A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel

I have real Anne Tyler before and have really enjoyed reading her books. I was excited to read this one as well. My main question throughout the book way, "Why?" Why did she add this add some question? Why did she jump to that subject? Why did she leave me hanging on this topic? Is she going to give closure to any of the multiple story lines she has started? In the end I was left asking, "Why did I waste my time?" Very disappointed in this one.

I found it a bit confusing at first, and there was a lot of shifting around in time periods and character studies. Although I did like the character development and back stories. The thing I liked least was the ending. I felt it just got chopped off, like there was no real future. With a story like this, I would want some hope for the characters, and it seemed like the author just got lazy and just put everybody back into the situations they started out in at the beginning of the book. Denny left and went back to his life away from his family, and they all just went their separate ways. It was kind of depressing. I'd hoped that somehow the blue thread would be like the "tie that binds", but it was just a separate afterthought.

A Spool of Blue Thread was unsettlingly familiar to me — like when you walk into a hotel lobby and just know you’ve seen that tomato-red Persian rug before. Although set in Baltimore, the characters reminded me of people and dynamics within my family and the families I grew up with in Minnesota; not exactly endearing, not exactly offensive, but in that grey area of complacency and nothing special.“The disappointment seemed to escape the family’s notice, though. That was another of their quirks: they had a talent for pretending that everything was fine. Or maybe it wasn’t a quirk at all. Maybe it was just further proof that the Whitshanks were not remarkable in any way whatsoever.”The story is one of loss — loss of youth, loss of choices, loss of direction, loss of home (however we define it), loss of love and ultimately loss of family.But there is little redemption in the losses — nothing changes. There is so growth , no lesson, no resolution.And that’s why I gave this book just three stars.The writing is at some times almost painfully poignant, like this line about growing older:“And often when she heard herself speaking she was appalled at how chirpy she sounded — how empty-headed and superficial, as if she’d somehow fallen into the Mom role in some shallow TV sitcom.”Tell me that’s not relatable!But, again, there’s the story.The first half of the book is slow but somewhat satisfying — there are enough gaps to make you wonder — if not wish for — answers in the second half. But then the second half comes, and the wrong gaps seem to be filled. I know it’s backstory, I know it should flesh out the characters, but it falls flat.By the last page, I simply didn’t care.

I tried for weeks to read this book. It just seemed to aimlessly drag on without anything to really pull me in. I couldn't even finish the entire book. I quit 50% of the way through.

The Whitshank family is a typical Baltimore family, one of blue-collar workers whose hard work has brought them success. Red is the head of his own construction firm while Abby was a social worker. Their four children are grown now and Abby and Red are slowing down as they age into their sixties. Although the children are grown, that doesn't mean there are no more sibling issues. There are resentments about who is doing more, which child was loved most, and who will help with their parents as everyone realizes that the couple may not be able to live alone much longer.The novel veers back and forth in time over the family's ages. We get the backstory of Red's parents and how they overcame a scandal and the Depression to come to Baltimore from the hill country to carve out a living. We learn how Abby and Red fell in love. We learn that even with decades of marriage, there are still secrets in the family that threaten its stability as they are revealed. We also learn about the fourth generation of Whitshanks who are Red and Abby's grandchildren.Anne Tyler is a recognized master at character development. Almost all of her books are set in Baltimore and most unravel the complexities of family life and the relationships that both sustain and threaten us. We see how families react to various events, how they are formed and what pressures can split them apart. A Spool Of Blue Thread was a Man Booker nominee as well as an Orange Prize nominee. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction and those interested in families and their relationships.

I couldn’t identify with characters. Denny is jerk. I couldn’t wait to finish reading it to see if anything ever interesting happens. Didn’t really any of the characters. Don’t recommend it unless your life it totally boring. 😩

A laconic stroll through the lives of the Whitshank family and the house their ancestor built. While this book is a slow burn, Tyler does develop the characters quite well. The reader comes to know Abby and Red and their children, as well as Red's mother and father quite well, until you realize, through flashbacks, that maybe you don't. The story centers on how the Whitshanks see themselves, how the other characters see them, and how the reader sees them - which all are a little divergent. Denny, a wayward child, seems to be the source of much of the family discord until you discover why and how. Stem is not a biological child, and what we learned about his adoption into the family eventually changes everything. We read about their patience and find it brought dissatisfaction as often as it brought satisfaction. If the end is not totally satisfying, nevertheless, the reader feels as though one has come full circle. Sibling rivalry, entrapment in marriage, compromise, uncommon acts of kindness...are all part of the spool of blue thread.

