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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-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
Intertwined short stories from the world of Lucy Barton. I love Elizabeth Strout's writing but sometimes the bleakness gets me down.
short stories with tenous connections beautifully written
Pulitzer Prize winner, Elizabeth Strout, is one of those writers whose work conjures the feeling one had as a child when first discovering the magic ability of books to draw you into worlds not your own, and yet, worlds where you discovered and explored parts of yourself you'd not known about before; one of those writers who introduce you to your own soul by illuminating with truth and insight and glorious, marvelous, extraordinary language the souls of their characters.
One of those writers who reminds you in your jaded, worn out from having so many mediocre to meh books thrown at you that this is writing! This is why I read.
So, you might just as well stop wasting time reading my thoughts about Elizabeth Strout's latest magic act and go get the book. Right now. Read it for yourself. Go on.
Are you still here? All right, well then, I warn you there is little I am going to or can say that hasn't already been better said by others. So, if you must read a review, I suggest Jennifer Senior's from the April 26 edition of The New York Times. [click here] Go ahead. Click. Read a real review.
And STILL you're reading me? Well, it's not exactly what I am known for, but I will try to keep this brief so you can go read the book.
The novel is a hybrid, a beautiful, cohesive portrait composed of stand-alone pieces which coalesce into an emotional chiaroscuro of such depth and subtlety and artistry, one wants to spend forever exploring the shades and shadows and light and dark therein.
There are many themes woven through Anything Is Possible, but the thread which mesmerized me most was the unmasking of all the ways in which humans can misapprehend and misconstrue what looks and feels like and seems to be reality, and how the discovery of those misunderstandings or deceits or ignorances result in disappointment, anger, sorrow, and, almost always, more confusion. Anything Is Possible illuminates in breathtaking, devastating accumulation of particularities that even with all the details and gossip and glut of information we have about each other and the world, we really know very little about anything at all; including ourselves.
This book illustrates the crushing loneliness and ultimate solitude of being alive better than anything I have ever read. It captures the ways in which even the people we love the most are mysteries to us, and we to them, all of us with secrets, and how the distortions caused by the things we haven't told and the stories we don't know disrupt and limit and often destroy our lives.
I promised I would keep this short and I considered quoting the novel at length, but, while nearly every sentence is chiseled and shaped like something Michelangelo has wrought into life from marble, they are each more a masterpiece in context. So, I won't quote. I will simply tell you one more time: GO! GO NOW! READ THIS BOOK! Because Elizabeth Strout is indeed a Michelangelo of literature, and she has made from the marble of our lives, a thing of such beauty it rivals his David.
Go. Read. Marvel.
One of those writers who reminds you in your jaded, worn out from having so many mediocre to meh books thrown at you that this is writing! This is why I read.
So, you might just as well stop wasting time reading my thoughts about Elizabeth Strout's latest magic act and go get the book. Right now. Read it for yourself. Go on.
Are you still here? All right, well then, I warn you there is little I am going to or can say that hasn't already been better said by others. So, if you must read a review, I suggest Jennifer Senior's from the April 26 edition of The New York Times. [click here] Go ahead. Click. Read a real review.
And STILL you're reading me? Well, it's not exactly what I am known for, but I will try to keep this brief so you can go read the book.
The novel is a hybrid, a beautiful, cohesive portrait composed of stand-alone pieces which coalesce into an emotional chiaroscuro of such depth and subtlety and artistry, one wants to spend forever exploring the shades and shadows and light and dark therein.
There are many themes woven through Anything Is Possible, but the thread which mesmerized me most was the unmasking of all the ways in which humans can misapprehend and misconstrue what looks and feels like and seems to be reality, and how the discovery of those misunderstandings or deceits or ignorances result in disappointment, anger, sorrow, and, almost always, more confusion. Anything Is Possible illuminates in breathtaking, devastating accumulation of particularities that even with all the details and gossip and glut of information we have about each other and the world, we really know very little about anything at all; including ourselves.
This book illustrates the crushing loneliness and ultimate solitude of being alive better than anything I have ever read. It captures the ways in which even the people we love the most are mysteries to us, and we to them, all of us with secrets, and how the distortions caused by the things we haven't told and the stories we don't know disrupt and limit and often destroy our lives.
I promised I would keep this short and I considered quoting the novel at length, but, while nearly every sentence is chiseled and shaped like something Michelangelo has wrought into life from marble, they are each more a masterpiece in context. So, I won't quote. I will simply tell you one more time: GO! GO NOW! READ THIS BOOK! Because Elizabeth Strout is indeed a Michelangelo of literature, and she has made from the marble of our lives, a thing of such beauty it rivals his David.
Go. Read. Marvel.
I really enjoyed this book. I normally don't like short stories but the stories in "Anything is Possible", builds upon themselves. There are connecting characters. And Lucy Barton makes an appearance. I would recommend this book to anyone.
I liked this even better than My Name is Lucy Barton, what an incredible cast of characters with a rich set of stories.
I'd rate this 3.5 stars. It's imaginative and beautifully written, as all of Strout's books are. But this one didn't suck me in the same way that Olive and Lucy Barton did.
I found this a little hard to get through. Every chapter was essentially a standalone short story about new people, sometimes connected to Lucy Barton’s world, sometimes not so much. I like the stories about Lucy returning home, Patty Nicely and Abel the best. The Lucy returning home story and the story about her brother added a lot of color to the Lucy world but the others mostly put me to sleep.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
Enjoyed this slightly less than My Name is Lucy Barton- the writing was impeccable, but the structure felt less elevated, more jarring.
My one issue with this series so far (and don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it immensely and will finish it) is that The Theme is shoved very far down our throats. Book 1: Everyone Gets Divorced and Love is not Real ft. Moms Are Difficult. Book 2 is: Moms Are Difficult main course ft. Nobody Can Ever Be Happy. Look, it’s the human condition. Strout isn’t wrong. Those are the themes of our lives. But… it starts to err on the “WE GET IT, ELIZABETH”.
Still, love.
My one issue with this series so far (and don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it immensely and will finish it) is that The Theme is shoved very far down our throats. Book 1: Everyone Gets Divorced and Love is not Real ft. Moms Are Difficult. Book 2 is: Moms Are Difficult main course ft. Nobody Can Ever Be Happy. Look, it’s the human condition. Strout isn’t wrong. Those are the themes of our lives. But… it starts to err on the “WE GET IT, ELIZABETH”.
Still, love.
It was so hard to get through this because I couldn't go more than 2 or 3 pages before I would out the book down and do something else. It was more interesting during the last 60-70 pages, but it took me a while to get there.