What are the main themes of the novel? Which did you find most thought-provoking?
The novel opens and closes with Denny. Do you think he’s the main character? If not, who is?
We don’t learn the full significance of the title until nearly (on page 350). How did this delay make the metaphor more powerful? What is the metaphor?
On page 10, Tyler writes, “Well, of course they did hear from him again. The Whitshanks weren’t a *melodramatic* family.” What type of family are they? Compare the way you see them with the way they see themselves.
Chapter 2 begins with the Whitshank family stories: “These stories were viewed as quintessential—as *defining*, in some way—and every family member, including Stem’s three-year-old, had heard them told and retold and embroidered and conjectured upon any number of times.” (page 40) Why are these two stories so important? Why is the story of Red’s sister important to Red’s family?
“Patience, in fact, was what the Whitshanks imagined to be the theme of their two stories—patiently lying in wait for what they believed should come to them.” (page 57) Others might say it was envy or disappointment. Which interpretation makes the most sense to you? Can you think of another linking theme?
How does Abby’s story about the day she fell in love with Red fit into the Whitshank family history? Why isn’t it one of the family’s two defining stories?
Much is made of Abby’s “orphans,” which we learn also include Stem. What does her welcoming of strangers into her home say about her character? How do the others’ responses set up a subtle contrast?
Discuss the character Denny. Why is he so resentful of Stem? Why is he so secretive about his life?
Do Red and Abby have favorite children and grandchildren? Who do you think each one favors?
On page 151, Tyler writes about Abby: “She had always assumed that when she was old, she would have total confidence, finally. But look at her: still uncertain.” Do you think Abby’s family sees her as uncertain or lacking in confidence? Why?
Abby dies suddenly in an accident, just like Red’s parents did. When it came to his parents, “Red was of the opinion that instantaneous death was a mercy…” (page 153) Do you think he felt the same way after Abby’s death?
Why didn’t Abby tell Red about Stem’s mother? Why didn’t Denny tell Stem? And why, after they learn the truth, does Stem make Red and Denny promise not to tell anyone else?
At Abby’s funeral, Reverend Alban speculates that heaven may be “a vast consciousness that the dead return to,” bringing their memories with them. (page 189) What do you think of his theory? What do you imagine Abby would say about it?
Why did Red’s pausing to count the rings on the felled poplar make Abby fall in love with him?
The novel isn’t structured chronologically. How does Tyler use shifts in time to reveal character and change the reader’s perception?
What is the significance of the porch swing? What does it tell us about Linnie Mae and Junior?
After reading their story, how did your opinion of Linnie Mae change?
The Whitshank house, built by Junior and maintained by Red, is practically a character in the novel. What does it mean to the Whitshank family? Why, in the end, does it seem easy for Red to leave?
On the train at the end of the novel, Denny sits next to a teenage boy who cries quietly. What is the significance of this scene?
I love Anne Tyler. I own every book she has written, but I really didn’t love this book. When I was running through the list of questions and came across this one. I immediately started on the the answers. “An annoying family?” “An unbelievable family?” The characters are either underdeveloped (Denny’s sisters) or just plain opaque (Denny) or too good to be true (Stem) until of course he isn’t, or just so annoying that I didn’t enjoy spending time with them.
I too thought there should be some resolution to Denny’s “I’m gay” announcement. If you are going to have the book jump around in time so much, surely the opening should mean something. But apparently all it means is Denny likes to jerk his parents chains.
I was just okay with this book. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. It kept my interest, but it never really ends, which I guess was done on purpose. It’s a story about the Whitshanks life, so it continues as long as one of them is living. Just like Abbey and Jeannie’s conversation.
What kind of family are the Whitshanks? Overall, they are probably pretty ordinary. Actually, maybe a little sadder than ordinary.
To me the book’s about the stories we tell others and ourselves: recounting and reshaping to suit. Caraid’s quote above follows along those lines. Of course, “… there is no ending” and yet in a way we want there to be one.
