A spool of blue thread

No cover — Anne Tyler: A spool of blue thread (2015)

549 pages

English language

Published Jan. 14, 2015

ISBN:: 978-0-8041-9472-3
OCLC Number:: 885228496

(1 review)

"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 …

"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.

17 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed A spool of blue thread by Anne Tyler

Not my favourite Tyler

4 stars

I received a copy of A Spool Of Blue Thread from its publishers, Random House, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

A Spool Of Blue Thread has been much hyped recently as a result of its shortlisting for the Booker prize this year. It is very typical Anne Tyler fare - family centred, in Baltimore, strong on characterisation, buried secrets - but there is little in the way of overarching narrative to hold it all together. Instead this is a meandering work that wanders off to different people and eras, always returning to the main thread but without any sense of a plan. It's more of a Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant and certainly not a Ladder Of Years.

Perhaps I am being harsh? A Spool Of Blue Thread isn't a bad book, but I did find it rather dull and had expected more from Tyler. There are …

I received a copy of A Spool Of Blue Thread from its publishers, Random House, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

A Spool Of Blue Thread has been much hyped recently as a result of its shortlisting for the Booker prize this year. It is very typical Anne Tyler fare - family centred, in Baltimore, strong on characterisation, buried secrets - but there is little in the way of overarching narrative to hold it all together. Instead this is a meandering work that wanders off to different people and eras, always returning to the main thread but without any sense of a plan. It's more of a Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant and certainly not a Ladder Of Years.

Perhaps I am being harsh? A Spool Of Blue Thread isn't a bad book, but I did find it rather dull and had expected more from Tyler. There are interesting interludes and the discovery of the Linnie Mae and Junior relationship especially is cleverly done. If you enjoy big family sagas where everything gets resolved around the dining table then you might enjoy the book more than I did. I just thought it all felt too formulaic.

Subjects

Family secrets
Aging parents
Reminiscing in old age
Grandparent and child
Inheritance and succession
Fiction

Places

Baltimore (Md.)