A clock dance is a series of repetitive moves that can be frenzied or controlled. I looked it up when trying to understand the title, but I wasn't able to find out much because googling "clock dance" results in articles about Tyler's novel! I think the point of the title is that Willa, the main character, is caught in a "clock dance" as she travels through life, never quite achieving fulfillment while she defers to others in her life.
Willa has spent most of her marching to the beat of someone else's drummer, allowing the needs of others to dictate her path in life. The novel begins with Willa, age 11, coping with one of her mother's mania-fueled disappearances. Ten years later, she is on the brink of her life's greatest decision: to finish college and become a teacher or to marry Derek and move to California, giving up her scholarship and the research that she loves. Twenty years later, we learn that Willa's decision was to follow Derek's dream, rather than her own. When her husband's impatience and intolerance lead to unexpected tragedy for the family, she is left to wonder where she belongs in the world. Eventually, we catch up with Willa again, now age 61 and married to a retired lawyer. When she receives a call asking for her help in caring for the daughter of her son Sean's former girlfriend, who has been accidentally shot, she feels compelled to travel to Baltimore to fill in as grandmother to a girl she has never met, not realizing that she has reached a crossroads that could change her life.
Is this the absolute best book Tyler has ever written? Probably not. Is it enjoyable from start to finish? Definitely. The characters can be divided into two groups: the "real" people with dimension and the selfish ones who, unfortunately, are the primary players in Willa's life. When faced with a choice between them, what will Willa do?
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