It reminds me somewhat of the end of Possession where Ash meets the daughter he doesn’t know he has. The message he sends to Christabel with the little girl gets lost in her joy of the day. No one (historians) will ever know of that encounter and yet it changes things. No one other than Linnie and Junior know their story - pieces of it maybe but not the whole picture. I’m not sure that either Linnie or Junior know their story and certainly their pieces don’t exactly fit together.
Denny’s pronouncement didn’t bother me. He keeps the apple cart wobbling, sort of his role in the family.
Like Mary Abby’s death didn’t bother me. Well, it did in a way (not meaning to sound callous) but it moves the story away from a Still Alice novel and into newer territory.
Agree with the weaknesses listed above. I liked the book, Anne Tyler’s story telling, more after I finished it, because parts seem to bog down.
Mary 13 /Math mom “thought there should be some resolution to Denny’s “I’m gay” announcement.”
Interesting about Denny’s announcement,
which I thought was handled very cleverly by Tyler. She led us to believe, he was gay, emphasizing those secretive phone calls.
Denny didn’t " fit" in, and had he been the adopted child, we might understand it more.
So his announcement of being gay, at the beginning seemed justification for his alienation.
At the end, the reveal that he wasn’t gay,
seemed to explain, just how mix matched he was to the family.
A kid who is/ was so alienated, he made up a " reason".
I believe he might be bipolar, and there are deeper issues with Denny.
Denny certainly seemed to suffer from Stem being added to the family. I thought it was interesting that Abbey thought she paid more attention to Denny than her other children, but Denny felt he got the least attention. It upset me that Denny listened to Stem cry in bed as a little boy, but still felt himself to be the victim. Same with the crying boy on the train. Denny understood sadness. He was the one crying in bed at boarding school. He understood, but didn’t have empathy. Boarding school must have added to his feeling of separation from the others. Do we know if any of his siblings went to boarding school? Did Stem? I agree he has deeper psychological issues.
By the time I got to the second half of the book, I’d completely forgotten about being Denny maybe being gay! I thought it was annoying that we never found out more about Denny, except for that little bone that Tyler threw us at the end. I especially found it annoying that Abby never found out more about that son of hers.
I have read other Anne Tylers that I liked, but I really didn’t like this one very much. There were too many minimally developed characters and too little happened.
I wanted to stop reading after Abby died and I realized that Tyler was going to go back and fill in some family history that didn’t seem very interesting to me at first. I feared that as little would happen in the second half of the book as in the first half! As it turned out, the story of Linnie was perhaps the best part of the book. I’d give A Spool of Blue Thread a B- or a C+ overall, especially in comparison to Tyler’s other work that I have read.
The fact that Denny never told Stem about his real mother, made me respect him, and was pivotal in my feelings about him. Despite being jealous of Stem, he was kind in keeping the " secret".
Ignatius, interesting comparison to Possession- what a great memory!
Edit from. Above post mismatched
Abby’s death was shocking, jarring, but as Ignatius mentioned this didn’t become a story about dementia, another clever twist. I didn’t see it coming.
** 2. The novel opens and closes with Denny. Do you think he’s the main character? If not, who is?**
Denny is. Thread in the fabric of this story, but I think Linnie was the main character, and the house.
My real life book club discussed this book a couple of weeks ago. The group consists mainly of teachers, principals, and school counselors. They agreed that they’d all known a “Denny” - the kid with the chip on his shoulder, always slightly toeing the line of anger issues but never quite fitting the diagnosis. A hard-to-reach child for parents, teachers, and other children … just when it looks as though progress is being made, the child steps away from it.
I think the house takes on the role of main character. One and all project their feelings about life and family onto it. It represents one thing to Junior, another to Red, and still another to Denny. It becomes more than an inanimate object. I love the last image of it with the ghosts dancing on the porch.
I’m going with the house as the main character, although I can see arguments for Linnie, Abbey, and Junior. Junior because he started it all. He brought the family to the house.
There were things I liked - the fact that Junior so desperately wanted the house he built. The fight about the swing. All the fussing about who would sleep where when Stem and family move in, and definitely the ghosts on the porch.
