You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
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
I listened to this audiobook version--amazing narrator! It was a gorgeous follow up to My Name is Lucy Barton.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is probably one of my least favourite Strouts - but even that is a very good book. I particularly enjoyed the stories from Pete’s and Abel’s perspectives, some others were a bit off beat for me. Hoping the next one is up to her usual standard.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Anything is Possible’ far more than I did Strout’s other book, [b:My Name Is Lucy Barton|25893709|My Name Is Lucy Barton|Elizabeth Strout|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450653428s/25893709.jpg|45584499]. I did not expect to like ‘Anything is Possible’ at all, to be frank, since some of the reviews have included the information everybody in this book is linked to the character of Lucy Barton.
I felt the character Lucy Barton in the other book should have been relieved that her terrible childhood was over and that the fundamentalist life and rigidity of many Midwestern small-town mores was behind her, having become successful in her New York City career and marriage. Instead, Lucy was still seeking love from her abuser despite her decades of success. I simply did not find Lucy’s attitude credible. People who write acclaimed literary novels which examine the inner lives of people, as Lucy did, do not remain completely blind and shut off from their own inner motivations or character as Lucy was. To me, Strout’s Lucy remained too much a masochist and seemingly a completely blind victim to have had the success as a mother and a writer that she had had. Lucy Barton was unbelievable to me.
Unlike the novel ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’, ‘Anything is Possible’ is a short story collection. Each chapter is about a different character, but each one is about a person linked to the previous chapter. All of the characters are individuals Lucy Barton knew when she was a child. Unlike Lucy, these characters remain inside the cage of small-town social roles and mores.
The main character in each chapter is either seeking self-knowledge or trying to find a way forward after having been left behind by significant others or by life events. Each is doing so under the same weighted baggage of small-town fundamentalism and foot-binding strictures that Lucy theoretically escaped. However, the characters in ‘Anything is Possible’ have not escaped American small-town Sharia rules. Each of them is struggling under the weight of displaced community shaming and the social rigidity of roles imposed on them since childhood. The surface values everyone embraces as markers of Midwestern small-town social success is realistically on display in every chapter, as well as the resulting feelings of a lack of authenticity.
I liked this book, but I know I could never live in communities like those in this book. It is very clear to me Islamic Sharia Law has been alive and well in many small American towns, hidden under Protestant Christian moralism and fake family values. MF, but every book about small-town America by Strout I have read so far makes me feel as if I were smothering under a burqa. God, I hate religiously-based family values, even if religion has long ago left the room. I don’t think Strout is a big fan of them either; but maybe she simply feels they should be loosened a bit to permit more of the being of a loving human instead of creating martinets and crippled souls who feel as uncomfortable with love as if they were publicly nude.
I felt the character Lucy Barton in the other book should have been relieved that her terrible childhood was over and that the fundamentalist life and rigidity of many Midwestern small-town mores was behind her, having become successful in her New York City career and marriage. Instead, Lucy was still seeking love from her abuser despite her decades of success. I simply did not find Lucy’s attitude credible. People who write acclaimed literary novels which examine the inner lives of people, as Lucy did, do not remain completely blind and shut off from their own inner motivations or character as Lucy was. To me, Strout’s Lucy remained too much a masochist and seemingly a completely blind victim to have had the success as a mother and a writer that she had had. Lucy Barton was unbelievable to me.
Unlike the novel ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’, ‘Anything is Possible’ is a short story collection. Each chapter is about a different character, but each one is about a person linked to the previous chapter. All of the characters are individuals Lucy Barton knew when she was a child. Unlike Lucy, these characters remain inside the cage of small-town social roles and mores.
The main character in each chapter is either seeking self-knowledge or trying to find a way forward after having been left behind by significant others or by life events. Each is doing so under the same weighted baggage of small-town fundamentalism and foot-binding strictures that Lucy theoretically escaped. However, the characters in ‘Anything is Possible’ have not escaped American small-town Sharia rules. Each of them is struggling under the weight of displaced community shaming and the social rigidity of roles imposed on them since childhood. The surface values everyone embraces as markers of Midwestern small-town social success is realistically on display in every chapter, as well as the resulting feelings of a lack of authenticity.
I liked this book, but I know I could never live in communities like those in this book. It is very clear to me Islamic Sharia Law has been alive and well in many small American towns, hidden under Protestant Christian moralism and fake family values. MF, but every book about small-town America by Strout I have read so far makes me feel as if I were smothering under a burqa. God, I hate religiously-based family values, even if religion has long ago left the room. I don’t think Strout is a big fan of them either; but maybe she simply feels they should be loosened a bit to permit more of the being of a loving human instead of creating martinets and crippled souls who feel as uncomfortable with love as if they were publicly nude.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
This was interesting. Not my favorite, but it wasn't bad.