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“But this is a trial run, understand? You’re only here on approval.”
“Absolutely. No question,” he said. “You can kick me out the first mistake I make.”
“Oh, Lord. I don’t know why I’m such a pushover.”
He said, “Are my things still in your garage?”
“They were the last time I looked.”
“So … I can move them back into the house?”
When she didn’t answer immediately, he took a tighter grip on the phone. “I’m not saying I have to,” he said. “I mean, if you tell me I have to live above the garage again, just to start with, I would understand.”
Allie said, “Well, I don’t know that we would need to go that far.”
He relaxed his grip on the phone.
The two young girls just behind him could not stop laughing. They kept dissolving in cascades of giggles, sputtering and squeaking. What did girls that age find so fu
De
It was like when Stem first came to stay, when he slept in De
Or like when he himself, years later in boarding school, longed all day for bedtime just so he could let the tears slide secretly down the sides of his face to his pillow, although not for any good reason, because God knows he was glad to get away from his family and they were glad to see him go. Thank heaven the other boys never realized.
It was this last thought that told him what to do about his seatmate: nothing. Pretend not to notice. Look past him out the rain-spattered window. Focus purely on the scenery, which had changed to open countryside now, leaving behind the blighted row houses, leaving behind the station under its weight of roiling dark clouds, and the empty city streets around it, and the narrower streets farther north with the trees turning inside out in the wind, and the house on Bouton Road where the filmy-skirted ghosts frolicked and danced on the porch with nobody left to watch.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A
AN. A.A. KNOPF READING GROUP GUIDE
A Spool of Blue Thread by A
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of A Spool of Blue-Thread, the enthralling twentieth novel from A
Discussion Questions
1. What are the main themes of the novel? Which did you find most thought-provoking?
2. The novel opens and closes with De
3. We don’t learn the full significance of the title until nearly the end of the novel (on this page). How did this delay make the metaphor more powerful? What is the metaphor?
4. On this page, Tyler writes, “Well, of course they did hear from him again. The Whitshanks weren’t a melodramatic family.” What type of family are they? Compare the way you see them with the way they see themselves.
5. Chapter 2 begins with the Whitshank family stories: “These stories were viewed as quintessential — as defining, in some way — and every family member, including Stem’s three-year-old, had heard them told and retold and embroidered and conjectured upon any number of times.” (this page) Why are these two stories so important? Why is the story of Red’s sister important to Red’s family?
6. “Patience, in fact, was what the Whitshanks imagined to be the theme of their two stories — patiently lying in wait for what they believed should come to them.” (this page) Others might say it was envy or disappointment. Which interpretation makes the most sense to you? Can you think of another linking theme?
7. How does Abby’s story about the day she fell in love with Red fit into the Whitshank family history? Why isn’t it one of the family’s two defining stories?
8. Much is made of Abby’s “orphans,” which we learn also include Stem. What does her welcoming of strangers into her home say about her character? How do the others’ responses set up a subtle contrast?
9. Discuss the character De
10. Do Red and Abby have favorite children and grandchildren? Who do you think each one favors?
11. On this page, Tyler writes about Abby: “She had always assumed that when she was old, she would have total confidence, finally. But look at her: still uncertain.” Do you think Abby’s family sees her as uncertain or lacking in confidence? Why?
12. Abby dies suddenly in an accident, just like Red’s parents did. When it came to his parents, “Red was of the opinion that instantaneous death was a mercy …” (this page) Do you think he felt the same way after Abby’s death?
13. Why didn’t Abby tell Red about Stem’s mother? Why didn’t De
14. At Abby’s funeral, Reverend Alban speculates that heaven may be “a vast consciousness that the dead return to,” bringing their memories with them. (this page) What do you think of his theory? What do you imagine Abby would say about it?
15. Why did Red’s pausing to count the rings on the felled poplar make Abby fall in love with him?
16. The novel isn’t structured chronologically. How does Tyler use shifts in time to reveal character and change the reader’s perception?
17. What is the significance of the porch swing? What does it tell us about Li
18. After reading their story, how did your opinion of Li
19. The Whitshank house, built by Junior and maintained by Red, is practically a character in the novel. What does it mean to the Whit shank family? Why, in the end, does it seem easy for Red to leave?
20. On the train at the end of the novel, De
Suggested Reading
Alice McDermott, Someone
Elizabeth Graver, The End of the Point
A
Jane Smiley, Some Luck
Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves