Edward Hoagland wrote in the "New York Times", "Macon Leary, the magnificently decent yet "ordinary" man in "The Accidental Tourist," follows logic to its zany conclusions, and in doing this justifies...the catch-as-catch-can nature of much of life, making us realize that we are probably missing people of mild temperament in our own acquaintance who are heroes, too, if we had Ms. Tyler's eye for recognizing them...Muriel, the man-chaser and man-saver of "The Accidental Tourist," ranks among the more endearing characters of postwar literature."