#34: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

I first read Anne Tyler in college in a class taught by the most southern woman I have ever met.  Tall, blonde (well...probably gray, but blonde once upon a time), polished, proper, and very southern in her old-fashioned ways.  I could just see her sitting on a porch swing sipping sweet tea as she read book after book.  I loved her class.  And because of her (her name escapes me, sadly) I loved Anne Tyler.  Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was the first book by Tyler that I read.  I still categorize people as either "feeders" or "eaters" because of Dinner.  I am an eater.  Try as I might, I will never be a feeder.  My good friend Pam is a feeder.  So is my mother.  So is Rob.

Anyway, I love reading Tyler's novels.  They are slow, deliberate, and chock full of the most beautifully orchestrated words you will ever read.  A Spool of Blue Thread, her newest novel, is no different.  The novel is divided into four parts and it tells the story of the Whitshank family: Red and Abby and they children: Denny, Stem, Amanda, and Jeannie.  It also tells the story of their Baltimore home, a home built by Red's father and cherished in a way that only Tyler can describe, and its legacy in their family and in their town.

As often happens when I read, Rob asked what the book was about and I found that I couldn't really tell him.  It was so full of familial descriptions and background information on each family member that nothing really happened plot-wise for a long time.  And then, even when something big did happen, I realized that the events of the Whitshank family was secondary to the family itself.  This book isn't about what happens to the Whitshank family.  This book is about the existence and importance of the Whitshank family.  It reminded me of descriptions of the TV show "Seinfeld."  People always said it was a show about nothing in particular.  A Spool of Blue Thread is the same.  It's a book about nothing in particular as it surrounds the day-to-day life of the Whitshanks.  Yet, as we learn more and more about this family and their heritage and their love for one another, we realize that the real message is that families are special and important just simply because they are families.  And each person in the family, while seemingly never really doing anything out of the ordinary, is a critical part of the overall family unit.  After reading this novel, I felt special to have been a part of the family that surrounds me, as crazy as some of my relatives are, they are my family.  They made me who I am.

A Spool of Blue Thread won't be devoured in a day, and it's not a real page-turner. But, it is a beautiful story that will open your mind and heart in a way that only Tyler can do.  I am anxious to read more of her books that I picked up recently at the Green Valley Bookfair in Harrisonburg.  If you've never been, you should go.  It's worth a boring drive on 64 to get there.  :)

Happy reading, everyone!
-Dodie