A Spool of Blue Thread
by Tyler, Anne
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1101874279
- ISBN 13
- 9781101874271
- Seller
-
Sugar Grove, North Carolina, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Knopf, 2015. First Edition First Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. Signed. A Near Fine copy of the hardcover first edition/first printing, in a Very Good dust jacket. Signed by the author at the title page. A copy of a Wall Street Journal interview with Anne Tyler is laid in (from Feb 2015, printed on 3 pages, but about two pages of text).
Reviews
On Jan 28 2017, CloggieDownunder said:
"There was nothing remarkable about the Whitshanks. None of them was famous. None of them could claim exceptional intelligence. And in looks, they were no more than average…. But like most families, they imagined they were special. They took great pride, for instance, in their fix-it skills… all of them were convinced that they had better taste than the rest of the world…disappointments seemed to escape the family's notice, though. That was another of their quirks: they had a talent for pretending that everything was fine"
A Spool of Blue Thread is the twentieth adult novel by award-winning American author, Anne Tyler. The Whitshank House on Bouton Rd, lovingly, carefully and painstakingly built by Junior Whitshank for Mr. Ernest Brill, was eventually home to Junior, Linnie Mae and their children, Merrick and Redcliffe. Later, Red and Abby brought up their four, Amanda, Jeannie, Denny and Stem, within its walls. It was built for a family and stood the test of time. And here is where the family gathers when Red and Abby begin to cope less well than they always did.
The issue of how to manage ageing parents is something common to most families; after their first solution fails, another is decided upon, but frictions arise between siblings when the (sort of) black sheep turns up to help. Old jealousies and frustrations surface, and in the course of events, certain secrets are revealed. Tyler has a singular talent for taking ordinary people doing ordinary things and keeping the reader enthralled and endeared. Her pace is sedate, her descriptive prose, gorgeous, her dialogue, realistic.
The narrative is split into four parts: the first tells, from multiple perspectives, of present day events in the Whitshank family, with plenty of references to the immediate (and less immediate) past; the second is from Abby's viewpoint, and details the day she fell in love with Red; the third gives Junior's point of view of events surrounding his early encounters with Linnie Mae and the start of their family life; the last, again from several perspectives, describes the present-day leave-taking from the Bouton Rd house.
Another novel that is characteristically Anne Tyler: funny, moving, thought-provoking and, again, quite brilliant.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Row by Row Bookshop (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 059074
- Title
- A Spool of Blue Thread
- Author
- Tyler, Anne
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition First Printing
- ISBN 10
- 1101874279
- ISBN 13
- 9781101874271
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2015
Terms of Sale
Row by Row Bookshop
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Row by Row Bookshop
Biblio member since 2008
Sugar Grove, North Carolina
About Row by Row Bookshop
Row by Row Bookshop is an online bookseller. Our stock is eclectic and literary, and is a mix of modern and antiquarian. We also have a booth at the Appalachian Antique Mall, 631 W. King Street, Boone, NC
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- A.N.
- The book is pristine and free of any defects, in the same condition as ...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...