I have read a lot of Anne Tyler's books over many years and this is the first I can remember that left me feeling disappointed. There was nothing wrong with the characters or the setting, but the structure really annoyed me. Start with an elderly couple living in their dream home but needing 'help'. Bring in one of their children and his family to help out then introduce the missing son with chips on both shoulders to stir things up. (By the way, what happened to the 'gay' plotline that went NOWHERE with Denny). Throw in the two daughters and their families and wait for it all to explode.And then, just as we've come to know them all, chuck in a horrible accident and then whizz back 50-60 years to tell us how Abby and Red got together. Then just as you're getting used to that, whizz back a couple more decades and introduce Red's parents, Junior and Linnie Mae (surely the most irritating character in any book for many a year). I found it really irritating.Had Taylor simply stuck to the tail of Abby and Red and their children, there's a nice story in here. Maybe if she'd throw in the 'how they met' as part of the main story that might also have worked. But Junior and Linnie Mae were just a step TOO far. As for the 'end' when it finally came, it was really not much of an ending at all.It's been said that nobody writes families better than Anne Tyler. Sadly this one just gave me the sense that she got lost somewhere along the way. As others have said, it really did 'unravel' - and there was no particular reason for it to be called 'A Spool of Blue Thread' as nothing really sewed this together.

Wow. I've sadly never read a novel by Anne Tyler before, and I didn't realise what I had been missing. There are a number of her novels in the 'library' downstairs, and they have been added to my (ever-growing) to-read pile. (Whether I'll ever get to them is another matter...)How does what is, essentially, a very normal family, and a normal life make such compelling reading? A Spool of Blue Thread explores the Whitshank family, starting with the matriarch, Abby. A very ordinary day with her four children, husband and assorted grandchildren on the porch, as she smiles through the much told story of how she and Red met. Time passes, and Abby and Red begin to age, in the normal, run of the mill way, that people do. The ordinary horror of how her children deal with this, how they can move from the house so meticulously built by Red's father, is fleshed out in a lot of detail, with tit bits emerging from their childhood, and old rivalries resurfacing. We learn about Abby and Red's parents, their childhoods. We learn the ins and outs, the celebrations, remorse, and closely kept secrets of the Whitshank family, and this novel is un-put-downable. It is the first time in a long while that I have had to slow myself down whilst reading because I couldn't bear to reach the end.So, again I ask: how does something so banal make compelling reading? It is Tyler's genius. The telling details, the humour, the tiny glances and hand gestures that leave you craving her writing. Starting the novel and only a few pages in, I felt a sort of relaxed state come over me: I was in good hands. I trusted Tyler to take me wherever she was going, and I knew what followed would be nothing but brilliant.An exemplary book: my winner for The Man Booker.

I discovered Anne Tyler earlier this year and have read 5 or 6 of her books, soon understanding why her fans love her. I got the impression that this was considered one of her best.The writing is beautiful but you do need some sort of substance too in a novel! Here the structure is just plain wrong. It starts with the story of Red and Abby towards the end of their lives and then steps back a generation to when they met and then it steps back another generation to how Red's parents met.I once read a story by Anita Shreeve, I believe, that went backwards and it worked well but this one didn't.A second issue is that the book ends so unexpectedly that it felt as though the author had died leaving it unfinished. The last chapter is followed by an extract from another novel. I thought I'd skipped a chapter or that my Kindle copy was faulty.5 stars then for the beautiful prose but 1 star for the plot, average 3 stars.

I listened to the audiobook of A Spool of Blue Thread and really really enjoyed it. Many of the other reviews mention that the book doesn't really "go" anywhere, theres no real conclusion and that's true. It's a winding tale of several generations of the same family, moving back and forward. Although its not a fast paced book, I really looked forward to the next page and enjoyed every part of it. Its probably an ideal beach book or a curl up by the fire read, just a nice easy read which I would thoroughly recommend.

I love Anne Tyler with a big love, so there was never any doubt about my enjoying this. She does that thing so brilliantly, of presenting you with a family, and then getting inside the nuts and bolts of how they relate, while not very much happens. They are such ordinary families in Anne Tyler's books, yet they always think of themselves as extraordinary, as special and admired and unique. Are all families like this? I suspect so, to a degree. I know mine are, which is why so many of Anne Tyler's books strike a chord.I'm not going to say much more. This is beautifully written (of course) full of under-stated humour and gentle irony. It's twisty and turny in a gentle way, and the characters are multi-faceted, and so unbelievably real. The narrative jumps about a bit, and that's one of the very few things I wasn't so keen on. And though less is more, I know that, still I wanted more - in particular on Denny.This isn't her absolute best, though I'm measuring her against an incredibly high standard. If you've never read any Anne Tyler before, start with The Accidental Tourist or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. But it is classic Anne Tyler, and I am already looking forward to her next, while looking her back catalogue out at the same time.