A Spool of Blue Thread

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

The passage of time. "How slow it is when you're little  and how it speeds up faster once you're grown."

Once again, distinguished author Anne Tyler spins a tale of family conflict and endearing love. The book opens in 1994 with Red and Abby Whitshank lamenting a phone call from 19-year-old son Denny, the child who continues to mystify them with his wanderlust ways. Flitting from city to city, job to job, Abby agonizes over her misfit son. He's so different from their other children; domineering Amanda, Jeannie with her low self-esteem, and steady Stem, the secret pride of his father, much to Denny's chagrin.

Set in Baltimore, the story of the Whitshank family enfolds. Red is the patriarch of a successful construction company, painstakingly and lovingly built by his father, Junior. When Red suffers a heart attack and Abby has increasing episodes of "mind slips", the family must rally to the rescue of their aging parents.

A sudden death now allows the author to go back in time, tracing the origins of the Whitshank family. The story of  Red's parents, Junior and Linnie, is particularly engaging, as is the warm love affair that started as friendship between Red and Abby.

As Abby says, "We're young for such a small fraction of our lives, and yet our youth seems to stretch on forever. Then we're old for years and years, but time flies by fastest then. So it all comes out equal in the end...."  

How true. Anne Tyler writes a story of an ordinary family with extraordinary strength. Although the chapters are disjointed at times, I encourage you to continue reading if you are looking for a tender tale of four generations, written with style.