A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD (Anne Tyler)

I'm not really sure if I loved Tyler's latest, but I feel somehow that this might indicate a lack in me rather than a fault with the novel.  I've read a lot of Anne Tyler over the years and I greatly enjoy her quirky view of ordinary life.  This one has all of the personalities that you might expect from this wonderful novelist.  As in other Tyler novels, everyone walks the fine line between good and bad, likable and repulsive, enigmatic or just plain boring.  The focus here is on the Whitshank home and the family that has occupied it for years.  Abby and Red Whitshank raised their family in this home, originally built by Red's father, Junior Whitshank, for the Brills, a local family who soon decided that the house was not right for them.  Junior purchased the home and moved his reluctant wife, Linny, and two children, Red and Merrick, into his dream home, where Red will eventually raise his family.

Red and Abby have 4 children, efficient, businesslike lawyer Amanda, sweet, maternal Jeannie, Denny, the black sheep, and Stem (Douglas), who has the talent and drive to take over his father's building business someday.  Denny is the on who comes and goes.  We are first introduced to his character when he calls to tell his parents that he is gay, but then he is getting married, then a father, then divorced, working here and there at all sorts of jobs, usually out of range of his family, disappearing for years at a time, seemingly resentful and dysfunctional and unable to sustain any sort of log-term commitment.  There are several surprises regarding the Whitshank family.  I won't reveal them here for fear of ruining them for you, but one involves Junior and Linny's relationship and the other, youngest son Stem.  All in all, there is a lot going on, all of it thought-provoking, some of it confusing.  I still have questions about the title.  The "spool of blue thread" makes a brief appearance in the novel after a death.  I have obvious theories about its significance: the thread of love linking Red and Abby, or perhaps family history, or maybe even the unraveling of the Whitshank family.  All I know is that, although it wasn't my favorite book of all time, any novel that makes you think and wonder is worth reading!