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Breathing Lessons Chapter Summary

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In the novel Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler explores the delights and misery of marriage as Maggie and Ira Moran travel from Baltimore to Pennsylvania and back home again in one day. Maggie and Ira have been married for twenty-eight years and yet, they are opposites, with Maggie too trusting and meddling and Ira too calculating and uncommunicative.
The purpose of the road trip is to attend the funeral of the husband of Maggie’s closest friend from girlhood, Serena Gill. While there they meet up with their old friends from school, and are forced to the realization of their own path of life. Surrounded by familiar aging faces, Maggie begins to remember her old aspirations, what she wanted for her life and what she ended up with. Ira and Maggie encounter a few detours during their 90-mile drive, including a meaningful conversation with a diner waitress and a misunderstanding on the road with a cautious old man. …show more content…

Maggie is able to convince Ira to visit their ex-daughter-in-law’s house, Maggie then arranges a dinner between the family with Jesse and Fiona but she deceives Fiona convincing her Jesse still loves her. Fiona and Leroy, their granddaughter, return home with them. Back at their house, Maggie’s lie is discovered, but Jesse and Fiona refuse to admit they still love one another. They both suddenly leave without even sitting down at the table. The novel concludes with Ira and Maggie, lying down to go to bed, mentally preparing for the rest of their lives.
Through the short, intimate adventure of Maggie and Ira, Breathing Lessons, explores some of the most important and complex relationships friendship, marriage, and family. (Tyler

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