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Amgash #5
Tell Me Everything
Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst; fall in love yet choose to be apart; and grapple with the question, "What does anyone’s life mean?"
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess is enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. Bob has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road with her ex-husband William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons in Olive’s apartment telling each other stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess is enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. Bob has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road with her ex-husband William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons in Olive’s apartment telling each other stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
352 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 10, 2024
About the author
Elizabeth Strout
45 books12.7k followersElizabeth Strout is the author of several novels, including: Abide with Me, a national bestseller and BookSense pick, and Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. In 2009 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book Olive Kitteridge. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker. She teaches at the Master of Fine Arts program at Queens University of Charlotte.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
April 21, 2024
“This is the story of Bob Burgess… Bob has a big heart, but does not know this about himself…” I read The Burgess Boys a number of years ago and was reintroduced to Bob in Oh William!, but I don’t think I fully appreciated him until now. Bob Burgess is now officially one of my literary crushes - what a good man ! But this novel is also very much about Lucy and Olive and the people in the stories of “unrecorded lives” that they share.
There are a number of reasons why Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite writers. In Crosby, Maine, she once again takes us to the small town life that she writes so astutely about. There’s how Strout describes the intimate, inner thoughts of her characters connecting the reader with their vulnerabilities, their fears, their loneliness, their goodness and kindness. Strout has such a keen sense of human nature. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how she beautifully, in so many places, describes the seasons with wonderful descriptions of the trees.
Olive is her outspoken, feisty self, this time with her caring about people more in the open . If you didn’t love Olive before, I’m pretty sure she will touch you here as she summons Lucy to visit her so she can tell her some sad stories about people who belong together and don’t ever get to be. As for Bob, Strout reminds us of the trauma in Bob’s life as a child and his continued struggles, his relationship with his brother . With Lucy, my favorite Strout character, I saw once again her vulnerabilities, perhaps as a result of her traumatic childhood, but also her sense of empathy for those around her and those she doesn’t know except through the stories that Olive tells her. “Lucy listens, really listens.”
This is not just one of those quiet novels where not much seems to happen . There’s a murder to be solved and Bob is in the thick of it and so is the reader. There’s so much here - loneliness, aging, grief, childhood traumas, marriage, and love of all kinds, the untold stories people keep . Lucy has an untold story of her own and one of the most touching and heartfelt moments is when she tells it to Olive. A seemingly simple, yet profound commentary on love, on the connections we make, on life . From the very first page, I wanted Elizabeth Strout to tell me everything and she does it perfectly. Now I want her to tell me more.
I’m thankful to have received a copy of this from Random House through NetGalley.
There are a number of reasons why Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite writers. In Crosby, Maine, she once again takes us to the small town life that she writes so astutely about. There’s how Strout describes the intimate, inner thoughts of her characters connecting the reader with their vulnerabilities, their fears, their loneliness, their goodness and kindness. Strout has such a keen sense of human nature. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how she beautifully, in so many places, describes the seasons with wonderful descriptions of the trees.
Olive is her outspoken, feisty self, this time with her caring about people more in the open . If you didn’t love Olive before, I’m pretty sure she will touch you here as she summons Lucy to visit her so she can tell her some sad stories about people who belong together and don’t ever get to be. As for Bob, Strout reminds us of the trauma in Bob’s life as a child and his continued struggles, his relationship with his brother . With Lucy, my favorite Strout character, I saw once again her vulnerabilities, perhaps as a result of her traumatic childhood, but also her sense of empathy for those around her and those she doesn’t know except through the stories that Olive tells her. “Lucy listens, really listens.”
This is not just one of those quiet novels where not much seems to happen . There’s a murder to be solved and Bob is in the thick of it and so is the reader. There’s so much here - loneliness, aging, grief, childhood traumas, marriage, and love of all kinds, the untold stories people keep . Lucy has an untold story of her own and one of the most touching and heartfelt moments is when she tells it to Olive. A seemingly simple, yet profound commentary on love, on the connections we make, on life . From the very first page, I wanted Elizabeth Strout to tell me everything and she does it perfectly. Now I want her to tell me more.
I’m thankful to have received a copy of this from Random House through NetGalley.
May 22, 2024
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout is quite simply superb. My Dad, once said to me “Mark, you’re so lucky, if you fell off a 10-storey building you’d fall into a three-piece suit”. Well in this case it’s true – I asked (prayed) to NetGalley for this book and GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!! (Onya Dad!).
We see so many Strout characters here, people us Stroutists know intimately. Reading this is like slipping on a warm pair of slippers. It’s magic. We have spent years getting to know these people, and here we go again – they’re all together in some way or another, INCLUDING, yes, INCLUDING Olive Kitteridge!!!!!! What more could we ask for?
This is how I visualise Olive Kitteridge. This lady is Olive from the old BBC Comedy “On the Buses
I’ve managed to shave this review from 400 pages to something more edible. My two main points of interest here are Bob Burgess (married to Margaret) and Lucy Barton (used to be married to William but living with him) on their regular walks. Their chats, the routine, the intimacy. The things they talk about. Okay – let’s not deny it, Bob loves her, we think, but he certainly dips his toe into that bubbling pool of HCL. What does Lucy think?
Bob could not wait to tell Lucy about it. But, he and Margaret don’t have a bad relationship, not in any way. But these, things can happen. Can’t they?
Talking of Lucy Barton (author and ex-wife of William), she meets up with the legendary Olive Kitteridge. Oh man, I love Olive – she is so straight up, some may say rude – but I’m not so sure. Olive and Lucy catch up regularly to talk about “Lives unrecorded.” How’s that? These conversations are fascinating. If you like dropping your book on your chest (……okay you’re lying down here – on your back) and pondering about what was just said. You’ll understand this.
Jesus Christ. All these unrecorded lives, and people just live them
This all happens in Maine, which I must say sounds beautiful.
There are parent/adult children relationships explored – much of this will strike a chord with readers who have adult children. OMFG. Bob’s relationship with his brother Jim is also central – what the hell isn’t central here? Generational grief pops it’s ugly head up too.
One adult child says Dad, I just have to tell you: You sucked as a husband to Mom. What do you do with that?
There’s also a crime here and there's old lies revealed.
Can I just say this? With all of these people, knowing each other for so long, no different to any of us I suppose, including our families and friends – there are unrecorded stories.
But this book touches on meaning. The meaning of life. It really does.
What is the meaning of it all?
If I can be brutally honest – I don’t think there’s any meaning – I would love to be challenged here, because it makes me sound shallow. But don’t we just live our lives, as would a cat, a butterfly, a tree (a coffee table)? We try to survive, stay intact – we interact with the environment and the elements and just do our best. For this annoying ginger – I think it’s as simple as that. That gives me some comfort, it’s simple.
This book made me think of all this stuff. It will do it to you too!
Elizabeth Strout, you are a star.
5 Stars
Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my review.
"Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love. If it is love, then it is love."
We see so many Strout characters here, people us Stroutists know intimately. Reading this is like slipping on a warm pair of slippers. It’s magic. We have spent years getting to know these people, and here we go again – they’re all together in some way or another, INCLUDING, yes, INCLUDING Olive Kitteridge!!!!!! What more could we ask for?
This is how I visualise Olive Kitteridge. This lady is Olive from the old BBC Comedy “On the Buses
I’ve managed to shave this review from 400 pages to something more edible. My two main points of interest here are Bob Burgess (married to Margaret) and Lucy Barton (used to be married to William but living with him) on their regular walks. Their chats, the routine, the intimacy. The things they talk about. Okay – let’s not deny it, Bob loves her, we think, but he certainly dips his toe into that bubbling pool of HCL. What does Lucy think?
