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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

The family at home: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

10/2/2015

22 Comments

 
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If I say this is a novel about a house, and the secrets it harbours, would that give the impression it’s about bricks and mortar (and, in this case, a lot of wood) rather than people? But I want you to avoid the disorientation I experienced for the first few chapters as I tried to grasp hold of the plot. Okay, I thought, eavesdropping on a father’s abrupt phone call from his semi-estranged son, this is a novel about the black sheep of the family, the prodigal son. But no, soon we were fast forwarding twenty years, with Red, the father, suffering a heart murmur, and Abby, the mother, on the verge of dementia, into a story about getting to grips with old age. But then the tail veers off into the story of Red’s father, Junior Whitshank, a perfectionist carpenter who built the family house on commission long before he could have afforded to live in it, and was more devoted to it than he was to his wife. It took another diversion into a surprise revelation about the youngest of Red and Abby’s four children before I could allow myself to give up my search for the plot and enjoy the ride. Like the cruising teenagers depicted on the cover, you don’t read this novel to get to a particular destination (although it does have an ending consistent with both the prodigal son and ageing parents non-plots) but to enjoy the company along the way.

Anne Tyler is one of the grande dames of American literature, having published nineteen other novels over the last fifty years. Her characters live and breathe from the moment you meet them on the page. They’re deeply flawed, but rarely malicious, and she dispenses difficulties among them with a wry humour. For example, in A Spool of Blue Thread, Abby and her daughters bend over backwards to welcome Denny’s new wife, who is clearly not their type, for a Christmas visit (p26):

They complimented every single thing about Carla they could think of, including the tattoo of her dog’s name in the bend of her left arm.

She’s in her element exposing the small tensions of family life (p117):

The Whitshanks held two opposing opinions about what to do with their wakeful hours, and they had long ago argued the subject into the ground.

While I enjoyed meeting the family over the three generations they lived in the house, as deeper and deeper secrets were revealed, the scant plot meant I didn’t rate it as highly as other novels of hers I’ve read. And the son-in-law’s plan to establish a travel agency for hyper-anxious travellers like his cousin (p111):

She packs everything, for every possible eventuality. She thinks her house mysteriously senses that she’s about to leave it; she says that just hours before a trip it will spring a leak or develop a sewage backup or a malfunction in the burglar alarm. The instruction she writes for the dog sitter are practically novels. She starts to suspect her cat has diabetes.

had me yearning to read The Accidental Tourist, my all-time favourite, once more.

Savour this novel for the fine writing and beautiful characterisation but, if you haven’t come across Anne Tyler before, you might be better off meeting her first in one of her earlier novels. (Alternatively, in addition, check out this excellent review from Eric Anderson, The Lonesome Reader, which I came across after I’d drafted mine. He identifies Anne Tyler’s novels as being about the horrific fear underlying genteel middle-class Baltimore life; in A Spool of Blue Thread that fear is about the discovery that everything the family relies on was acquired on the sly.) Thanks to Chatto and Windus for my review copy.

I wasn’t going to mention Red’s sister, Merrick, but, given that Charli Mills is calling for 99-word stories about nutty aunts, I decided to give her character another think. She’s probably the least happy of the family, having stolen her best friend’s boyfriend in order to marry into wealth, and never seems entirely comfortable on her fleeting visits to the family home. But I feel it’s more in keeping with the spirit of Anne Tyler to base my own flash around my long-dead quirky aunt whose name I’ve given to the mother in Sugar and Snails (although my aunt was much nicer). It’s more memoir (which you know is not my thing) than fiction, more sketch than story, but here goes:

Your green shoes damned convention. You read everything from cereal packets to Tolstoy with the print barely inches from your eyes. Faddy new diets swallowed your widow’s pension, yet you baked for days before our visits, your table groaning with scones, seed cake and gingerbread, as if you liked our noise descending on your home.

Your friend was a clown in a circus; he sent you postcards from his tours. Your favourite dress still hangs in my wardrobe, though, even at sixteen, I couldn’t do up the zip.

I wish I could ask if you wore it for him.

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Not sure why I didn't include the image for the prompt alongside this post originally, but it's sprung up again six years later, with a prompt from DAvery standing in for the Ranch boss. And since she's calling for 99-word stories about substitutions, I thought it would be in keeping with the spirit of the game to post mine here. A crazy flash for crazy times. This one (below) composed in 2021:
Sometimes a dog is just a dog
 
A friend’s new puppy steals the show at our Zoom session.
A substitute child.
Mutts a-leaping fracture my thoughts and scare my muse from my morning walk.
A substitute for purpose – a dog’s a god – in aimless times.
Government wags the daily vaccine stats. Opposition barks the death toll.
Their substitute for crisis management: Getting Brexit Done!
Yet Sigmund, whose habit killed him, declared: Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.
Even he succumbed to canine charms eventually and leant on man’s best friend to soothe his aching jaw. The world’s awash with substitutions. So should I get a…?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
22 Comments
Sherri Matthews link
10/2/2015 03:45:43 am

Hello Anne, I admit that I've not heard of Anne Tyler's books but you have me hooked. Your review makes for great reading, love how you select certain passages to illustrate your thoughts about the story as it unfolds, and how the author creates the underlying tensions of family life. My cup of tea that! I also wanted to say how much I enjoyed your delicious flash...oh the story burning in my imagination from so few words, just wonderful! ~ Sherri

Reply
Annecdotist
10/2/2015 05:35:28 am

Thanks, Sherri. It's been said that this is Anne Tyler's last novel but fortunately she has many for you to choose from. Do give her a try!

