. Jeremy Pauling doesn't talk much, doesn't go out much, doesn't do anything much except make sculptures out of domestic odds and ends. When the beautiful, self-contained Mary Tell comes into his life he doesn't know what to do - so he asks her to marry him, with unexpected, to put it mildly, results. As the story progresses the reader is persuaded that Jeremy isn't actually that weird after all; a dangerous assumption, as Tyler's moody narratives are full of deadly emotional traps which can, and invariably do, snap shut in a second. Much the same could be said of The Tin Can Tree (1987), a study of a grief-stricken family after the accidental death of a child, and Morgan's Passing (1991), the story of a lovable - or is he? - eccentric. These novels read like clary sage put on paper; a bitter, heart-on-the-sleeve aroma which won't appeal to everyone, but is quite unforgettable.
