Here is a saga of an ordinary Baltimore family, as ordinary yet extraordinary as most families are. It's by Anne Tyler, so of course it's well written. Of course you'll wrap yourself up in it till the final page is turned. Of course it will provoke you to think a little, to reflect on situations within your own family that this book calls to mind. But the Man Booker shortlist? Really? I'd call it a superior holiday read. Three stars? Four? I can't decide. ( )

I really enjoy Anne Tyler's prose; it leads you in easily and takes you through emotional situations with delicacy and tact, never straying into gaudiness. Her characters' dialogue flows nicely. A Spool of Blue Thread, though, wanders around in circles and through different time periods, seemingly in an unconnected way. For me it out-stays its welcome, which is a shame because up until a certain point about halfway through the book, it is pretty wonderful. ( )

A leisurely character-driven story that recounts the detailed relationships and lives of the Whitshank family in Baltimore. Nothing spectacular happens, yet it is filled with the ordinary happenings of an ordinary family, that we can all understand and appreciate. I recommend reading this novel slowly, savouring it, instead of a non-stop feast, so that the wonderful characters can take up residence in the mind like friends. A fantastic novel that highlights Tyler’s exceptional writing. ( )

A slow starter. Divided into different parts that gave back stories to some of the main characters at different stages of their lives. Kirkus: Tyler?s 20th novel (The Beginner?s Goodbye, 2012, etc.) again centers on family life in Baltimore, still a fresh and compelling subject in the hands of this gifted veteran.She opens in 1994, with Red and Abby Whitshank angsting over a phone call from their 19-year-old son, Denny. In a few sharp pages we get the family dynamic: Red can be critical, Abby can be smothering, and Denny reacts to any criticism by dropping out of sight. But as Part 1 unfolds, primarily from 2012 on, we see Denny has a history of wandering in and out of the Whitshank home on Bouton Road just often enough to keep his family guessing about the jobs and relationships he acquires and discards (? ?Boring? seemed to be his favorite word?) while resenting his siblings? assumption that he can?t be relied on. This becomes an increasingly fraught issue after Red has a heart attack and Abby begins to have ?mind skips?; Tyler sensitively depicts the conflicts about how to deal with their aging parents among take-charge Amanda, underappreciated Jeannie and low-key Stem, whose unfailing good nature and designation as heir to Whitshank Construction infuriate Denny. A sudden death sends Tyler back in time to explore the truth behind several oft-recounted Whitshank stories, including the day Abby fell in love with Red and the origins of Junior, the patriarch who built the Bouton Road home in 1936. We see a pattern of scheming to appropriate things that belong to others and of slowly recognizing unglamorous, trying true love�but that?s only a schematic approximation of the lovely insights Tyler gives us into an ordinary family who, ?like most families...imagined they were special.? They will be special to readers thanks to the extraordinary richness and delicacy with which Tyler limns complex interactions and mixed feelings familiar to us all and yet marvelously particular to the empathetically rendered members of the Whitshank clan.The texture of everyday experience transmuted into art.

Just ok.

Easily readable but ultimately unsatisfying. Secrets are revealed throughout the book and all of them served to make the story less pleasant for me.

I felt sad for all of these people when it ended.
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