Reply
Eric link
10/2/2015 04:42:56 am

Great to read your thoughts! Your mention of the house has got me thinking more about how the house is really a character itself at the centre of the novel. And you're right in the wonderful touches of humour that Tyler adds in. Interesting that The Accidental Tourist is your favourite - I think mine would still be Ladder of Years.

Thanks for the compliment and mentioning my review as well. (just fyi, I think the link you included goes to another article rather than my review)

Reply
Annecdotist
10/2/2015 05:39:12 am

Thank you, Eric. I haven't read The Ladder of Years, so thanks for your recommendation.
My apologies for the incorrect link and thanks for flagging it up so that I could fix it. Seems like unconsciously I didn't really want my readers zooming off to visit your blog as I'd linked it back to another post of mine. However, I'll be popping over as often as I can.

Reply
Charli Mills link
10/2/2015 02:48:27 pm

Not a fan of Anne Tyler. Her writing is superb, but her books feel stuffy, something about American literature that I don't like. Perhaps I need to read something recent of hers to reevaluate my old college days opinion.

Your flash is a vibrant sketch and last line says more about her than all your delicious details. She hid her true sell it seems, except perhaps in her choice of shoes.

An interesting side thought about the baking -- I've known people who bake like that (for others) but don't even take a nibble. An odd thing. I love to cook and bake for guests as a way to welcome people to my home, but I'm right there eating it, too! I like community at the table! :-)

Reply
Annecdotist
11/2/2015 02:14:40 am

Thank you, Charli. I'd be interested to know more about what you mean by "stuffy". I think there's something in her writing about things might get bad but they'll never be unbearable, so can seem a little complacent, but I nevertheless enjoy her style.
Interesting point about the baking, I hadn't thought to link it with her perpetual diets, despite knowing that people with eating disorders often feed others as a substitute for feeding themselves. Not sure it was like that with my aunt, although I might be being overprotective. I was thinking about the diets more in terms of my mother being quite scathing about her gullibility in buying expensive substitutes for real food instead of eating less.

Reply
Charli Mills link
12/2/2015 03:29:18 pm

It was one of her short stories and it was among a tome modern literature that overall expressed a pretentious tone -- the lives of people that I didn't relate to. I had discovered other modern writers of diversity and felt that they broke the mold of what was upper white literature. Totally my bias from college days and I can't even recall the story! But I recall the works of Toni Morrison, Sherman Alexie and James Welch which moved me in different ways. Which is why I think I should reconsider reading Anne Tyler.

My favorite family to share meals with is a large Caribbean family who live in Minnesota. Many cooks in the kitchen, tons of flavorful food, long meals at the table with laughter, conversation and endless food and no one ever mentioned diets! :-)

Annecdotist
13/2/2015 09:19:44 am

Oh, yes, I get you, that white middle-class thing that assumes all people are like them. I don't tend to experience that jarring so much in my reading these days, hope it doesn't mean I'm too complacent, although it might do. The last time I recall was Rose Tremain in The Road Home, which did very well but to me seemed to be written by someone who hadn't a clue what it was like to be an Eastern European immigrant, it was too nicey- nicey for my liking.
Perhaps you should do a post bringing down those American icons

Norah Colvin link
11/2/2015 03:19:22 am

Hi Anne, I haven't read any of Anne Tyler's books, but I do like the sound of this one. I do love reading about people, their ideas and relationships; and dysfunctional families are right up my alley!! The list of books I'd like to, but probably never will, read grows longer every time I read your blog.
I love your flash. Your aunt sounds intriguing. How sad it is that when we finally find things of interest about our older generations they have often gone from us and our questions remain unanswered. Your choice of words in the flash is so tight that it creates a very vivid image of the aunt who is anything but conventional. What fun she would be!
Who is the 'him' in the final sentence - your uncle or the clown?

Reply
Annecdotist
12/2/2015 04:55:23 am

I agree, Norah, dysfunctional families of the most interesting, though I’d rather find them on the page than in real life.
Glad you liked the flash. I never knew this uncle and only knew my aunt as a widow. I think the clown was genuinely a friend, but as a teenager I wanted there to be more in it. I think. Seems a long time ago but I’ve enjoyed reflecting on her character. Wondering now if I could put more than her name into my fiction.

