Book Review: A Spool of Blue Thread

by: Anne Tyler

Again, I must say thank you CRDL, my favorite library.

I've never read Anne Tyler. But this book kept popping up. Amazon recommended it, Facebook friends kept it in my newsfreed. I think I must have liked her FB page as well. I don't know. But the point is, I liked the title and the cover. Don't judge a book by it's cover? Yeah, right!

So, when I saw this available digitally through my library, I snatched it up. Amazon, I love digital books. And authors, I know you give so much for your art. But economic circumstances being what they are, I can't afford $10 for a digital book that I may not even like. So, yes, I love my library.

Anyway, my point is I didn't really know much about the book just that it kept popping up. So I grabbed it.

It was amazing! It's about a family, mostly from the mom's perspective. She is thinking, remembering her family and her life. She has four children, and her boy Denny causes nothing but worry. He is forever pulling away from the family, and causing friction within it. He is just aimless, though, and not very responsible. Even when he becomes a father and gets married, he still keeps drifting.

When Abby starts losing moments, her son Stem (really Douglas) moves in with his wife and 3 boys. Abby doesn't appreciate the help. She thinks she is just fine. It does concern her, but not enough to do something about it. She just thinks she has moments when she forgets what she was doing, no big deal. Even though she gets locked out of the house during a storm in her pajamas.

The story jumps around between current events and Abby's memories. Then something big happens and the book makes a huge jump to Abby's past. When she was dating Red's friend. She has known Red since she was a child, having attended school with his sister. But something changes and she falls for him. We get to see it, and it is pretty sweet.

Then we jump again. To Red's father. How he ends up with Red's mother. And that is a look into the family history that no one else ever knew about. His father was quite closed about where he came from and completely out of touch with his family. Red and his sister didn't even know about any of them. So, what brings his father to Baltimore? How does he get the family house that everyone knows he fell in love with.

And then we move back to modern times. This last jump bothered me. It was messy and not much was resolved. But maybe that was on purpose. Life is messy and it never, ever gets resolved like it can in a book.

Over all I enjoyed this story. I truly enjoyed the pacing and Anne's writing style. It passed fast. I swear I was at 27% and next thing I knew it was finished. I didn't even realize it. So yes, if you enjoy Women's Fiction or Modern Literature. It's a story about a family in a world where no family is perfect.