Bob could not wait to tell Lucy about it. But, he and Margaret don’t have a bad relationship, not in any way. But these, things can happen. Can’t they?
Talking of Lucy Barton (author and ex-wife of William), she meets up with the legendary Olive Kitteridge. Oh man, I love Olive – she is so straight up, some may say rude – but I’m not so sure. Olive and Lucy catch up regularly to talk about “Lives unrecorded.” How’s that? These conversations are fascinating. If you like dropping your book on your chest (……okay you’re lying down here – on your back) and pondering about what was just said. You’ll understand this.
Jesus Christ. All these unrecorded lives, and people just live them
This all happens in Maine, which I must say sounds beautiful.
There are parent/adult children relationships explored – much of this will strike a chord with readers who have adult children. OMFG. Bob’s relationship with his brother Jim is also central – what the hell isn’t central here? Generational grief pops it’s ugly head up too.
One adult child says Dad, I just have to tell you: You sucked as a husband to Mom. What do you do with that?
There’s also a crime here and there's old lies revealed.
Can I just say this? With all of these people, knowing each other for so long, no different to any of us I suppose, including our families and friends – there are unrecorded stories.
But this book touches on meaning. The meaning of life. It really does.
What is the meaning of it all?
If I can be brutally honest – I don’t think there’s any meaning – I would love to be challenged here, because it makes me sound shallow. But don’t we just live our lives, as would a cat, a butterfly, a tree (a coffee table)? We try to survive, stay intact – we interact with the environment and the elements and just do our best. For this annoying ginger – I think it’s as simple as that. That gives me some comfort, it’s simple.
This book made me think of all this stuff. It will do it to you too!
Elizabeth Strout, you are a star.
5 Stars
Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my review.
"Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love. If it is love, then it is love."
April 6, 2024
The Strout universe is tight-knit yet vast in emotional wealth. Elizabeth S continues to mesmerize us with the stories of ordinary people--told in a deceptively straightforward voice, rich with irony and insights. In Tell Me Everything, two of Strout’s most delightful and ongoing protagonists---Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton---finally get up close and personal in Crosby, Maine. (Some folks blame Lucy for the skyrocketing price of housing---she is a successful writer that moved here during the pandemic). You won’t be let down with their meet-and-greet, either. There’s invariably a buffet of body language going on in Strout-world. Olive invites Lucy to come hear a story, true stories that need telling about unrecorded lives.
By now, Olive is ninety years old and Lucy is in her sixties. Lucy visits Olive in a retirement home where Olive now resides; I remember Lucy’s zippered boots and the way she blushes. Olive asks her about Bob, and Lucy tends to get cagey in response. And then Olive shares a story about family. In later meet-ups, there’s typically a segue, sort of like, “How’s Bob?”—legnthy pause, a smile, and then onto the astonishing stories of people you will feel like you know.
I thought it was going to be a Lucy/Olive narrative, but it shifts. We still get Strout-filled awkward moments and desperately minor conflicts between those in the ensemble cast. But this is a Bob Burgess book most of all. Lucy experiences some personal Bob drama, but, alas, he is pulled in many directions at once.
Bob Burgess is a semi-retired attorney who has also been in previous Strout novels, especially, of course, The Burgess Boys. It’s fine if you have never met him before, because ES will round him out and pull you into the Burgess weeds, not the least of which is a tragedy he shares with his brother. Married to Margaret, a Unitarian minister, he’s a little in love with Lucy. We know he doesn’t seem the cheating kind. Does the heart want what the heart wants? Bob doesn’t think he deserves to be the hero in his life—or even the main character. In Tell Me Everything, he unwittingly, humbly, generously, even reluctantly, gets to be both.
Newbies to Strout can start with any of her sparkling books. If you read out of order, you’ll see some spoilers, but it doesn’t hurt too much. That’s not a huge downside. You’ll be immersed in every novel in any order. An elegant and gently spicy writer, she creates characters who breathe on the page. They can be crabby, too. Strout pens crabby, exposed characters better than anyone!
Most of the drama in TME is quiet, restless, and inward. Small things lead to big consequences. A haircut causes a surprising riptide of emotions, an unforeseen disturbance that illustrates Strout’s genius in upending routine events. Angst—both existential and specific—haunts her sympathetic cast; unresolved issues can weave and wind and bend their mettle into melancholy.
Bob is a sin-eater, says Lucy. He is drawn to people who are stuck in their transgressions. Tall and schlumpy-shaped, Bob has room in his body and soul to absorb the sins of others. He takes on a monkish criminal defendant accused of killing his mother; his ex-wife wrestles with alcohol, and his brother is a hot mess of grief. Bob is needed all over the place, but he struggles to connect with his wife.
Whether you are new or familiar to the Strout-verse, you’ll be hooked from the opening pages. I thank Random House for sending me an ARC to review. The pleasure was all mine.
By now, Olive is ninety years old and Lucy is in her sixties. Lucy visits Olive in a retirement home where Olive now resides; I remember Lucy’s zippered boots and the way she blushes. Olive asks her about Bob, and Lucy tends to get cagey in response. And then Olive shares a story about family. In later meet-ups, there’s typically a segue, sort of like, “How’s Bob?”—legnthy pause, a smile, and then onto the astonishing stories of people you will feel like you know.
I thought it was going to be a Lucy/Olive narrative, but it shifts. We still get Strout-filled awkward moments and desperately minor conflicts between those in the ensemble cast. But this is a Bob Burgess book most of all. Lucy experiences some personal Bob drama, but, alas, he is pulled in many directions at once.
Bob Burgess is a semi-retired attorney who has also been in previous Strout novels, especially, of course, The Burgess Boys. It’s fine if you have never met him before, because ES will round him out and pull you into the Burgess weeds, not the least of which is a tragedy he shares with his brother. Married to Margaret, a Unitarian minister, he’s a little in love with Lucy. We know he doesn’t seem the cheating kind. Does the heart want what the heart wants? Bob doesn’t think he deserves to be the hero in his life—or even the main character. In Tell Me Everything, he unwittingly, humbly, generously, even reluctantly, gets to be both.
Newbies to Strout can start with any of her sparkling books. If you read out of order, you’ll see some spoilers, but it doesn’t hurt too much. That’s not a huge downside. You’ll be immersed in every novel in any order. An elegant and gently spicy writer, she creates characters who breathe on the page. They can be crabby, too. Strout pens crabby, exposed characters better than anyone!
Most of the drama in TME is quiet, restless, and inward. Small things lead to big consequences. A haircut causes a surprising riptide of emotions, an unforeseen disturbance that illustrates Strout’s genius in upending routine events. Angst—both existential and specific—haunts her sympathetic cast; unresolved issues can weave and wind and bend their mettle into melancholy.
Bob is a sin-eater, says Lucy. He is drawn to people who are stuck in their transgressions. Tall and schlumpy-shaped, Bob has room in his body and soul to absorb the sins of others. He takes on a monkish criminal defendant accused of killing his mother; his ex-wife wrestles with alcohol, and his brother is a hot mess of grief. Bob is needed all over the place, but he struggles to connect with his wife.
Whether you are new or familiar to the Strout-verse, you’ll be hooked from the opening pages. I thank Random House for sending me an ARC to review. The pleasure was all mine.
May 12, 2024
4+ stars
The first half of this book moved quite slow for me, but I was trying to remember the details of the past lives of these characters, all whom I’ve met before.. but it’s been awhile… and here they were .. all together.
Olive, and Lucy both with Bob and William and all their relationships, etc.
The main focus.. the history of unrecorded lives and the meaning of life.
Olive still had moments of being… well, Olive!
It ended up being very good and … one huge takeaway..
Bob Burgess is a very good man!
