Clock Dance: A Novel by Anne Tyler FIC TYL

      Instead of using flashbacks to flesh out the story of a character, Tyler took a different approach which I really liked.  We are introduced to Willa when she is 11 in the year 1967.  That is a year in which her mentally unstable mother left home again.   Of course this has a great influence of how Willa views herself and her role in life.  We are treated to a few more glances of Willa's life as she becomes a wife, a mother, and a widow.
     All of this sets the stage for her story in 2017.  She is remarried and is longing to be a grandmother but that doesn't seem to be happening.
      One day she receives a phone call from a stranger across the country asking for her help.  The woman is calling on behalf of the former live-in girlfriend of her son.  It seems the ex has been shot and this neighbor has been taking care of the daughter and the dog but she can't continue to do it, so Willa has to come immediately.  Willa's desire to be useful in life does what is asked of her and with her husband in tow takes off to save the day.  After decades of not feeling that she fits in, Willa finds a whole neighborhood of quirky people where she feels more at home.