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A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler


About the Book (from the book's description on GR)

"It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The whole family—their two daughters and two sons, their grandchildren, even their faithful old dog—is on the porch, listening contentedly as Abby tells the tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different too: Abby and Red are growing older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them, and the fate of the house so lovingly built by Red's father. Brimming with the luminous insight, humor, and compassion that are Anne Tyler's hallmarks, this capacious novel takes us across three generations of the Whitshanks, their shared stories and long-held secrets, all the unguarded and richly lived moments that combine to define who and what they are as a family.


About the Author (from Wikipedia)

Anne Tyler (born October 25, 1941) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She has published 20 novels, the best known of which are Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and Breathing Lessons (1988). All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Breathing Lessons winning the prize for 1989. She has also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Ambassador Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012 she was awarded The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. She is recognized for her fully developed characters, her “brilliantly imagined and absolutely accurate detail,� and her “rigorous and artful style� and “astute and open language.� While many of her characters have been described as quirky or eccentric, she has managed to make them seem real through skillfully fleshing out their inner lives in great depth. Her subject in all her novels has been the American family and marriage: the boredom and exasperating irritants endured by partners, children, siblings, parents; the desire for freedom pulling against the tethers of attachments and conflicted love; the evolution over time of familial love and sense of duty. Tyler celebrates unremarkable Americans and the ordinary details of their everyday lives. Because of her style and subject matter, she has been compared to John Updike, to Jane Austen, and to Eudora Welty, among others.


Other Links

� Review -- The Guardian: "A Spool of Blue Thread review � human muddle meets amused tolerance - With her 20th novel, Anne Tyler reels in the reader with an absorbing domestic saga in a homely minor key":

� Review -- The Atlantic: "Man Booker Shortlist 2015: A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler’s novel, her 20th, is a meditation on the meaning of home.":

� Review -- NPR: "Cozy 'Blue Thread' Is Unabashedly Domestic":

� Interview -- The Guardian: "Anne Tyler: ‘I am not a spiritual person�
Anne Tyler is the quiet American whose 20 novels subtly chronicle the tensions and secrets of middle-class family relationships. In a rare interview, she talks about growing up in a Quaker community, loving The Wire and her friendship with that other famous Baltimore resident, John Waters":

Have you read this novel? If not, will you read it before the TOB begins? Please share your thoughts on Tyler's book with us!! :)

I have....and I looked back on my review and felt nothing had changed in my opinion so I'll repost it here.

Anne Tyler writes great domestic drama. Nothing much happens in her books but you get to know and love the characters, like dear friends, neighbors or family members. This particular story had one character who reminded me very much of a family member and that managed to keep me quite engaged for the book's entirety.

She didn't win the Man Booker and I do believe there were other books (including the winner) more deserving. She's won other prizes (notably a Pulitzer) but this must have been a thrill for her after being pigeon-holed into so-called "women's fiction" for so long. So now she writes "literary fiction". I do hope she gets some kind of lifetime achievement award at some point. Twenty books is no slouch and doubtless she'll publish more before the end of her life. I can't help but compare her to Franzen, she's a better writer and has more humility if not quite as much humor.

I rated this one four stars. Here were my thoughts on the audiobook:

Tyler drops the reader right into the Whitshank family in an unclear year. There were some clues, but I spent as much time trying to get my bearings as I did trying to get to know the Whitshanks (this experience may have been exacerbated on audio.) This beginning allows Tyler to cover a lot of ground very quickly and to introduce the reader to Red and Abby, and their four children, very quickly. The first half of the novel is mostly straight-forward, so when the action jumped back fifty years to Red and Abby's courtship, I was surprised. (I adored that technique in Monique Roffey's phenomenal novel White Woman on the Green Bicycle. It was less successful here because it didn't feel the only or obvious option; it felt a bit like a gimmick.)

For the most part, the non-linear story worked here, and it allowed for a few retroactive surprises to have more power. But as each time jump came, it took me awhile to engage with the story. Tyler writes fascinating, well-rounded characters in this novel, and to jump away from so many with each generation jump had me spending as much time missing the younger Whitshanks as it did trying to get to know the older ones (when they were the younger ones.) Ultimately, I liked the narrative technique, but at times it was clunky. Most notably, I found the ending abrupt and anti-climactic. When the audiobook ended, I was genuinely surprised the last scene was the last, as it felt so inconsequential. Perhaps that was Tyler's point, but it was a let down after a novel of so many interesting moments, both every day moments and life-changing ones.

The verdict: A Spool of Blue Thread is a good, entertaining family saga, but I wanted it to be great. While the non-linear storytelling enhanced some elements of the story, it also made for a rather abrupt and anti-climactic ending. I enjoyed the listening experience more than I enjoyed the book over all, as it wasn't as good as other multi-generational family sagas I've read lately. While I liked it, I don't think it will be a book that sticks with me or keeps me thinking about its characters now that I've finished it.

(full review: )

I enjoyed reading this book but one of the things I notice in Tyler's more recent books is that "Bawl'mor" is no longer a character in her stories. I loved that about the early books.

I just think the problem with writing books about passive, disconnected people is that as a reader, you feel disconnected and annoyed at how passive they are.

Or maybe that's just me.

I really liked a few of Anne Tyler's books in the 90s and then didn't read her for years. This was just meh for me. A few interesting observations, but I really just wasn't that into it.