Can’t wait to see if we will hear from these people again
Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing and Elizabeth Strout (one of my favorite authors)
Publishing date August 13, 2024
The first half of this book moved quite slow for me, but I was trying to remember the details of the past lives of these characters, all whom I’ve met before.. but it’s been awhile… and here they were .. all together.
Olive, and Lucy both with Bob and William and all their relationships, etc.
The main focus.. the history of unrecorded lives and the meaning of life.
Olive still had moments of being… well, Olive!
It ended up being very good and … one huge takeaway..
Bob Burgess is a very good man!
Can’t wait to see if we will hear from these people again
Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing and Elizabeth Strout (one of my favorite authors)
Publishing date August 13, 2024
Want to read
January 16, 2024Lucy Barton hanging out with Olive Kitteridge? I can't wait for this.
Shelved as 'review-copies'
January 16, 2024ITS A LUCY BARTON / OLIVE KITTERIDGE CROSSOVER!! This is my MCU
July 6, 2024
Elizabeth Strout has delivered another compelling, moving, thought provoking and gripping book. She has a writing that resonates with me. In Tell Me Everything, she combines three characters from three of her books: Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton, and Bob Burgess. It was wonderful to be back in their worlds. I especially adore Olive who continues to be spunky and bluntly tells it like it is!
I appreciated how this book focused on "undocumented lives". Elizabeth Strout has a unique gift for taking everyday events and elevating them. This book focuses on life, love, missed chances, being vulnerable, friendship, community, loneliness, aging, and lives lived. This book also has a mystery which needs to be solved but the real beauty of this book is in the characters and their complex lives, how they touch the lives of others, how the story of people's lives is important.
Beautifully written, captivating, well thought out, and thought provoking!
*Buddy read with Carolyn and DeAnn. Please read their reviews as well to get their impressions of Tell Me Everything.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
I appreciated how this book focused on "undocumented lives". Elizabeth Strout has a unique gift for taking everyday events and elevating them. This book focuses on life, love, missed chances, being vulnerable, friendship, community, loneliness, aging, and lives lived. This book also has a mystery which needs to be solved but the real beauty of this book is in the characters and their complex lives, how they touch the lives of others, how the story of people's lives is important.
Beautifully written, captivating, well thought out, and thought provoking!
*Buddy read with Carolyn and DeAnn. Please read their reviews as well to get their impressions of Tell Me Everything.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖
June 20, 2024
I feel like I have just been reunited with some old friends. It was so easy to slip back into their world. Olive, I have missed you! Lucy, it’s nice to chat with you again and garner your wisdom. And Bob, I really didn’t know you as I have never read The Burgess Boys, but I know you now and I love the warm hearted man you are- You are as Lucy said, a “sin eater”. You are you!
There is so much to explore in this book. A book that made me think about my own life- “What does anyone’s life mean?” Elizabeth Strout gets life- she knows that shit happens, but life goes on as we must go on. Life is about finding love, whether it be from your spouse, your parents, your children, your friends. Life is worth living if you have love and feel connected.
Lucy and Olive connect in this book through the power of stories. The stories they tell each other are of people who would be forgotten but are brought to life again by these remembrances. The last story that Lucy tells Olive and only Olive, left me feeling moved to my core!
Lucy and Bob connect on their walks and talks. With each other, they are able to open up and feel accepted. Isn’t that what we all want?
Strout knows what is important in life- friendship, connection, acceptance, love- she writes these books and brings these people to us so we will also remember what is important in life!
I am crossing my fingers that I get to go back to Crosby, Maine again. I have a feeling though that their journey is now complete. If it is, it is a fitting ending.
Published: 2024
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and the author, Elizabeth Strout for allowing me access to this book ahead of time. It was an absolute pleasure to read and left my heart feeling full!
There is so much to explore in this book. A book that made me think about my own life- “What does anyone’s life mean?” Elizabeth Strout gets life- she knows that shit happens, but life goes on as we must go on. Life is about finding love, whether it be from your spouse, your parents, your children, your friends. Life is worth living if you have love and feel connected.
Lucy and Olive connect in this book through the power of stories. The stories they tell each other are of people who would be forgotten but are brought to life again by these remembrances. The last story that Lucy tells Olive and only Olive, left me feeling moved to my core!
Lucy and Bob connect on their walks and talks. With each other, they are able to open up and feel accepted. Isn’t that what we all want?
Strout knows what is important in life- friendship, connection, acceptance, love- she writes these books and brings these people to us so we will also remember what is important in life!
I am crossing my fingers that I get to go back to Crosby, Maine again. I have a feeling though that their journey is now complete. If it is, it is a fitting ending.
Published: 2024
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and the author, Elizabeth Strout for allowing me access to this book ahead of time. It was an absolute pleasure to read and left my heart feeling full!
May 29, 2024
The Elizabeth Strout book I've been waiting for! The return of Bob Burgess as a main character!
I have adored Bobby Burgess since his introduction to the Burgess Boys (in which he was a main character). While Elizabeth Strout has included him as a recurring character in her books from time to time, this is the first time he's in a starring role. 🥳
Tell Me Everything is a book that connects the lives of Bobby Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kitteridge as they continue on this walk called life and yet it still leaves me wanting more. Here, Bobby Burgess is hired to represent Matthew Beach, a man accused of murdering his mother. Through this, we once again see all the things that make Bobby Burgess so special. He's like an uncle I wish I had and I love him. Olive Kitteridge is still a hoot and a half, while Lucy is as approachable as ever and is a great friend to those around her.
A book that warms the heart, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout at her best. Huge thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the arc.
I have adored Bobby Burgess since his introduction to the Burgess Boys (in which he was a main character). While Elizabeth Strout has included him as a recurring character in her books from time to time, this is the first time he's in a starring role. 🥳
Tell Me Everything is a book that connects the lives of Bobby Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kitteridge as they continue on this walk called life and yet it still leaves me wanting more. Here, Bobby Burgess is hired to represent Matthew Beach, a man accused of murdering his mother. Through this, we once again see all the things that make Bobby Burgess so special. He's like an uncle I wish I had and I love him. Olive Kitteridge is still a hoot and a half, while Lucy is as approachable as ever and is a great friend to those around her.
A book that warms the heart, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout at her best. Huge thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the arc.
May 2, 2024
Elizabeth Strout is a favorite author of mine, and some of the characters from her previous novels are back. Lucy Barton is living in Maine with her ex-husband William, and is good friends with Bob. She goes to visit Olive Kitteridge, who has stories to tell. There are many stories in this character-driven novel, and they are all thought provoking. Events that happened a long time ago seem to keep influencing everyone in this small Maine town--I enjoyed getting to know the residents of Crosby, Maine and their back stories. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this advance copy.
July 15, 2024
I was excited to get my hands on a copy of Elizabeth Strout's latest and return to some of my favorite characters in Maine, and they did not disappoint. While, as in many of her books, nothing particularly big happens, her stories carry the running theme (to me at least) that the small things really are the big things. I especially liked the focus on Bob Burgess in this book, though I will say, Lucy annoyed me a bit, but I guess she always has been a bit annoying. I'd probably recommend reading these books in order, because you really need to be acquainted with the characters and their individual stories to appreciate this one. Occasionally, it dragged a bit, but overall an enjoyable read!
March 29, 2024
About halfway through this incandescent book, one character asks the other, “…have you ever envied people?”
Well, right now, I envy every reader who has yet to dive into Tell Me Everything, which, in my opinion, is Elizabeth Strout’s best book. And that’s saying a lot, since I loved every book she has ever written.
