Helpful Score: 2
one of the most boring books I've ever attempted to read. Got about 1/3 through it and just couldn't manage any more.
3 generations of Whitshanks, a family without a history, have lived in the upscale neighborhood in Baltimore. Built by the family-owned construction company, the family home figures greatly in the book. In the present day, the family has gathered to take care of the mother, who has been having mental lapses. This is a realistic family of people who do not quite mesh, who nurse grievances, have misunderstandings and random events that move things along. Neither literature, or chick-lit, but rather in-between, the book ambles along with seemingly random happenings and, the spool of the title is never quite understood. It falls out of a closet, is mentioned and forgotten. However, when we begin to think on these random events and the spool, the story does come together. The reader must make those connections. The strength of the book is the charectarizations, which create real people one could know. For me the book is neither here nor there. a 2.5 for sure.
I did NOT like this book and forced myself to finish it because I am book club leader and this is the book we are reading for June.If she said the afternoon is "all breezy, and yellow green" (and the sky the unreal blue of a noxema jar) one more time I was going to scream! Sorry to those of you who like this book, I am entitled to my opinions.I have several books by my bed screaming to be read and I am so sorry I wasted time with this one!
Strange story
A story of family relationships over three generations-- Tyler tells the story of the Whitshanks, a family of home builders, out of chronological order which caused confusion for some readers in my bookclub. Some called the family dysfunctional, but I just thought them quirky, especially Denny who would be considered the black sheep of the family. And the family home could be considered the main character; it ties together the 3 generations.
The book kept me engaged but it just wasn't my cup of tea. My preferred genres are mysteries and thrillers so perhaps this was too docile for me.
The book kept me engaged but it just wasn't my cup of tea. My preferred genres are mysteries and thrillers so perhaps this was too docile for me.
