Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) is bestselling American novelist Anne Tyler’s 23rd novel. A character-driven literary fiction novel, the story follows Micah Mortimer, a mid-forties self-employed IT technician who must learn and grow from the sudden arrival of an ex-girlfriend’s son and a breakup with his current girlfriend. Themes include reevaluating misconceptions, the value of second chances, and the effects of overbearing parenting.

Notable works from Tyler, who is also a short story writer and literary critic, include The Accidental Tourist (1985), A Spool of Blue Thread (2015), and Breathing Lessons (1988). The Accidental Tourist won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1985) and later became an award-winning film starring Geena Davis (Davis won an Academy Award for her role), Kathleen Turner, and William Hurt. In addition to other notable achievements, Tyler’s Breathing Lessons won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1989.

This study guide follows the First Vintage Books Edition paperback from March 2021.

Plot Summary

Micah Mortimer works as a self-employed IT technician and as a maintenance man for his apartment complex. He follows a careful personal routine every morning, maintains a cleaning routine for his apartment on weekly rotation, and drives with extreme caution and attention to detail. One day, his girlfriend Cass calls and informs him that she’s worried she’ll lose her apartment because her landlord discovered her cat. Micah eases her fears, then picks up dinner later so that they can eat at her place. Micah likes that they live separately despite being together for three years. During dinner, Micah notices Cass is less affectionate than usual, and she declines his offer to stay over.

Micah dreams one night of finding a baby in a supermarket aisle. He ponders this dream while on his morning run the next day. Without his glasses, he mistakes a fire hydrant for a redhead child. Micah makes this same mistake every morning. When Micah gets back, a well-dressed 18-year-old boy is waiting on his stoop. Micah greets the boy, who stops Micah and introduces himself as the son of Micah’s ex-girlfriend from college, Lorna. Micah invites the kid, Brink, inside for coffee. Brink is mysterious about his intentions and tells Micah that he’s taking the day off from college. After chatting for a bit, Brink indicates that he believes Micah is his father. Micah knows this isn’t true because the timeline doesn’t add up, and he never had sex with Lorna (though he does not tell Brink the latter). When Micah receives a client phone call, he tells Brink he must go and leads the kid out. While on the call, Micah recalls how Lorna was religious and saving herself for marriage. They broke up because Micah saw her kiss another guy. Micah reflects on all his past relationships: after Lorna was Zara, who was a dancer and left him for a fellow dancer, then Adele, who left Micah to go work in conservation, and then Cass. Micah feels he’s given himself less and less to relationships over the years and likes that he and Cass are quiet with separate lives. He thinks about the baby dream again, wondering if it was prophetic with the arrival of Brink.

After work, Brink arrives, and Micah invites him to dinner. Despite Micah’s queries, Brink doesn’t divulge why he left home and college. When he asks to spend the night, Micah says yes. When Cass arrives, Micah explains the situation to her. They eat dinner, with Brink talking a little about his family but otherwise not saying much. Micah asks if Cass wants to stay over, but she chooses to leave. As Micah walks her out, she reminds him he didn’t ask about her living situation. Micah jokes that she could live in her car. Cass leaves coldly.

The next morning, Micah notices Brink’s phone plugged into a kitchen outlet. The phone goes off multiple times and Micah snoops, learning that Brink’s parents don’t know where Brink is. Micah goes to do maintenance on a neighbor’s apartment. The mid-fifties woman, Yolanda Palma, tells Micah all about her dates with men she’s met online. After that, Micah’s sister, Ada, calls to tell him her son is getting married and invite him and Cass to dinner with the family the next evening. Upon returning to his apartment, Micah sees Brink’s phone has many missed calls and unread texts. Brink is still sleeping, so Micah wakes him up and tells him to call his mom. Brink comes out later and lies about calling her. Micah calls his bluff and gives him an ultimatum to call his mom or leave. Brink leaves. Micah feels he mishandled the situation.

Micah calls Cass to ask her about her apartment and about coming with him to the family dinner. Cass will be able to keep her apartment, which Micah is happy about. Micah tells Cass about Brink, then invites Cass to dinner. Cass declines and suggests they break up. She believes Micah intentionally had Brink over to dissuade Cass from trying to move in with him. Micah never even considered her wanting to move in because they’d agreed years ago to live separately.