This is a novel that only a mature author could write, filled with the quintessential questions and deceptively easy answers that years of living end up providing. Fans of Strout’s past books will delight in meeting up again with her two most iconic characters: Olive Kitteridge, who is still feisty and direct at 91 years old, and Lucy Barton, the diminutive, insightful writer, who lives down the road by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Bob Burgess, her friend and love interest, also lives within these pages, immersed in the ramifications of a murder in this small Maine town.
We meet them and other characters in this book of “unrecorded lives,” where ordinary people ruminate about the meaning of love, life, and what we’re meant to do during our brief tenure on earth. Ultimately, life is composed of stories (and each of us has stories) of loneliness, love, and the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky. And sometimes, life is about finding our linchpin who holds us afloat in this messy world.
There were many scenes where I wanted to reach within the pages and hug these stumbling but well-meaning characters. Elizabeth Strout writes, “People suffer. They live, they have hope, they even have love, and they still suffer.” But oh, what a thing this life force is and what a powerful force hope is. At the end of the day, love comes in many forms, but it is always love. That’s a message so many of us dismiss, but it holds a truth that we can’t afford to forget.
I am so grateful to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader of this healing novel, filled with characters I have long loved, and threaded with gentle insights and wisdom about what it means to be human in these challenging times. I can’t imagine Tell Me Everything not being on my Top 10 book list of the year.
Well, right now, I envy every reader who has yet to dive into Tell Me Everything, which, in my opinion, is Elizabeth Strout’s best book. And that’s saying a lot, since I loved every book she has ever written.
This is a novel that only a mature author could write, filled with the quintessential questions and deceptively easy answers that years of living end up providing. Fans of Strout’s past books will delight in meeting up again with her two most iconic characters: Olive Kitteridge, who is still feisty and direct at 91 years old, and Lucy Barton, the diminutive, insightful writer, who lives down the road by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Bob Burgess, her friend and love interest, also lives within these pages, immersed in the ramifications of a murder in this small Maine town.
We meet them and other characters in this book of “unrecorded lives,” where ordinary people ruminate about the meaning of love, life, and what we’re meant to do during our brief tenure on earth. Ultimately, life is composed of stories (and each of us has stories) of loneliness, love, and the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky. And sometimes, life is about finding our linchpin who holds us afloat in this messy world.
There were many scenes where I wanted to reach within the pages and hug these stumbling but well-meaning characters. Elizabeth Strout writes, “People suffer. They live, they have hope, they even have love, and they still suffer.” But oh, what a thing this life force is and what a powerful force hope is. At the end of the day, love comes in many forms, but it is always love. That’s a message so many of us dismiss, but it holds a truth that we can’t afford to forget.
I am so grateful to Random House for enabling me to be an early reader of this healing novel, filled with characters I have long loved, and threaded with gentle insights and wisdom about what it means to be human in these challenging times. I can’t imagine Tell Me Everything not being on my Top 10 book list of the year.
May 25, 2024
****5/25/24**** Elizabeth Strout has become one of my favorite authors, who can consistently engage me in her beautiful characters with rich friendships, realistic/flawed/interesting personalities, and plots I can relate to. Strout has a way of portraying people with all their nuances that make you really "see" them and appreciate them, warts and all.
But this novel in particular demonstrates like few if any do, the ebbs and flows of loving perspectives in long-term marriages. I used to think that people got married and it was smooth sailing after that (why I had this belief being a child of divorce, I don't know), but having friendships with both young and mature people (and being married myself) I realize that marriages are more like jellyfish floating through the ocean, constantly moving and evolving. LOL! This isn't a review of Strout's plot per se, but what you have to look forward to in reading her delightful book that brings together so many of her most loved characters.
So, a big THANK YOU to NetGalley for allowing me early ARC access, and a big 5-stars for this upcoming new release.
****4/24/24**** Just began this upcoming new release by Elizabeth Strout. The book begins with introductions to Olive Kitteridge (now 90 and living in independent living), Lucy Barton (and ex William), and Lucy's friend from Oh, William, Bob Burgess. I love all of these characters from prior novels and am excited to share their Maine-based lives again. Elizabeth Strout does such a wonderful job of portraying so-called "quirky" people and lifestyles that feels authentic and relatable and like people I would want to know in real life. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine. Also, I have never been to Maine, but it is on my list due in part to Strout's novels.
****4/17/24**** SO EXCITED!! Just got approved to read and review this NetGalley ARC!!! Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to get into this one.
****3/24/24**** I searched for this on NetGalley, but can't find it - I love Elizabeth Strout and cannot wait for this Sept 10, 2024 release!!!
But this novel in particular demonstrates like few if any do, the ebbs and flows of loving perspectives in long-term marriages. I used to think that people got married and it was smooth sailing after that (why I had this belief being a child of divorce, I don't know), but having friendships with both young and mature people (and being married myself) I realize that marriages are more like jellyfish floating through the ocean, constantly moving and evolving. LOL! This isn't a review of Strout's plot per se, but what you have to look forward to in reading her delightful book that brings together so many of her most loved characters.
So, a big THANK YOU to NetGalley for allowing me early ARC access, and a big 5-stars for this upcoming new release.
****4/24/24**** Just began this upcoming new release by Elizabeth Strout. The book begins with introductions to Olive Kitteridge (now 90 and living in independent living), Lucy Barton (and ex William), and Lucy's friend from Oh, William, Bob Burgess. I love all of these characters from prior novels and am excited to share their Maine-based lives again. Elizabeth Strout does such a wonderful job of portraying so-called "quirky" people and lifestyles that feels authentic and relatable and like people I would want to know in real life. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine. Also, I have never been to Maine, but it is on my list due in part to Strout's novels.
****4/17/24**** SO EXCITED!! Just got approved to read and review this NetGalley ARC!!! Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to get into this one.
****3/24/24**** I searched for this on NetGalley, but can't find it - I love Elizabeth Strout and cannot wait for this Sept 10, 2024 release!!!
March 27, 2024
If “Tell Me Everything” is your first Elizabeth Strout novel, well, WELCOME to Crosby, Maine, and its delightfully quirky denizens. If it’s not your first, welcome back, you’re going to be so pleased revisit the Burgess/Kitteridge/Barton universe!
(Have you ever wondered what would happen if Olive Kitteridge met Lucy Barton? Wonder no longer!)
Strout beguilingly and beautifully weaves these stories together using a collective “we” narrative voice, that I perceived to be the ethos of the entire town of Crosby. This voice has the marvelous affect of making the reader feel warmly embraced as the town relates and recalls both its most cherished and devastating secrets.
It’s as if you sat down in front of a cozy fire and asked an old friend “tell me everything”, and they do.
Prepare to laugh AND cry. This is a novel about love, sorrow, and forgiveness. Strout is such a gifted writer that YOU will “feel all the feels” that these beloved characters do.
There is not really a plot. “Tell Me Everything” is a peak into the lives of the characters over the course of a year. (There’s a bit of a mystery that adds some suspense and sadness.) But a lot of things happen over the year!
Confession: all my reading life I’ve fallen in love with fictional boys and men; from my first tween love of Mr. Rochester from “Jane Eyre” (Though I fell out of love with him when I re-read it as an adult woman: he’s a jerk!) to the Count in “A Gentleman in Moscow” …well, now I’ve fallen hard for Bob Burgess. Bet you will, too.
(Have you ever wondered what would happen if Olive Kitteridge met Lucy Barton? Wonder no longer!)
Strout beguilingly and beautifully weaves these stories together using a collective “we” narrative voice, that I perceived to be the ethos of the entire town of Crosby. This voice has the marvelous affect of making the reader feel warmly embraced as the town relates and recalls both its most cherished and devastating secrets.
It’s as if you sat down in front of a cozy fire and asked an old friend “tell me everything”, and they do.
