June 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread

[Val]

Our June book is or by Anne Tyler.

I will not be attempting to lead a discussion on this one as I am still waiting for the reserved library copy. (I am now next in the queue).
If anyone who has read it wants to post some questions, please go ahead. If not please everyone just post your impressions, thoughts, questions, etc. as you read it.

[Diane]

I just started reading Part 2. I found Part 1 to be a lovely chronicle of a ordinary family with the usual variety of personalities. So far it is not particularly thought provoking; I would describe it more as comfortable.

[Lagullande]

(Val, not sure whether you saw my post here.)

I very much enjoyed Part 1 and was looking forward to awarding the book a solid 4 stars. However the remainder of the book didn't grab me nearly as much - I felt there were several interesting story points that I was left wanting to know more about, eg (view spoiler)[the agreement between Stem's mothers, why Denny claimed to be gay, Nora's true feelings on her place in the family (hide spoiler)], and not in a positive intriguing way.

So, I have now read all of the shortlist but I am not sure to which book I would award the prize. It's my first time in this group - do you usually have a separate thread for discussing this, or a poll?

[Val]

Lagullande wrote: "(Val, not sure whether you saw my post here.)"

Sorry Lagullande, I missed that post.
If you find some book group questions you think would be helpful please post them.

We discuss the prize under the General heading:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
We have not had a poll up to now.

[Jayme]

I am number 28 at the library, so I am not sure when I'll get to reading the book, but will join in as soon as I can :)

[Juniper]

like michelle, i read this a few months ago. i found it fine. i am a huge fan of tyler's work, generally, but i didn't find this to be her strongest book. it did make me want to revisit her past novels again, though. :)

[Karen Michele]

I'm close on my library hold, so I hope to join in soon.

[Diane]

Michelle wrote: "My favorite scene in this book is a strange choice when I say it, but it struck me as being so very true to life that I almost felt like I were in the room. It was the scene[spoilers removed]
That ..."
My favorite scene was the when the dad choose his outfit for the above scene. I laughed out loud.

[Diane]

The book was a very comfortable read and by the end felt like an old friend.

[Val]

I have collected the copy I reserved at the library. It is on a two week loan, so I will get on with reading it and comment at the end.

[Jen]

I am silent for now as my library queue is a total disaster... I am stuck around #60. They have a lot of copies but who knows when I will get there! When I do I'll check back here. Happy reading in the meantime!

[Drew]

I am not quite halfway through. Am a little disturbed by how much I identify with Denny.

[Val]

I can see why Denny might find the family atmosphere claustrophobic as a teenager and want to get away and live his own life, several of us have probably felt like that at times, but he carries on being the disaffected teenager for over twenty years and I lost any sympathy with him when he came back and acted resentful that everyone had given up expecting him to.
I think Red was probably absolutely right about Denny's announcement (view spoiler)[about being gay: that he was just saying it to cause a bit of a stir. There is no suggestion from his behaviour that he actually is gay. (hide spoiler)].

[Penny]

My copy has arrived at the library - yay!

[Tasha]

Mine too. I'm just hoping I can get to it in time before it's due back, a 2 week loaner.

[Penny]

This was a surprise to me. I didnt really expect to enjoy it as I thought the blurb dull but the writing style and the way the narrative switched and moved in time held me enthralled. It revealed itself slowly until the reader knew more than the characters and could understand so many of their motivations.
I too didnt quite get what was happening with the character of Denny. I felt the book should have continued for another few chapters to tell us his story - who was the love of his life, was it really Stem's arrival that was such a tragedy for his own childhood and what exactly was he doing all the times he was away? For this amount of untold story I got a bit annoyed - coming to the end without answers. I felt that Linnie Mae, Abby, Red - in fact all of them unfolded so well but Denny was left dangling.
What did you think of Linnie Mae and Junior? I couldnt believe how this, previously described as gentle and homely, woman (view spoiler)[ seduced and manipulated her husband (hide spoiler)]. Why didn't Junior act and live out his life without her?
All in all though I read it in about 2 days and it was enthralling - just the Denny bit annoyed me!

[Diane]

It has been two months now since I read it so forgive me if I forget parts. I thought Denny was deeply resentful of the "intruder" into their family. His mother seemed to be always bringing home strays and in Denny's mind his parents cared for Stem more than they did him. He, Denny felt like the outsider and to exasperate the situation, Stem did the things that matter to his father better.
Denny also discovered, in his sneaking around, that his mother knew who Stem's mother was but chose to hide it in order to keep Stem to herself when Denny so much still needed mothering himself.
At least this was my take on Denny.

[Jayme]

I just picked up my copy from the library (was on the hold list forever) and am about 70 pages in and hoping it becomes more interesting.

[Jayme]

I finished the book and it did end up better than I thought. My take from it is that you really don't know the people around you because everyone is involved in their own reality, so is there really only one truth?

[Val]

I agree Jayme. This is an apparently close family, but they don't really know each other all that well.
I think there is a suggestion that keeping their problems and secrets to themselves and not talking about them is how they stay so apparently close as a family, that the closeness does not run deep enough to deal with real problems so it is better not to raise them.

[Penny]

Jayme wrote: "I finished the book and it did end up better than I thought. My take from it is that you really don't know the people around you because everyone is involved in their own reality, so is their only ..."

Interesting how truth is not static and cannot be fixed even between lovers. As you say each person has their own version and cannot necessarily accept they may be at odds with another person's 'truth'. I wonder if that is a state of mind for all of us in that, even whilst trying to empathise and reach out, we are still in our own bubble..??

[Jayme]

Penny wrote: "Jayme wrote: "I finished the book and it did end up better than I thought. My take from it is that you really don't know the people around you because everyone is involved in their own reality, so ..."

I think so. We had a family reunion last week and there was a discussion at the table one night that got out of hand (darn politics) and it was interesting after people made-up how differently they heard what was being said.