Stem tries to tell Denny to leave, and Denny resents it.

Nora is very capable and loving, but also practices a very strict form of Christianity that puts her at odds with the Whitshanks sometimes.ĭenny, learning of his mother's problems and his father's heart attacks, comes to stay with them as well, which makes it very cramped quarters in their home. Stem and his wife, Nora, have three sons and a collie that they move in with. Stem, who works with him, takes him to work and looks after him. Red still owns and works at the family's construction business, and only a few days after his heart attack, insists on going back to the office. Stem and his family determine that they need to move in to the family estate to help look after Abby and Red, who has had a heart attack. Abby is found wandering in the middle of a severe thunderstorm in the middle of the street with just her nightgown on. Stem wasn't really their biological son but had been taken in when his father, named Lonesome, died and the child's mother presumably couldn't be found. The reader learns that there are four children in the family: Amanda, Jeannie, Denny, and Stem. She often wanders off and can't find her way back, and she's taken to calling their dog, Brenda, by the name of a dog that they had back when the children were little. To the outsider, his father looks like an unethical con man.Ībby, who is in her early seventies, is beginning to show early signs of dementia. In particular, Red, is fond of telling the story about how the Whitshanks came to live in the house that they still live in because he is able to paint his father as a man of great intellect and cunning. These stories include some of the more often repeated, such as how Abby and Red met, and how the Whitshanks of Boulton Street came to live in their great estate.

The reader learns that the Whitshank family are bound by many things, besides genetic material. Red says he regrets marrying a social worker. Abby is furious and makes excuses for why Denny might have been gay all along. Abby tells him to call Denny back but they aren't able to because they don't have caller ID. When Red gasps in dismay, Denny hangs up on him. He tells his father on the phone that he is gay. 'A Spool of Blue Thread' by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Anne Tyler, chronicles the loves and lives of three generations of the Whitshank family living in Baltimore, MD.Īs the story opens the reader sees Abby and Red Whitshank receiving a call from their middle child, Denny, who has disappeared for many months.

A spool of blue thread