Prepare to laugh AND cry. This is a novel about love, sorrow, and forgiveness. Strout is such a gifted writer that YOU will “feel all the feels” that these beloved characters do.
There is not really a plot. “Tell Me Everything” is a peak into the lives of the characters over the course of a year. (There’s a bit of a mystery that adds some suspense and sadness.) But a lot of things happen over the year!
Confession: all my reading life I’ve fallen in love with fictional boys and men; from my first tween love of Mr. Rochester from “Jane Eyre” (Though I fell out of love with him when I re-read it as an adult woman: he’s a jerk!) to the Count in “A Gentleman in Moscow” …well, now I’ve fallen hard for Bob Burgess. Bet you will, too.
July 30, 2024
I cannot believe I waited so long to read a novel by Elizabeth Strout! Now I understand the hype around Olive Kitteridge, the main character that holds the reins throughout the past novels written by Strout. So is this novel and I am obsessed to read more of Olive Kitteridge.
However, all characters are equally endearing in this novel as they all have their flaws and insecurities. As we progress in the book that is all about impeccable storytelling, we’ll see the characters vulnerabilities unearthed as well as their longings, their relationships and secret identities.
Is there a meaning in life? What’s love? As such highly philosophical questions are being elaborated, I was completely sucked into each of the stories that Olive, Lucy or Bob had to tell. I literally savoured every single word in this book.
„The lives people live.“ As you read through the unrecorded lives of people, you’ll notice that each life story is just as insightful and rich in dimensions as any other.
Unputdownable. Addictive. Evocative. Unique writing. I have already ordered the books series of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. 🥰🥰🥰
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Thanks to NetGalley and Elizabeth Strout for this amazing ARC in exchange for my honest review.
However, all characters are equally endearing in this novel as they all have their flaws and insecurities. As we progress in the book that is all about impeccable storytelling, we’ll see the characters vulnerabilities unearthed as well as their longings, their relationships and secret identities.
Is there a meaning in life? What’s love? As such highly philosophical questions are being elaborated, I was completely sucked into each of the stories that Olive, Lucy or Bob had to tell. I literally savoured every single word in this book.
„The lives people live.“ As you read through the unrecorded lives of people, you’ll notice that each life story is just as insightful and rich in dimensions as any other.
Unputdownable. Addictive. Evocative. Unique writing. I have already ordered the books series of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. 🥰🥰🥰
Find me on instagram
Thanks to NetGalley and Elizabeth Strout for this amazing ARC in exchange for my honest review.
May 14, 2024
Elizabeth Strout writes about real people in real situations in real places in Tell Me Everything. That they’re fictional people in fictional situations in fictional places seems almost irrelevant. Strout excels in creating true-to-life characters, so true-to-life that encountering them, their lives, and their situations in Tell Me Everything made this reader feel like a voyeur, as if I was eavesdropping on the most intimate private details and secrets sometimes better left unknown and untold. Tell Me Everything is shockingly believable, disorienting, and sometimes upsetting in its honesty.
Tell Me Everything is Strout’s tenth novel. They’re all linked, sometimes tightly and sometimes loosely, with the same characters and the same places recurring again and again. In Tell Me Everything, Strout reintroduces us to Shirley Falls and Crosby, Maine, a small town and an even smaller town. Bob Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kittredge all reappear in central roles, as do other less central characters. I find myself not particularly liking or disliking these characters any more — Bob remains goodhearted, hapless, and married to Margaret; Lucy remains intrusive, sad, and unhappily together with her first husband William; and Olive remains crusty and judgmental. Bob and Lucy are already on or soon to be on Medicare, but they’re not too old to fall embarrassingly and fruitlessly in love. Bob realizes that ”People did not care, except for maybe one minutes. It was not their fault, most just could not really care past their own experiences.” But despite all this, Bob and Lucy yearn for connections and understanding: with each other, with their friends and family, and with their neighbors. And they yearn to be able to tell somebody everything, no matter how embarrassing or hurtful, and ache with loneliness when they realize that they often can’t tell their closest friends and spouses everthing. In Tell Me Everything, it’s the characters who can’t bring themselves to tell everything who seem the most disconnected.
Central to Tell Me Everything is Lucy’s fascination with unrecorded lives, the stories of superficially ordinary people living superficially ordinary lives. But for Lucy and then for Olive, and undoubtedly for Strout as their creator, the seeming ordinariness of those lives hide extraordinary stories.
Elizabeth Strout, like Louise Erdrich, has written individually fine novels that, taken together as bodies of work, far exceed the substantial strengths of any of their individual novels. Reading Strout’s ten novels, I’ve felt as if I’ve lived in Amgash, Illinois, and Crosby, Maine, and come to know their people.
I would like to thank Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel.
Tell Me Everything is Strout’s tenth novel. They’re all linked, sometimes tightly and sometimes loosely, with the same characters and the same places recurring again and again. In Tell Me Everything, Strout reintroduces us to Shirley Falls and Crosby, Maine, a small town and an even smaller town. Bob Burgess, Lucy Barton, and Olive Kittredge all reappear in central roles, as do other less central characters. I find myself not particularly liking or disliking these characters any more — Bob remains goodhearted, hapless, and married to Margaret; Lucy remains intrusive, sad, and unhappily together with her first husband William; and Olive remains crusty and judgmental. Bob and Lucy are already on or soon to be on Medicare, but they’re not too old to fall embarrassingly and fruitlessly in love. Bob realizes that ”People did not care, except for maybe one minutes. It was not their fault, most just could not really care past their own experiences.” But despite all this, Bob and Lucy yearn for connections and understanding: with each other, with their friends and family, and with their neighbors. And they yearn to be able to tell somebody everything, no matter how embarrassing or hurtful, and ache with loneliness when they realize that they often can’t tell their closest friends and spouses everthing. In Tell Me Everything, it’s the characters who can’t bring themselves to tell everything who seem the most disconnected.
Central to Tell Me Everything is Lucy’s fascination with unrecorded lives, the stories of superficially ordinary people living superficially ordinary lives. But for Lucy and then for Olive, and undoubtedly for Strout as their creator, the seeming ordinariness of those lives hide extraordinary stories.
Elizabeth Strout, like Louise Erdrich, has written individually fine novels that, taken together as bodies of work, far exceed the substantial strengths of any of their individual novels. Reading Strout’s ten novels, I’ve felt as if I’ve lived in Amgash, Illinois, and Crosby, Maine, and come to know their people.
I would like to thank Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel.
April 15, 2024
They stood there for a few moments, not looking at each other, and then Lucy finally looked at him and said, “I am so glad to see you.” The day was sunny, and Bob put his sunglasses on. And then off they went for their walk. Lucy said, “Tell me everything. Tell me every single thing. And don’t leave anything out.”
I find something so soothing about Elizabeth Strout’s voice, and as she keeps returning to the same handful of characters over the course of her writing, I always get the feeling of catching up with old friends when I sit down with one of her books. Tell Me Everything has the feeling of a capstone narrative — all of Strout’s characters are now living and interacting with one another in Crosby, Maine — and as they visit together, telling each other stories — mostly old stories of lost loves, heartache, and women done wrong — it would be easy to dismiss this as unserious or trivial; gossip and blether. But as they talk together, and really listen to one another, it seems a demonstration of uncommon grace and I came to feel that there’s likely nothing more important than dissecting human connection through such discussions of the human heart. I don’t know if this would be as satisfying for a reader who hasn’t spent many long and pleasant hours in the company of these characters before, but for me, it was sublime. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
A thought had taken hold of Olive Kitteridge on one of these days in October, and she pondered it for almost a week before she called Bob Burgess. “I have a story to tell that writer Lucy Barton. I wish you would have her come visit me.”
