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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Beautiful, complicated, intricate linked short stories. They convey incredible loneliness, connections and misses, and reveal private moments of desperation. Overwhelmingly sad, but somehow not a sad book - probably because of brief moments like this: "This was the skin that protected you from the world - this loving of another person you shared your life with."
Update: The book flourished even more with a second read.
Update: The book flourished even more with a second read.
I read My Name is Lucy Barton last year and found it a beautiful story. Anything is Possible is a companion book, in which Lucy features. It is, essentially, connected short stories about people in the small town Lucy Barton grew up in. It's about strength of character, loneliness, loss, hope and the endlessly bizarre turns life and people can take. It's sad, sweet, puzzling, complex and hopeful; I enjoyed it very much.
I had the nagging feeling throughout that I had read it before but couldn’t confirm it until the final chapter, 5/5 for wowing me second time around.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Elizabeth Strout has an amazing ability to delineate characters we are not used to seeing clearly. She favors people who are skilled in the art of melting into the background wherever they are. To a person they seek to hide within their social ostracism. Strout brings them to the foreground and builds entire books around them. In this book, a series of linked short stories describe the relatives of a main character in a previous book, Lucy Barton, who has shed her previous social constraints entirely and remade herself as a famous author. This act, the shedding of her previous social 'skin', consumes the small community up and down its social strata. It speaks of such great possibility, right in front of them, and is frightening and awesome. The stories are wonderful in their creation of the people in the tight community. Strout's ability to create worlds and hopes within brief descriptions is amazing. I thought this book was leaps beyond My Name is Lucy Barton, the book around which the characters are based. It just took so much more skill and creativity and each section was a wonder to explore. -Suzanne R.
The characters connect to one another (sometimes) and to other characters in Strout’s universe (often). One character is inexplicably fascinated w the titular character of another Strout novel, Lucy Barton. Several characters grew up in abject poverty. Brothers and sisters share meaningful moments later in life.
All very readable, but it feels like visiting a small town where everyone knows one another and they all find their gossip fascinating.
Also, in a couple of the voices, the syntax is incredibly repetitious and it seemed mannered.
Good book. Not really for me.
All very readable, but it feels like visiting a small town where everyone knows one another and they all find their gossip fascinating.
Also, in a couple of the voices, the syntax is incredibly repetitious and it seemed mannered.
Good book. Not really for me.
Once again Elizabeth Strout proves to be a masterful storyteller. Her sense of place and character is so profound, and she has a unique ability to intertwine characters and stories to reveal deep truths about human suffering. The constant themes of alienation and loneliness permeate these stories, yet always there is a glimmer of hope, of spiritual break through, of other worldliness in the mundane lives of these characters. This book was hard to put down.