Reply
geoff link
11/2/2015 12:24:09 pm

As I read down the comments I thought, 'Here we go, Le Pard is the only philistine who doesn't like Anne Tyler' and bingo, good old Charli is with me! Linda raves about her so I dutifully read two, one being the Accidental Tourist and yes she writes beautifully and the characters are well drawn but the stories.... yawn. I struggled with the plot in TAT so heaven knows what I'd make of this. I think there's probably more happening on a CCTV in our local Waitrose car park than... Enough. Even if you'd raved I'm afraid I have too few books left in me to waste more time on Ms T. So that's Frantzen and Tyler where we depart. Who else amongst the American greats of the 20th to 21st C? Roth? Bellow? Heller? Updike?!! Who cares when you review so well?
And then you craft that beautiful little FF piece and I smile.

Reply
Annecdotist
12/2/2015 05:02:20 am

What a wonderful line, more happening on the Waitrose car park CCTV! Well, aren't you lucky having a Waitrose, my nearest is 20 miles away so not so easy to pop in.
I think it's helpful when people don't go with the flow and cheerlead for the "greats", can help think about their qualities good and bad. Personally, I can't tolerate Marilynne Robinson, I ploughed through Home and it gave me the creeps. A long time since I've read any of those Great American Men and, while I enjoyed Philip Roth, at least what I've read, I do think he's overrated, probably the male thing. I'm reading a lesser Great American Man at the moment, Richard Bausch, and enjoying him. Review coming up soon and looking forward to seeing if you disagree!

Reply
Geoff link
13/2/2015 12:55:16 am

agree re Roth. Bellow is just odd. Updike has had his moments. Of the modern US women authors I've enjoyed Tartt if a bit long winded Joyce Oates is pretty good I love Annie Proulx.. Shipping News has the best opening two pages of any book in terms of setting up the characters...

Reply
Annecdotist
13/2/2015 09:25:00 am

Haha, I thought I'd better Google Saul Bellow before publicly stating I thought he was okay – turns out I've confused him with Stanley Baldwin and haven't read any of his novels as it turns out. Therefore better keep quiet about Joyce Carol Oates (who I've definitely read but won't know what without googling or consulting my shelves) and while I am familiar with The Shipping News, I don't think I've actually read it!

Reply
Paula link
13/2/2015 06:30:28 am

I sometimes wonder if The Accidental Tourist was the best Tyler I read because it was the first, or because I actually "read" it on recorded books and it was a good recording, or because of the peculiar circumstances of my life at that particular time. I've also read The Amateur Marriage and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and as I was reading your review I was sort of pegging other characters into those books, and wondering if she was writing her last book because she really doesn't have anything more to say in the niche she has carved out. My experience of the other books is that they are flawed overall, and I am usually disappointed because they don't measure up to The Accidental Tourist, but have beautiful, perfect moments within them that stick with me. At the end of The Amateur Marriage, for example, when Michael Anton is walking - is it after the funeral of Pauline? - and the cadence of his limp echoes a phrase inside his own head - "I THINK so, but I don't KNOW so..." At least that's how I remember it; I don't have the book on my shelves to check.

That bit of flash fiction about your aunt is absolutely perfect. Perhaps you are my new Accidental Tyler.

Reply
Annecdotist
13/2/2015 09:32:05 am

I've consulted my bookshelves and you're right about the end of The Amateur Marriage, it was actually the first of hers I read but I have no memory of the story at all, not even reading through the blurb on the back. Could well be that she's run out of characters, but if they're all overlapping types there may be an infinite resource. While I enjoyed this read, I was certainly glad to read something a bit edgier afterwards.
Thanks for your kind feedback on my flash, and looking forward to a new role as Accidental Tyler, sounds fun 😉

Reply
Irene Waters link
13/2/2015 10:52:53 pm

I've read an Anne Tyler but I neither remember the title or the story line. This sounds perhaps a little too non-plot for me but then perhaps the spool of blue thread holds them all together.
Your flash certainly captured the heartache of the deed she'd done.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/2/2015 10:29:23 am

Actually, no, Irene! The blue thread links to a shirt that needed a small repair that was infrequently worn. Of course, it might just have been intended as a metaphorical linking but, the more comments I'm getting, the more problems with this novel are being thrown up! 😐

Reply
Jerry link
22/1/2019 07:35:05 pm

Have just read this book for bookgroup I am in. I have never read any of her book so I had no preconceptions. I enjoyed it and can see why her writing warranted the Pulitzer Prize. I disagree with you and think that the blue thread is a metaphor for the ties that bind families through the generations. As an artist blue isymbolic for the truth and where indeed does the truth lie in this book. Whilst there may not be a plot as such there is certainly more action, events and interesting character than happen or appear in my local Waitrose carpark.

Anne Goodwin
23/1/2019 07:02:30 am

Thanks for sharing, Jerry. Glad you enjoyed your first Anne Tyler -- there are plenty more. That's a great point about the blue thread, but that wasn't enough for me. Off to Waitrose now (not really, I live in a Morrisons area)!

Goldie link
13/2/2021 04:47:50 pm

Sometimes a dog is just a dog indeed. You raise a great issue regarding people using a dog to patch up a hole... I just hope that all those people getting dogs right now don't get tired of them (and then throw them away) in a few months.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/2/2021 11:25:42 am

Yes, a lockdown dog isn't much difference from getting a puppy for Christmas. On the other hand, dogs can be great therapy, as long as people realise it works two ways. Not that I'm ever likely to get one!

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