That’s right: Olive Kitteridge (now ninety and living in a retirement community), Lucy Barton (still living in the big house by the sea with ex-husband William), and the Burgess boys (Bob having stayed home in Maine, now married to the Unitarian minister, Margaret, and Jim still living with his wife, Helen, in New York) are all in regular contact with one another. And as Bob and Lucy have their walks in the woods and Olive and Lucy have their living room chats, one thing seems to be certain: The Boomers are not okay. The seasons are noticeably out of whack, there’s an unfathomable homeless encampment behind the Walmart, there are drug and housing crises — not made better by rich out-of-towners like William and Lucy buying up property during the pandemic and deciding to stay on — and everyone’s adult children have moved far away. As they approach retirement, these folks are exhausted and stooped with care, forever haunted by failed marriages, unhappy childhoods, and what might have been: life is hard for the sin-eaters and the linchpins, those with repressed or false memories, and those who find themselves living with ghosts in their marriages. There’s a criminal case at the heart of the plot, and over the course of the novel we are caught up with the lives of all of the kids and ex-spouses, but Tell Me Everything is mostly about the grace-filled moments in which our familiar old friends Olive, Lucy, and Bob talk and really listen to one another.
Once again, there’s a conversational lightness to the tone, as though it’s Elizabeth Strout herself, shrugging off her parka as she settles onto the uncomfortable couch across from us, who can’t wait to tell us these stories of lost loves and heartache and the beautiful strangers she has encountered. New sections often start “Here is what had been happening to Pam: ... Then this happened, and it was ridiculous: … Her defense — as you might recall — was that…” And I found this technique to be charming and engaging; an invitation to participate personally in the moments of grace. Again: I know that sounds lightweight, but true experiences need not be heavy.
Lucy stood up and pulled on her coat. “Those are my stories,” she said, and then bent down to put her boots back on. “But you’re right. They are stories of loneliness and love.” Lucy stepped into the tiny kitchen for a moment and returned with a paper towel and she bent down and soaked up the drops of water on the floor left from her boots. Then she picked up her bag and said, “And the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky.”
Strout might not have come up with the meaning of life here (indeed, the question itself caused a rare spat between Lucy and Bob), but she certainly demonstrates how to find meaning in life, and I feel lucky to have formed such a deep connection with her body of work. Sublime.
July 4, 2024
I have a long history of forgetting how good Elizabeth Strout is until I am back in one of her novels and remember that she has this magic that you don't even realize until you've been reading one of her books for three hours straight. This novel is basically Strout's version of The Avengers, bringing together almost all of her characters into one spot and happily it's quite satisfying.
The truth is I didn't like her last novel, Lucy By the Sea, so I was nervous about this one. I read the three Lucy Barton books in a row and always struggled a little with how differently I see the world than how Lucy does, but in the third one I did not get sucked in at all. I was over Lucy. So I admit I came to the first chapter highly skeptical. And when the first chapter started with Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton meeting and becoming friends I felt kind of manipulated. But luckily this was really what I needed. I need a spoonful of Olive to help the Lucy go down. Because Olive likes Lucy a lot, just like I do, but Olive also regularly thinks "Oh brother," when Lucy says something particularly dreamy and optimistic. Knowing that someone else out there wants to tell Lucy to shut up sometimes let me relax and enjoy myself.
And I did enjoy myself! If you are thinking Oh no how will I deal with this book I didn't read The Burgess Boys, don't worry. Strout is great at giving you little reminders of things she shared in previous books when you need them. She will remind you of what Bob Burgess's deal is. (I read that book more than ten years ago! I remember nothing except Bob's name!) I love all these little asides, it feels like she is taking care of you as a reader, she is not going to make you review the entire Elizabeth Strout Literary Universe to enjoy this novel, she will give you everything you need.
This book is about confidants, about friendship, and how it can be a blessing and a curse. In particular it is about the friendship between Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess (which began in Lucy By the Sea) and where every single other person is like "hmm I think there's something going on between those two" and Elizabeth Strout is like You're not wrong! But what is it and what does it mean and what are we going to do about it.
Bob is a nice center here, he goes through a family crisis and gets a new client in a criminal case, and both of these shift how he feels about his life, his marriage, and his relationship with Lucy. Most of all he grapples with what this friendship means, what should be done about it, how he feels.
Strout doesn't romanticize, none of her characters do. She's deeply aware of how trauma continues to play out in people's lives for decades, whether they are aware of it or not. It's such an interesting and unusual thing to see from a writer of the Baby Boomer generation, and this is part of what makes her books so interesting. Some of her characters acknowledge this trauma--like Lucy or Bob--but many don't--Olive is the primary example, she gives simply a shrug of the shoulders when discussing a family member's suicide. Even those who acknowledge it do not always fully understand it, they often don't understand their own emotions or reactions, and this I think is part of what is so poignant about her work, seeing people struggle with their inner selves.
I read this in less than 24 hours, I think it's one of her best.
The truth is I didn't like her last novel, Lucy By the Sea, so I was nervous about this one. I read the three Lucy Barton books in a row and always struggled a little with how differently I see the world than how Lucy does, but in the third one I did not get sucked in at all. I was over Lucy. So I admit I came to the first chapter highly skeptical. And when the first chapter started with Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton meeting and becoming friends I felt kind of manipulated. But luckily this was really what I needed. I need a spoonful of Olive to help the Lucy go down. Because Olive likes Lucy a lot, just like I do, but Olive also regularly thinks "Oh brother," when Lucy says something particularly dreamy and optimistic. Knowing that someone else out there wants to tell Lucy to shut up sometimes let me relax and enjoy myself.
And I did enjoy myself! If you are thinking Oh no how will I deal with this book I didn't read The Burgess Boys, don't worry. Strout is great at giving you little reminders of things she shared in previous books when you need them. She will remind you of what Bob Burgess's deal is. (I read that book more than ten years ago! I remember nothing except Bob's name!) I love all these little asides, it feels like she is taking care of you as a reader, she is not going to make you review the entire Elizabeth Strout Literary Universe to enjoy this novel, she will give you everything you need.
This book is about confidants, about friendship, and how it can be a blessing and a curse. In particular it is about the friendship between Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess (which began in Lucy By the Sea) and where every single other person is like "hmm I think there's something going on between those two" and Elizabeth Strout is like You're not wrong! But what is it and what does it mean and what are we going to do about it.
Bob is a nice center here, he goes through a family crisis and gets a new client in a criminal case, and both of these shift how he feels about his life, his marriage, and his relationship with Lucy. Most of all he grapples with what this friendship means, what should be done about it, how he feels.
Strout doesn't romanticize, none of her characters do. She's deeply aware of how trauma continues to play out in people's lives for decades, whether they are aware of it or not. It's such an interesting and unusual thing to see from a writer of the Baby Boomer generation, and this is part of what makes her books so interesting. Some of her characters acknowledge this trauma--like Lucy or Bob--but many don't--Olive is the primary example, she gives simply a shrug of the shoulders when discussing a family member's suicide. Even those who acknowledge it do not always fully understand it, they often don't understand their own emotions or reactions, and this I think is part of what is so poignant about her work, seeing people struggle with their inner selves.
I read this in less than 24 hours, I think it's one of her best.
June 19, 2024
Opening an Elizabeth Strout novel is like coming home. I instantly feel comfortable and settle in for a good story.
I grew up with story tellers. I loved when Mom told me stories of her childhood and teen years. Dad wrote a memoir about his life, and my Grandfather wrote articles to his hometown paper about growing up. I loved friends whose hands waved in the air as they related stories of their lives. And I love Strout and Lucy Barton for telling the stories of ordinary people. Because we are all ordinary, with extraordinary histories that are forgotten in a few generations. Because we all wonder what the point of our lives are, and feel separate and alone, and don’t understand who we are. And reading Strout, I feel seen.
