Written as an autobiography, “The Only Thing That Lasts”, chronicles the early life of Robert O’Neill. With his father off fighting in World War One, the death of his mother forces him to leave the only home that ha has ever known in South Carolina, and move north to Marquette to live with his grandmother and great aunt. Feeling instantly at home Robert soon makes friends that will last for a lifetime. He finds himself drawing closer to Helen, who’s father is also fighting in the war. When Robert is given the job of checking on his great aunts house, an amazing opportunity opens up for Helen and himself to create their own stories and plays. Instantly sparking Roberts ambition to become a writer. When Helen’s father dies in the war Robert out of sympathy tells Helen that he loves her, not knowing what to do he avoids her, while he’s on vacation on Mackinac Islands. While there he receives advice from a family friend who had been injured in the war, Eric. Soon he starts to think of Eric as a bother. Once back in Marquette he and Helen straighten things out. Helen and Robert both discover that they both have started writing a book. Meanwhile love blossoms between his grandmother and the family friend Mr. Carter. Soon Robert and the rest of Marquette discover that grandma and Mr. Carter will soon be married. When Roberts father comes home from the war everything is finally on the right track. As Robert matures so does his love for Helen and soon the two are married. Will Robert have success in with his novels as well as with his love life?

“The Only Thing That Lasts” is a riveting story that will have you hooked from the first page. Tyler R. Ticchelaar has added another masterpiece to his Marquette series. A book that I believe is destined for true greatness. “The Only Thing That Lasts”, is a standout novel, that will beckon to be read again and again. Tyler R. Tichelaar’s descriptive writing makes you feel as though you yourself are in the town of Marquette. With his love of books and writing shown on every page one cannot help to fall in love with this wonderful book. Truly a book that all should read.

Reviewed on 11/07/2009 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Angela Simmons

The dedication of Tyler Tichelaar's newest novel, The Only Thing That Lasts, is to his brother "who likes an old-fashioned book." Turning the page of that dedication, the reader finds the excerpt from Gone With the Wind that titles this book, and enters a leisurely nostalgic experience that combines regional pride, factual background and wholesome values.

This is a regional work meant to portray the character of the author's hometown of Marquette, Michigan. In this it succeeds, weaving what is otherwise a standard tale of family fortunes around a burnished portrait of this colorful town perched on the shores of Lake Superior. Throughout the story, names and places familiar to residents are used to place the work squarely within the confines of its geography.

The story unfolds as an autobiography of Robert O'Neill, a fictional character introduced as a famous American novelist of the 20th century. The opening chapter of the book is a fast-moving montage of Robert as a young boy and his momentous move from the Deep South of South Carolina to Marquette shortly after his mother's death. It is an engaging vision of a child peering through the veil of narrow attitudes—the very first sentence contains the epithet of "damn Yankees" by a tobacco-spitting curmudgeon—into the consciousness of new people and places. The "Yankee" label stirs a fiery retort from our young hero, and in these first swirling pages Robert reveals himself to be a thinking, conscientious realist with a convincing background of a novelist-to-be.

These passionate beginnings are quickly tamped once the protagonist reaches Marquette, however, and the story simmers down into a straightforward and straight-laced account of hometown life in this Great Lakes community. The everyday adventures and follies that loom so large in our childhoods take the stage: Robert's hope at finding a friend his age, his fears of mockery over the pink awfulness of his new room, his adolescent loves and intrigues; here is a careful Tom Sawyer preoccupied with his own pig-tailed Becky Thatcher, recounting time-gilded adventures of his beloved hometown.

It all wraps up as nicely as the nostalgic tone implies, delivering a softly moral tale just as the author indicated. There is a trite, overly-narrated quality to the story in places, but it is punctuated by the author's humorous and quirky insights that offer bright contrast to the stolid scenes. Mr. Tichelaar has a unique voice he lays just under the text, dropping in detail and reflection that belie the sleepy, homespun yet heartfelt rhythms of the pages. At such times, the author surfaces in a way that brings authenticity to the work, actually showing through deft strokes an underlying talent that gives substance to the idea of this work as a writer's autobiography.

The book is what it purports to be, a nostalgic "old-fashioned" piece of Americana and all that implies. There are surprises, but not many, for surprise is not the purpose of such a portrait. The Only Thing That Lasts is a well-meant work that seldom startles or alarms, but says what it means and leaves the reader with a pleasant impression of the town and its fictional—and its actual—gifted author.

Reviewed on 09/12/2009 by ReviewTheBook.com Member John Royce

Robert ONeill, a famous novelist, is the main character of Tyler Tichelarr's book entitled "The Only Thing That Lasts."  ONeill is the narrator of the book, as he tells the reader of his journey as a young boy until he is an old man.  His story starts during World War I, where his mother has died, his father is away at war, and he must move from the south to the north to live with his grandmother and aunt.  The story is engaging as you learn of the political, racial, and social systems of the times.  Tichelarr makes the story personal in a way that you feel you are part of the ONeill family.  The reader wasn't reading the words on the page, but sitting at the table for Thanksgiving dinner, jumping off the cliff into the lake in the summer, or sliding down the banister behind Robert. 

As a woman reading the book, it was interesting to get inside the mind of a boy and hear his thought and see his life as he lived it in a historical period that is very different from the present.  The story is captivating and at the last page, I was left wanting much more.  Tichelarr's writing is rich, descriptive, and he has a way of spinning a story that few can compete with.  This was the first selection I have read by Tichelarr, but it definitely will not be the last.   

Reviewed on 07/25/2009 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Laura Johnson