Amusingly we are in the process of adding a screen porch to the house. We have a very gray cedar swing that we could hang on the new porch and the idea of painting it Swedish blue is kind of appealing. (And yes my mother always painted her porch ceilings blue - something else that annoyed Junior.)
I think the spirit of Abby runs through all three chapters; if I had to pick a main character out of this ensemble cast, it would be her. But I agree it’s the house that figures prominently in each section.
Yes. The family members loved each other, but they didn’t seem to enjoy each other’s company, and no one was very content. Except perhaps Nora. She was kind of an enigma.
What did you think of Junior? I disliked him immensely, but I also pitied him. Linnie was a little pit bull–just took hold and wouldn’t let go. I wonder why she adored Junior so, but then I’ve wondered at the pairing of couples in real life, too. Sometimes, there’s just no accounting for it.
Do you think Junior and Linnie were ever even officially married? I can’t quite see him saying those vows.
I wondered if Linnie and Junior married. I think not. Linnie was part pit bull, but she always loved Junior and was very honest about it. I like her. I don’t like Junior at all. Not only did he disregard Linnie’s age, he was mean and weak. He wanted what he didn’t have and never allowed himself to be happy with what he did have, a wife and family who loved him, a successful career… Now that I think about it, Junior was another person, like Denny, who didn’t have empathy. I guess we know who Denny takes after.
I don’t think Junior and Linnie Mae ever married, only because Linnie Mae doesn’t seem to care about the formality of it. I’m of the opinion that if Linnie Mae wanted marriage, she’d get it.
Back to Denny for a minute: Abby tries so hard to pull Denny back in to family. Linnie Mae shrugs away Merrick’s disregard:
One parenting style vs. another but they both end with Merrick/Denny being Merrick/Denny. Linnie Mae’s comment amused me. She certainly wasn’t worrying herself over Merrick’s lack of familial love.
To give the devil his due, he didn’t know about her age until after the horse was out of the barn, so to speak. And then he tried to disentangle himself, but he was no match for Linnie. She had such a distorted view of their relationship, viewing them as Romeo and Juliet: “Oh, we had one of the world’s great love stories, in our little way!” I agree with Abby: “It was all too extreme and disturbing” (p. 249).
What did you think of Junior’s secret that he never loved Linnie and that he makes a great sacrifice to stay with her?
I think he’s deluding himself. Junior would be lost without Linnie, not the other way around. You get a glimpse of this when he can’t handle her being angry with him:
I think that’s a rare instance where Junior seems somewhat likable. Also, although he doesn’t show it well, he loves Red and Merrick:
I don’t know, Mary. Junior knew she was thirteen the day he was caught with her by her family. It also seems he suspected she was young earlier, but chose to not pursue the truth.
June greetings to you all! I listened to the book a few months back, so any comments I have will definitely be of the “what remains” variety. Overall, I did enjoy the book, although I thought at first I might not last because of the reader’s voice, lol. Red and Abby sounded like annoying bumpkins, imo, in the audio version. Fortunately I got past the narrator, for the most part, and got caught up in the story.
I thought the main characters were Abby, and of course, the house on its surrounding property.
Of Junior, I too agree that he needed Linnie more than she needed him.
[quote]
She had set out to snag him and succeeded without half trying…He saw her yanking his whole life around the way she would yank a damp sweater that she had pulled out of the washtub to block and reshape.
He supposed he should be glad of that last part./quote
I’m going to play a bit of a devil’s advocate here and say that Junior didn’t need Libbie. Yes, she did yank him into something more in her image, but he was doing pretty well before she got to Baltimore. Maybe he would have achieved less materially, but I think he’d have been much happier. All that said, I did like the fact that he loved his children and tried to give them more than he’d been given. I felt like once we got to the part of the book where we got his POV he became a much more sympathetic character.
She’s very selective about whose thoughts we get. I don’t think we ever know what Denny is thinking.
Do you think Junior’s need to have the house, and what he perceived as a better life, came about after he had children? Was it the children that made him more materialistic? I don’t think Linnie needed more.