“Lucy Barton inspires me to be a better person,” I thought as I lived my life while reading this novel. When people talk, she is present in the moment, listening and understanding. She is not distracted by her own concerns or by cell phones or with thoughts of what she must do next. Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess and others who are lucky enough to have her for a friend feel seen, heard, and loved, and love her in return.
I am nearly in tears as I write this. In this world where we are bombarded with negativity and divisiveness, we need to be reminded how to love. Lucy and Bob and Olive show us how to love one another, changing lives, and making their own lives matter.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
I grew up with story tellers. I loved when Mom told me stories of her childhood and teen years. Dad wrote a memoir about his life, and my Grandfather wrote articles to his hometown paper about growing up. I loved friends whose hands waved in the air as they related stories of their lives. And I love Strout and Lucy Barton for telling the stories of ordinary people. Because we are all ordinary, with extraordinary histories that are forgotten in a few generations. Because we all wonder what the point of our lives are, and feel separate and alone, and don’t understand who we are. And reading Strout, I feel seen.
“Lucy Barton inspires me to be a better person,” I thought as I lived my life while reading this novel. When people talk, she is present in the moment, listening and understanding. She is not distracted by her own concerns or by cell phones or with thoughts of what she must do next. Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess and others who are lucky enough to have her for a friend feel seen, heard, and loved, and love her in return.
I am nearly in tears as I write this. In this world where we are bombarded with negativity and divisiveness, we need to be reminded how to love. Lucy and Bob and Olive show us how to love one another, changing lives, and making their own lives matter.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
May 30, 2024
Elizabeth Strout brings all the characters in her previous books together, anchored by Bob Burgess as the central figure. Crosby Maine, home of Olive Kitteridge, is where they live, connected. Lucy Barton and her universe are present, which made me realize how I wanted her story to continue, as well as that of Isabelle and daughter Amy and the Burgess Boys. Although not front ad center, Olive herself plays a pivotal role from her retirement home. What Strout does so well is reactive storytelling. Yes, there are shocking life changing experiences present, but they are mostly offstage. It is the aftermath, the effect on the people she highlights, their innermost thoughts and reactions that form the major elements of the storytelling. She sneaks in histories of "unrecorded lives," each almost the fulcrum of a complete story in itself, creating a community of believable souls. What a fertile, interesting mind she has.
May 19, 2024
Deceptive in its simplicity, this fourth book in Strout’s Amgash series is lovely, with its focus on Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess, but also their partners, children, siblings, the people in their world in the small town in Maine where Lucy has settled with her ex-husband William, and Bob has spent his whole life, long married to minister Margaret. Olive Kitteridge is here as well, a friendship of sorts between she and Lucy predicated on telling each other stories about life and love and great loss and terrible harm, stories of those lives that go unrecorded. Perhaps Lucy is a stand-in for Strout, and although I’ve never quite believed that Lucy is a writer, I so enjoy being with these characters, how they see the world and themselves. It’s a thoughtful place, a gentle place, one of friendship and good deeds, even as it’s roiled by what is broken in others and themselves, their individual desires and hurts, and by the world. Reading this was a kind of tonic for the soul.
Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the arc.
Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the arc.
June 9, 2024
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion wrote. Some three hundred years earlier, Bishop George Berkeley famously observed, “To be is to be perceived.”
"Tell Me Everything" is about stories: The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we tell others, the stories that are told about us. Everyone in the book is a storyteller: Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, others. And Elizabeth Strout, of course — the woman who is telling us all these stories. We're drawn to stories. Always have been. The stories tell us so much about the subjects of the stories and the worlds they live in. About the storyteller too. Lucy Barton, for example. Do we admire her? Trust her judgment? There's nuance here.
A line from the book: ”That is really all we know of Gloria Beach at this moment. But the point is that she had her story, as we all have our stories. And we will return to it in time."
The quote captures two key things about "Tell Me Everything". First, that everyone has a story, is a character in some story (save for those sad lives that are, as Olive Kitteridge thinks, unrecorded). And second, that Strout will address the reader directly from time to time, deliberately drawing us into the conversation.
Another key to the book: "That’s just how it is, that’s all. He thought: God, we are all so alone." The "he" here is Bob Burgess, a character in several of Strout's Maine books. A lawyer, long-time bearer of undeserved guilt. Everyman. At the deepest level, we are indeed alone. Alone with our thoughts, fears, desires, the million-and-one things we can't express, even to ourselves. We need other people to give us dimension, to make us whole, make us real. Google the phrase "humans as storytellers" and you'll see what I mean. Storytelling is central to our being as humans. We're hardwired for it. Stories are how we make sense of the world and ourselves, how we connect with one another, how we survive. Every page of "Tell Me Everything" reflects this truth. Watching all the stories here unfold, mapping the connections between them, we find ourselves drawn into the lives of Strout's characters. We can't stop ourselves from judging these people, trying to sort out whether we like them or not, whether we think them noble or weak or selfish.
At any given moment, Strout has any number of stories going on, and we want to hear those stories every bit as much as her characters do. Those questions that form in our minds: Who loves who? who was the killer? why is that couple arguing? will their marriage dissolve? what in her youth made that woman over there the awful person she became? will that attraction be acted on? Even the gossipers are storytellers at heart: "Curtains are drawn later. And so it happened that one evening during this time the curtains had not yet been pulled in the home of Margaret Estaver and Bob Burgess, and while only a few people witnessed what happened, it went around town very fast: The couple had a big fight.”
Sometimes the stories in the book take us to dark spaces, other times not. But they are all profoundly human. Because when the stories aren’t told, what is left? "Olive Kitteridge had been thinking about all the unrecorded lives around her. Lucy Barton had used that phrase when she first met Olive and heard Olive’s story about her mother: unrecorded lives, she had said. And Olive thought about this. Everywhere in the world people led their lives unrecorded, and this struck her now." What are our lives if we are not known or remembered?
The title -- "Tell Me Everything" -- is an invitation one character makes to another, but it puts the reader in the same place the characters occupy. They want to know; we want to know. So we listen to the story Olive tells Lucy and hear the thoughts about Lucy she doesn’t give voice to. And to the stories Bob tells Lucy, that make her call him a “sin-eater” and wonder what she means. And we read about that awful woman and eagerly wait for Strout to “return to it in time.” So many stories. So many lives.
Late in the novel, when Lucy is asked about the point of writing stories, she responds, “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.”
Yes, it is.
My thanks to Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
"Tell Me Everything" is about stories: The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we tell others, the stories that are told about us. Everyone in the book is a storyteller: Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, others. And Elizabeth Strout, of course — the woman who is telling us all these stories. We're drawn to stories. Always have been. The stories tell us so much about the subjects of the stories and the worlds they live in. About the storyteller too. Lucy Barton, for example. Do we admire her? Trust her judgment? There's nuance here.
A line from the book: ”That is really all we know of Gloria Beach at this moment. But the point is that she had her story, as we all have our stories. And we will return to it in time."
The quote captures two key things about "Tell Me Everything". First, that everyone has a story, is a character in some story (save for those sad lives that are, as Olive Kitteridge thinks, unrecorded). And second, that Strout will address the reader directly from time to time, deliberately drawing us into the conversation.
