Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread

Cecilia Donohue (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2015

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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A Spool of Blue Thread

(2015)

Anne Tyler’s twentieth novel, the celebrated US author continues to observe the issues and challenges of growing older. While Tyler’s eighteenth full-length book,

Noah’s Compass

(2009), explored the life changes forced upon senior citizen protagonist Liam Pennywell, and her 2012 offering,

The Beginner’s Goodbye,

addressed the unexpected death of a spouse and its aftermath,

A Spool of Blue Thread

looks at the impact on adult children of 70-something parents in failing health, an impact punctuated by sibling conflict, uncertain prospects for a restless son, and flashbacks to past events that help define and explain the family and its future.

Plot Content and Structure

The elderly parents in question are Red and Abby

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1744 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "A Spool of Blue Thread". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 September 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35663, accessed 23 November 2024.]