For the previous two parts of Bob’s Books – The Stroutverse see Feature 1 & Feature 2
Before I begin this third part of my review of ‘The Stroutverse’, I will confess that my little journey with Elizabeth Strout is not a complete. Due to time constraints, I was not able to read her debut, Amy and Isabelle. It is a small pity because Isabelle does get a couple of mentions in Tell me Everything. However, I am getting ahead of myself. I have now read Elizabeth Strout’s last two novels, and I’ve got a lot of feelings about them. As I have done previously, I’ll consider each book separately.
Lucy by the Sea (2022) – read for the first time.
I think it takes courage to write a pandemic novel, especially when that novel is published just when people were returning to their regular lifestyles. Elizabeth Strout dared to write one with Lucy by the Sea, and furthermore she pulled it off.
It is 2020 Lucy is living with her ex-husband William, and he is noticing the first signs of the pandemic reaching the western world. He tells Lucy that they have to move out of New York and into Maine. The Maine house is owned by Bob Burgess. As one could guess by the title, the place is near the sea.
As Lucy is coming to terms with this new situation, she is documenting events which both scare and console her. The focus is on her daughters, who both go through changes be it relationship problems, catching COVID and living in a world of doubt, At the same time Lucy and William’s feelings for each other is rekindled and we see both accepting each other’s foibles. Bob Burgess also becomes a part of Lucy’s life and the two engage in philosophical discussions with each other.
Other than Bob Burgess’ becoming a permanent fixture in this world, there are mentions of Olive Kitteridge, who is now 90 years old and living in a retirement home, and Isabelle, who is Olive’s close friend.
Lucy by the Sea is Elizabeth Strout’s most introspective novel. The core theme is family ties and how they are strengthened and loosened. This is common in all her novels, but it comes out strongly in this one. Elizabeth Strout is sometimes criticized because her plots can verge on soap opera dynamics, but she does tackle big issues and with depth: poverty, PSTD, Mental Health, she mentions them all but she writes in a relatable way. One could say that Strout is deceptively simple in her approach.
Tell me Everything (2024) Read for the first time.
Tell me Everything is Elizabeth Strout’s tenth novel and it’s a culmination of all her books in which she includes elements from her previous nine novels.
This time the plot centres around Bob Burgess: his friendship with Lucy is evolving from admiration to infatuation. In the meantime, he is trying his hardest to be patient with his wife, yet he cannot help noticing her defects. As Bob is a good person, he knows that he will stay with his spouse.
To add another plot thread, Bob must return to his hometown to take on a client who has been implicated in killing his mother. Throughout the novel Bob tries to prove his innocence.
Elizabeth Strout does not stop there.
As Tell me Everything is a Lucy Barton book, Lucy has a big role too – and not only as Bob’s love interest. In the ultimate team-up, she meets the 90-year-old Olive Kitteridge in the retirement home and both exchange stories about various characters they meet.
The overall theme with this novel is love. Be it filial, or eros, Strout’s characters believe that love is the strongest emotion and is what motivates us.
“And yet, as is often the case, those of us who need love so badly at a particular moment can be off-putting to those who want to love us, and to those who do love us.”
“Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love. If it is love, then it is love.”
Also included in Tell me Everything is Jim Burgess’ family, who are going through major changes, Isabelle is still Olive’s best friend and there’s a meta reference to Strout’s debut Abide by me.
Although the plot may be seem overstuffed, Elizabeth Strout manages to pull it off deftly. My theory is that her characters are relatable: I believe that when one can associate themselves with a protagonist in a book, it makes the reading experience better and it’s easy to forgive any of the author’s misgivings.
There is a feeling that Strout is concluding this aspect of her universe. There’s a lot of goodbyes, even though a couple of things are left open, I think it will be a while before we get another Amgash novel.
My month-long voyage with Elizabeth Strout’s novels was one that was consistent. I enjoyed all the novels I read and what I took away from these wonderful books is that we are a complex race. We are filled with foibles and what makes us unique is how we cope with them. Sometimes fate will change us, sometimes it’s up to us.
For a whole month I did feel that I was a bystander in Shirley Falls and one thing is for certain: Elizabeth Strout can chronicle people and small town life perfectly and with a lot of heart.
“Lucy said, looking at him now, “My point is that every person on this earth is so complicated. Bob, we’re also complicated, and we match up for a moment—or maybe a lifetime—with somebody because we feel that we are connected to them. And we are. But we’re not in a certain way because nobody can go into the crevices of another’s mind, even the person can’t go into the crevices of their own mind, and we live— all of us— as though we can.”