The first paragraph of introduces the reader to its main character, the ordinary - but at the same time eccentric - Micah Mortimer. And it is a telling paragraph:

You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like Micah Mortimer. He lives alone; he keeps to himself; his routine is etched in stone. At seven fifteen every morning you see him set out on his run. Along about ten or ten thirty he slaps the magnet TECH HERMIT sign onto the roof of his Kia. The times he leaves on his calls will vary, but not a day will go by without several clients requiring his services. Afternoons he can be spotted working around the apartment building; he moonlights as the super... (His apartment is in the basement. It is probably not very cheery.)

The novel's title, Redhead by the Side of the Road, reflects Micah Mortimer's flawed vision, both of physical objects as well as the limiting nature of his lifestyle.

In his early 40s and a resident of north Baltimore, Micah's days follow a distinct pattern, a pattern that he does not like to see disturbed. He is the author of an IT manual, helpfully entitled, First, You Plug It In.

His companion when driving is the imaginary Traffic God, who makes comments on his driving skills.

Micah turned into his space on the lot and cut the engine... "Flawless," Traffic God murmured. Micah had made the whole trip without a single misstep, a single fumble or correction.

Really, his life was good. He had no reason to feel unhappy.

The narrative begins to develop when two events upset Micah's established and comfortable routine.

First, Cass, his woman friend of three years - "they seem to lead fairly separate lives" - is facing eviction from her flat. It becomes clear that she expects Micah to invite her to move into his flat, an expectation that he is oblivious of, so blinkered is he to her feelings. This offends Cass and leads to a change in their relations.

The second shock to Micah's routine is when a college student, Brink, turns up at his door. It turns out that Brink is the son of Micah's girlfriend from years back when Micah was at college, and the boy now claims that Micah is his father.

As Brink seems to have run away from home and has nowhere to stay, Micah lets him sleep in his flat, a decision that Cass interprets as a desperate ruse to block off inviting her to stay.

These inciting incidents get the story moving and kickstart Micah's dawning realisation that his established routine is actually a lonely existence.

Eventually, he will decide that it is time to open up a new life for himself.

Tyler has a wonderful way of drawing human frailties in a tenderly ironic way and with great compassion.

She also has a great gift for summarising an individual in a few carefully-chosen words.

For example, Micah's woman friend, Cass, "...was matronly altogether, which Micah found kind of a turn-on. He seemed to have outgrown any interest in the slip-of-a-girl type."

And Brink - "a rich kid, Micah saw. Handsome, in that polished and privileged sort of way. Well-cut dark hair conforming to the shape of his skull, collar of his white shirt standing up in back, sleeves of his blazer pushed nearly to his elbows (a style Micah found affected)."

Micah is the youngest of a large and disorganised family, and his character could be a reaction to this or it could be genetics, as his siblings and their partners debate at a family gathering, before he tells them that he and Cass have broken up. At once they take Cass's side.

"'Could you not try to get her back?' Ada asked. (Wouldn't you know that she would assume the break-up was Cass's idea.)

'And tell her you'll change your ways,' Phil advised him.

'Change what ways?' Micah asked.

This made them all start laughing, he didn't know why."

This book is a lovely read, beautifully written with prose that you want to linger over. Which is just as well, for at just 178 pages, it is a short book.

If it had a lot of narrative drive, you'd go through it in an evening, which might not be what you want in this time of Covid-19 lockdown.

I am a fast reader but I forced myself to spread reading the novel over a few nights - not because I wanted to put it down, I didn't, but rather because I wanted to savour Tyler's delicious observations about human idiosyncrasies and foibles.