At his family dinner, it becomes clear that Micah stands out from his family. He has four older sisters who live in chaotic, cluttered houses with large, boisterous families. They are disappointed about Micah’s breakup with Cass, saying he’ll never find another woman like her and recalling all the ways the family bonded with her over the years. Micah also tells them about Brink. His sisters insist he contact Lorna, so she knows he’s okay. Micah emails Lorna when he gets home.

The next day, Lorna arrives at Micah’s doorstep. She tells him about how Brink came home mysteriously, was secretive about everything, then ran away when she tried to get him to talk. Micah mentions that Brink thought Micah could be his father, and Lorna admits that she doesn’t know Brink’s father because she had more than one sexual encounter after her breakup with Micah. They talk about the past a bit, and Lorna asks Micah to keep Brink with him and contact her if Brink shows up again. Later, Micah feels lonelier than usual. He flashes back to relationships: to catching Zara cheating by using redial. He thinks about how he was growing irritated and exhausted with Zara anyway. He gave less of himself to Adele, always holding back because he worried about complications. He felt free when she left him. Micah misses Cass and wishes Cass would reconsider. Micah thinks about the last time he saw Lorna; his acquaintances told him of her moving between men, but Micah didn’t believe it at the time.

The next day, Ada calls, asking how Micah liked her son Joey and his fiancée (both of whom he met at dinner). She worries about Joey’s ability to provide for a wife and kids, adding that Joey’s fiancée dreamt of babies. She believes baby dreams are a sign someone is ready for the next stage of life. Later, Micah leads a carpenter to Yolanda’s apartment. He asks Yolanda what she gets out of trying to date over and over again. Yolanda explains that she enjoys the experience and the hope it brings her. After tending to an IT call with a friendly young woman, Micah returns home to feel even lonelier than ever. He looks at Cass’s belongings again and calls her, offering to bring them by. Cass agrees. When he gets there, Cass suggests she should’ve grabbed them when she was leaving his place. Micah believes they were having a good night, so he is confused. Cass reminds him that he said she should live in her car. Micah apologizes, and Cass disingenuously apologizes for trying to change the rules. While in a traffic jam on the way home, Micah checks a text, hoping it’s Cass, but it’s just the young woman he helped earlier.

The next morning, Micah skips some of his routine. He tries to enjoy himself but realizes he has no entertainment in his house. He decides to go get a book. As he’s leaving, his sick neighbor is being wheeled away in an ambulance. He offers to help her husband, but the husband declines. After the ambulance leaves, Micah spots Brink across the street. He invites Brink inside, and Brink accepts. Brink has been living at a run-down motel and looks tired. Micah insists on calling Lorna, who says she’s on her way. Brink worries about what his parents will think. He wonders if his stepdad is with his mom. Brink confesses to buying a term paper and being sent home to tell his parents. He couldn’t tell them, so he ran away. Micah tries to reassure him.

Lorna and Roger, Brink’s stepfather, arrive. They fawn all over Brink and ask why he came. Brink tells Roger that he thought Micah was his father. Roger scolds Brink for this, and Brink runs out. The parents run after him. Seeing Brink left his clothes, Micah follows them out and runs into Lorna coming back inside. Roger and Brink stay outside to talk. Inside, Lorna and Micah talk. Micah wonders what about him turns off women. Lorna wonders what he means, and Micah tells her that it happened to her because she cheated. Lorna insists Micah initiated the breakup because he wouldn’t listen to Lorna try to explain the kiss. Micah realizes he was wrong about the past but feels like Lorna is blaming him. Roger and Brink come back in and Brink apologizes, confessing to his cheating. They leave and thank Micah.

The next morning, Micah struggles through his routines, abandoning steps at a time. Lorna texts him to tell him that everything is fine now and they are meeting with the dean. Micah considers several bitter responses, still recovering from their conversation the previous day. He leaves for a home-visit with a client, but instead goes to the school Cass works with and admits that he’s going nowhere and messed up. He hopes Cass will take him back. Cass receives him warmly and takes him inside.