“Olive Kitteridge” was such a surprise for me. When it won the Pulitzer I gave it a try and
was so so pleased. Sooner or later I had
to get around to the two earlier novels.
“Abide with Me” is the second.
The setting is a similar harsh small New England town, and the strict,
terse, Protestant aspects are also familiar Strout territory. I certainly appreciate Strout’s ability to portray
this environment with such poignancy, sympathy and grace. But in “Abide with Me” she seems duty-bound
to package this in a structure with beginning, confict, and resolution. I get the beginning and the conflict. I don’t get the resolution at all. The final section tries to clean up all of the
ongoing messes in a single plot turn that I didn’t find at all convincing. All of the bleakness and pessimism is
supposedly dissipated. I found the dark
side convincing and the resolution unsatisfying.
That said there is much good writing here. Just don’t expect a book on the level of “Olive”. In that later work Strout
left aside the need to resolve it all.
The connected stories that comprise the novel raise many questions and
delineate some complex emotional landscapes.
But nobody lives happily ever after.
That I get.
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