***Major Spoilers***

I just finished this and I'm wondering something. Is it possible that Denny isn't Red's son? Could he be Danes? Or am I reading too much into it? Throughout the story Denny makes reference to not being like the rest of the Whitshanks. Neither Dane or Denny seem to care about holding down jobs. Abbie was known to hold secrets, in one instance concerning Stems real Mom (birth parent secret). Then, near the end, Denny is talking to Nora and he says, "Or she is telling me that she's knows that I forgive her. " Maybe I'm looking at something that isn't there....

I think you're just reading too much into it. I think that part towards the end just had more today with their general relationship and his constant feeling of being an outsider (or maybe her choice concerning Stem).

Ryan wrote: "I think you're just reading too much into it. I think that part towards the end just had more today with their general relationship and his constant feeling of being an outsider (or maybe her choic..."

That could be. After waking up this morning I realized that as well. He's forgiving her for bringing in another boy.

It was the section where Abbie was describing Dane that I started to wonder. Maybe I've just read too many dramatic stories so I assumed that there must be something more going on.

I think the whole point of Dane (if there even has to be one) is to reiterate the unplanned nature of life, which is apparent in each character's life but reaches its apex with Stem's "adoption".

I wondered if it was going to lead to that, and expected a surprise reveal at the very end of the novel. I just think it speaks to Abby's nature, in between drawn and attracted to people who need her help... and ironic that she had a child so much like Dane, who she did not choose in the end.

I am very surprised people liked this book so much - this was my first Tyler book, which I read for the Man Booker nominations - and was completely underwhelmed. I really like quiet, slow books with a lot of character development, which I think what this would be, but was just so bored with this story and the characters. I was left wondering what the point of writing this book was..

Kay wrote: "I am very surprised people liked this book so much - this was my first Tyler book, which I read for the Man Booker nominations - and was completely underwhelmed. I really like quiet, slow books wit..."

Kay, I liked Blue Thread a lot, also as my first Taylor book, but then I read The Past by Tessa Hadley and the bar for stories of quiet family drama among adult siblings has been raised significantly. I don't even like this kind of book and I think The Past is going to be one of my favorite novels of the year.

poingu wrote: "Kay wrote: "I am very surprised people liked this book so much - this was my first Tyler book, which I read for the Man Booker nominations - and was completely underwhelmed. I really like quiet, sl..."

I really liked The Past too, and I liked it more than Blue Thread.

I hardly ever read TOB books until after the list is published -- just not in the know enough. But I did read this one and I agree with Kay and was surprised to see it on the list. I found it to be just average.

I think "reading" this one via audiobook contributed greatly to why I enjoyed it. It's really just a story of a fairly normal family with fairly normal drama, almost a mediation on life, which, frankly after trying to read a bunch of other TOBs which are much more demanding on my attention, was a nice break. I felt similar feelings with We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Everything I Never Told You.

I have read a lot of Anne Tyler's books over the years and really loved them. This book just wasn't one of them. I have to agree with the reader who used the word "meh"

Please read Tyler's earlier novels like Dinner at the homesick restaurant and The accidental tourist among others. She used to be great! This latest book must have risen in reputation for sentimental reasons. It wasn't good.

It's kind of sad, this preround. I have loved both John Irving and Anne Tylers earlier works but these two books are not examples of their best work. I do have to say though that I pick Tyler over Irving in this round no contest, i really had a hard time with Avenue of Mysteries.

Well, I have made a list of the TOB books that I have not read yet and my plan is to read in date order (if my library cooperates).

It did have A Spool of Blue Thread so was able to keep to my plan at least for this first book.

I have decided to post my comments before going back and reading what other participants have said about this book.

A multigenerational narrative set in Baltimore with an “Every Family� vibe where it “ordinariness� was both it great strength and greatest weakness for me.
This was a relatable story for me as I thought there were many aspects of this family where the reader could see corresponding to their own family � elderly parents where it is becoming obvious will need additional support to continue to live in their home, several generations living in the same house (even if temporary) learning to live with each other style of living, each family member trying to find their identity within their family and the times they live in. etc. I thought the dialogue was well done and helped to keep me focused when reading this book.
Shortly after I started reading the book had a definite women’s fiction feel for me and the ordinariness of the characters and situations had me wondering why the book is was selected to be in the Tournament of Books. While I do not expect to “like� every book nominated, I do expect to understand why the book was nominated even if it was my not my cup of tea.
But the biggest weakness for me � is that nothing “hooked� me into the story/characters/situations.
This was my first Anne Tyler book and has this book scarred me from reading another book by the author. Probably not but this book did give a taste of her writing style/storylines which is not necessarily the type of books that I seek out.
I do think that bookclubs that enjoy reading women’s fiction, especially family dynamics storylines, will find much discuss.

As always I will be interested in hearing what the Judges have to say about the book.

nomadreader (Carrie D-L) wrote: "I rated this one four stars. Here were my thoughts on the audiobook:

Tyler drops the reader right into the Whitshank family in an unclear year. There were some clues, but I spent as much time tryi..."

I will admit that I liked the non-linear aspect of the book. I liked that characters/situations were introduced and then we learned more about the characters/situations at different time in the books.

Kay wrote: "I am very surprised people liked this book so much - this was my first Tyler book, which I read for the Man Booker nominations - and was completely underwhelmed. I really like quiet, slow books wit..."

I agree with your comments and think "underwhelmed" is the perfect word (at least for me) to describe this book.