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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I feel very sad and melancholic reading the book. Did not expect it.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The book has some of the same characters as 'Lucy Barton' but there was t enough to meld their stories and circumstances together. This read like a collection of short stories.
This is a companion novel to My Name Is Lucy Barton. However, I preferred the scope of this book which incorporated many other characters as they intersected, sometimes briefly and sometimes for many years, with Lucy. Like Olive Kitteridge, these wider characters lived their own fully developed lives and were very compelling. As the book goes on, many characters reappear in the story line for a brief and very interesting moment. Reading this book drew me into to this fully realized micro community.
Oh, the perfection of Elizabeth Strout! Like with Kent Haruf, I can't quite put my finger on why it's so beautiful, but it is. Strout manages to weave together vignettes of many different characters, which sometimes I don't like because many authors can't get great characterization into that short format. But she pulls it off beautifully because of her great writing, and probably also because the characters are all talked about by others in other stories. Strout writes about ordinary people doing ordinary things, but manages to blow my mind. So often I am asking, "Where did you get that idea?!?" Gossip, sexuality, weight, class, family relationships, absent mothers, deeply flawed fathers are all motifs in this, and it's incredibly written. I really enjoyed reading this and want to go back and reread some of her other books.
Some favorite lines:
"he understood that all that mattered in this world were his wife and his children, and he thought that people lived their whole lives not knowing this as sharply and constantly as he did."
"It seemed the older he grew...the more he understood that he count not understand this confusing contest between good and evil, and that maybe people were not meant to understand things here on earth."
"Everyone, she understood, was mainly and mostly interested in themselves. Except Sibby had been interested in her, and she had been terribly interested in him. This was the skin that protected you from the world--this loving of another person you shared your life with."
"Paola had watched her, one eye partially closed, then he opened his arms and hugged her. The freedom. Oh God, the freedom of being loved--!"
"Shelly Small had been raised to speak about herself as though she was the most interesting thing in the world."
"What puzzled Abel about life was how much one forgot but then lived with anyway..."
Some favorite lines:
"he understood that all that mattered in this world were his wife and his children, and he thought that people lived their whole lives not knowing this as sharply and constantly as he did."
"It seemed the older he grew...the more he understood that he count not understand this confusing contest between good and evil, and that maybe people were not meant to understand things here on earth."
"Everyone, she understood, was mainly and mostly interested in themselves. Except Sibby had been interested in her, and she had been terribly interested in him. This was the skin that protected you from the world--this loving of another person you shared your life with."
"Paola had watched her, one eye partially closed, then he opened his arms and hugged her. The freedom. Oh God, the freedom of being loved--!"
"Shelly Small had been raised to speak about herself as though she was the most interesting thing in the world."
"What puzzled Abel about life was how much one forgot but then lived with anyway..."
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I couldn't decide between a 3 and 4. I really like Strout's writing. It is so evocative. This was a series of short, interconnected stories with the people Lucy Barton grew up around in Amgash, Il.
I just don’t think Elizabeth Strout is for me. I’m not interested/invested in the focus of small town gossip/scandals/revelations, especially when all of the stories are about really unpleasant people. She writes well, but it’s the subject matter I just don’t want to spend time with.
emotional
reflective
sad
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