Olive, Wherefore Art Thou?

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.

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.