Spend time with a wonderful, dysfunctional family that isn't yours: A Spool of Blue Thread

A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler

Fast Facts

• An immediately engrossing, wonderful portrait of the Whitshank family and their patriarch's dream home in a suburb of Baltimore
• This is Anne Tyler's 20th novel, but the first I've read, and surely not the last
• A perfect book to read after you've recovered from family time over the holidays
• 370 pages
• Shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker
• Sweet and highly recommended - you'll recognize some of your own family members in the Whitshanks, and feel as close to the characters as though you were a member of their salt-of-the-earth clan

Family Stories that Become Folklore

Tyler's lovely book is solidly founded on family folklore - the anecdotes you tell and re-tell one another at every Thanksgiving, and the examples you use to define and explain your family members to an interested friend or acquaintance.  The one about the sibling who ate all the Christmas cookies and hid the crumbs under his pillow, the one about the drunken uncle's hilarious wedding speech, etc.

The novel opens with ageing married couple Red and Abby Whitshank, lying in bed waiting for their estranged son Denny to call them back after he has called to say that he's gay and then immediately hung up, never to mention the topic again.

This is the first of many Whitshank anecdotes that feel familiar and real without being stereotypical.  Within paragraphs, you are enveloped in the comforting habits and quirks of Red and Abby's decades-long marriage, and you've begun to understand Denny's moody tendency to bolt at the first sign of conflict.

The House that Junior Built

The book revolves around the home Junior, Red's father, built for another family but eventually moved into himself.  The house becomes a character in its own right, its merits and flaws both a setting and a metaphor for the little family dramas it hosts.

Each question posed by the family home opens the door to a story that is ordinary in its subject matter and extraordinary in its compassionate, lovely, raw telling.  How did Red's parents end up in the home that raised four generations?  How do adult siblings deal with one another and with parents growing older, with bodies and minds beginning to fray?  What was on Abby's mind the day she and Red fell in love?  What is it like to be on the Whitshanks' annual beach vacation?  What does it mean to join and truly be part of a family?

Tyler has built her novel with as much care as Junior built the Whitshank home.  Every time a story had reached the end of its narrative (blue) thread, the scope or generation of focus would seamlessly shift, and Tyler would fill in a detail previously only hinted at that would feel crucial and satisfying.

I enjoyed every moment I spent with the Whitshanks - if you're looking for something to fill the hole in your time and heart after the Neapolitan novels, this is the book to start with.