I just loved Olive Kitteridge, and was very happy when it won the Pulitzer a few years
back. The character of Olive is
unforgettable. She’s likable, annoying,
funny, boring, even detestable at times, but you won’t forget her. The setting of rural Maine shown to be just
as interesting and idiosyncratic as Olive, and Strout’s talents as a writer are
clear in her handling of dialogue and in the careful interweaving of the independent
but interwoven stories that comprise the novel. Unfortunately we get only pale
reflections of those strengths in Elizabeth Strout’s latest, The Burgess Boys.
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| Elizabeth Strout |
It’s a very straightforward story, one in essence we’ve
encountered many times. The main
characters are adults, but they’re all strongly influenced by a violent family
incident from childhood, one they remember in a certain way but actually
happened very differently. The deception
and false memories take their toll. The
strong successful and dishonest sibling ultimately falls apart and the weaker less successful
siblings are allowed to rethink the past and gradually shed some of their guilt. I’m reminded of Ursula Hegi’s Salt Dancers, in which a childhood
incident is misremembered and shaped by the forces of personality and
subsequent events. The book takes us on
that path of rediscovery and relearning the past, and I was quite moved by Hegi’s
account. Also makes me think of Eliot's Adam Bede. Now there's a book where emotional truth and honesty ultimately wins out, but also exacts a steep price.
For me, The Burgess Boys falls quite short of the mark. There is no main character with which to
empathize, nor are any of the characters particularly compelling. There is almost no humor, and though half of
the book takes place in rural Maine and half in New York City, not much is made
of the contrast. And the writing is just fine, I guess, but nothing to write home
about. Olive Kitteridge encouraged me to expect something more ambitious in
a literary sense, something a little off the beaten path but rewarding in a
truly interesting way. Didn’t happen for me, but I’ll hang in there for Strout.
Olive was just that good.
