“But it’s like time is sort of … balanced. We’re young for such a small fraction of our lives, and yet our youth seems to stretch on forever. Then we’re old for years and years, but time flies by fastest then. So it all comes out equal in the end, don’t you see.” 

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler follows the life of one family, and one house, across three generations. I was drawn to this book purely due to its beautiful cover; I loved the retro photograph and its juxtaposition with a modern font. Looking back now, I can see why this juxtaposition is used. Yet despite the promising cover and blurb, I have to say I was a little disappointed with this read as a whole. But I shall get to this later. There are some good aspects of this book that I feel need to be covered first!

I did enjoy the story and was satisfied with how it ended. Tyler certainly takes great care polishing her narratives, and certainly creates believable, complicated characters. As a result, the reader really has the chance to fully immerse themselves in the story and the problems facing the family. I for one, spent whole afternoons ploughing through this novel, so sucked in that I totally forgot about time and my to do list.

Furthermore, Tyler tackles some very real problems facing families today. What do children do when their parents start to show their old age? How do they navigate looking after their parents, whilst looking after their own lives? Can families really stay close to each other forever? Does a significant death in the family change things forever? I was really stunned by the amount of topical issues raised in this novel, and I honestly feel like I took something away from it.

But despite all this praise, I wouldn't label this book one of my favourites, or one that I would read again. The chapters were far too long for me, and I feel like a couple of them were irrelevant to the story as a whole. Also, whilst I liked that the story was split into four distinct parts, I felt that the story got a little more boring after every part. Whilst it only took me a day to read the first part, it took me six days to read the remaining three, shorter parts.

Overall, A Spool of Blue Thread is worth a read if you enjoy modern American Literature and novels about the family. If you can get past its ever slowing pace, you won't be wasting your time giving this a go.