Digging to America

I've read a number of Anne Tyler's novels and enjoyed them. I think LADDER OF YEARS and BREATHING LESSONS are particularly good. (As I write this, the cat has just climbed into my in tray - is he trying to tell me something?). But I wasn't so sure about AN AMATEUR MARRIAGE, nor about the latest, DIGGING TO AMERICA which I've just finished. "|???? (Cat has just walked across key board - he definitely wants something). Yes, there is some marvellous writing: she perfectly catches the irrationality and pain and disorientation of bereavement; the themes of parenthood, belonging, growing old are in themselves endlessly fascinating; and she is so good on the petty anxieties and confusions of human relationship. And yet, and yet . . . I found myself skipping ahead. Partly it was that I didn't like one of the main characters - Bitsy - what a name! - so bossy and judgmental - and there were just too many characters. I found myself flicking back to work out who some of the minor ones were - always a bad sign. And was there just a hint of saccharine towards the end?
Could it be that Tyler wrote her best books mid-career ? That seems to be have been the case with John Updike and of some other writers. One of them is Jane Smiley: A THOUSAND ACRES is a masterpiece. Has she written anything quite as good since that? I don't know where I'm going with this, except perhaps to wonder if writers have a finite number of really good novels in them.