Another key to the book: "That’s just how it is, that’s all. He thought: God, we are all so alone." The "he" here is Bob Burgess, a character in several of Strout's Maine books. A lawyer, long-time bearer of undeserved guilt. Everyman. At the deepest level, we are indeed alone. Alone with our thoughts, fears, desires, the million-and-one things we can't express, even to ourselves. We need other people to give us dimension, to make us whole, make us real. Google the phrase "humans as storytellers" and you'll see what I mean. Storytelling is central to our being as humans. We're hardwired for it. Stories are how we make sense of the world and ourselves, how we connect with one another, how we survive. Every page of "Tell Me Everything" reflects this truth. Watching all the stories here unfold, mapping the connections between them, we find ourselves drawn into the lives of Strout's characters. We can't stop ourselves from judging these people, trying to sort out whether we like them or not, whether we think them noble or weak or selfish.
At any given moment, Strout has any number of stories going on, and we want to hear those stories every bit as much as her characters do. Those questions that form in our minds: Who loves who? who was the killer? why is that couple arguing? will their marriage dissolve? what in her youth made that woman over there the awful person she became? will that attraction be acted on? Even the gossipers are storytellers at heart: "Curtains are drawn later. And so it happened that one evening during this time the curtains had not yet been pulled in the home of Margaret Estaver and Bob Burgess, and while only a few people witnessed what happened, it went around town very fast: The couple had a big fight.”
Sometimes the stories in the book take us to dark spaces, other times not. But they are all profoundly human. Because when the stories aren’t told, what is left? "Olive Kitteridge had been thinking about all the unrecorded lives around her. Lucy Barton had used that phrase when she first met Olive and heard Olive’s story about her mother: unrecorded lives, she had said. And Olive thought about this. Everywhere in the world people led their lives unrecorded, and this struck her now." What are our lives if we are not known or remembered?
The title -- "Tell Me Everything" -- is an invitation one character makes to another, but it puts the reader in the same place the characters occupy. They want to know; we want to know. So we listen to the story Olive tells Lucy and hear the thoughts about Lucy she doesn’t give voice to. And to the stories Bob tells Lucy, that make her call him a “sin-eater” and wonder what she means. And we read about that awful woman and eagerly wait for Strout to “return to it in time.” So many stories. So many lives.
Late in the novel, when Lucy is asked about the point of writing stories, she responds, “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.”
Yes, it is.
My thanks to Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
July 27, 2024
A wonderful book.
I love all of Strout. I love the difficult Olive. I love Lucy.
And I feel connected to all these people.
Strout's characters are not complicated but their relationships often are. And by keeping her characters internally relatively simple, I am able to understand and empathize with them. She is interested in people and seems to have deep compassion and care for and about them. Her interest and compassion are contagious and I finish her books feeling more optimistic about and hopeful for all of us. And my sense of "we are all in this together"
There was a moment when I was afraid Strout was gong to let me down and leave me saddened but she turned it around so that I had a satisfying feeling of resolution.
Love permeates her stories.
I think it's helpful to read her books in order. At least, to have read them before reading this one. My memory is her other books can be read independently but this book seems to sum up and rely upon all her previous ones.
I hope there are more to follow!
Thanks to Random House, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I love all of Strout. I love the difficult Olive. I love Lucy.
And I feel connected to all these people.
Strout's characters are not complicated but their relationships often are. And by keeping her characters internally relatively simple, I am able to understand and empathize with them. She is interested in people and seems to have deep compassion and care for and about them. Her interest and compassion are contagious and I finish her books feeling more optimistic about and hopeful for all of us. And my sense of "we are all in this together"
There was a moment when I was afraid Strout was gong to let me down and leave me saddened but she turned it around so that I had a satisfying feeling of resolution.
Love permeates her stories.
I think it's helpful to read her books in order. At least, to have read them before reading this one. My memory is her other books can be read independently but this book seems to sum up and rely upon all her previous ones.
I hope there are more to follow!
Thanks to Random House, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 2, 2024
Tell Me Everything is primarily Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess's stories, but there are the usual assortment of other seperate yet interconnected stories with new and familiar characters. I love love loved that Olive and Lucy finally met and became story telling buddies.
I have read both Olive Kitteridge books and the four Lucy Barton books, but this one felt so close to my heart, and the stories were touching and resonated with some distant part of my own life. Please don't tell me that this is the last novel with these characters, this felt a little bit final and I'm not ready to leave any of them behind just yet.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book. I loved every minute of this.
I have read both Olive Kitteridge books and the four Lucy Barton books, but this one felt so close to my heart, and the stories were touching and resonated with some distant part of my own life. Please don't tell me that this is the last novel with these characters, this felt a little bit final and I'm not ready to leave any of them behind just yet.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book. I loved every minute of this.
May 19, 2024
I felt filled with joy when within a few pages I was back with so many of Strout's past characters. She, as ever, nimbly fits them into her narrative, using past novels to inform the situations and motivations of this book's cast. Even Isabelle (from Amy & Isabelle) has an off the page role. Just perfect for the readers who have devoured Strout's whole backlist.
I just adore how her characters combine colour, mundanity and the everyday yet are swept into individual life dramas. Does he/she feel the same about a relationship? true feelings about blended families, small town sensibilities with visitors, petty recriminations....it is all there. We also see the many connections with New York with the comings and goings.
Bob Burgess acts as lawyer when a long missing woman is found drowned and her son is charged with murder. Whilst these investigations could be seen as the spine of the story, I enjoyed how it was treated as one component of community life. Gossip, to an extent played an equal part for piecing together the mystery.
I love the ageing Olive, snarky and opinionated as ever telling and hearing snippets of lives lived. My least favourite character William, who featured so largely in Lucy By the Sea was a bit player in this book. I find him so irritating, I expect that is why Strout uses him or it may be my intolerance! These are very real people to me. I only withheld one star because of William, which is perhaps unfair!
With thanks to @NetGalley and @penguinuk for the opportunity to read and review
I just adore how her characters combine colour, mundanity and the everyday yet are swept into individual life dramas. Does he/she feel the same about a relationship? true feelings about blended families, small town sensibilities with visitors, petty recriminations....it is all there. We also see the many connections with New York with the comings and goings.
Bob Burgess acts as lawyer when a long missing woman is found drowned and her son is charged with murder. Whilst these investigations could be seen as the spine of the story, I enjoyed how it was treated as one component of community life. Gossip, to an extent played an equal part for piecing together the mystery.
I love the ageing Olive, snarky and opinionated as ever telling and hearing snippets of lives lived. My least favourite character William, who featured so largely in Lucy By the Sea was a bit player in this book. I find him so irritating, I expect that is why Strout uses him or it may be my intolerance! These are very real people to me. I only withheld one star because of William, which is perhaps unfair!
With thanks to @NetGalley and @penguinuk for the opportunity to read and review
April 3, 2024
"When are you coming?" Bob asked; he had stopped on the stairway. And she said she was flying in tomorrow and would rent a car and stay at the hotel right in town. "Are you okay?" he asked, and she said, "I don't know, Bob. I just do not know."
In classic Elizabeth Strout style we pick up the threads of each of her characters' stories and watch her weave them together once more. While I have loved the snarkiness of Olive and the gentleness of Lucy for years, I find in this story I'm drawn to Bob. He meanders his way, while overlooking how hard he is actually searching. For connection, for meaning, for love and for his place in both his community and his family. I fell for Bob's innocence and loyalty. He is a keeper.
In classic Elizabeth Strout style we pick up the threads of each of her characters' stories and watch her weave them together once more. While I have loved the snarkiness of Olive and the gentleness of Lucy for years, I find in this story I'm drawn to Bob. He meanders his way, while overlooking how hard he is actually searching. For connection, for meaning, for love and for his place in both his community and his family. I fell for Bob's innocence and loyalty. He is a keeper.
Want to read
January 12, 2024THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED FOR THIS YEAR
Currently reading
January 28, 2024Going to throw up when I hold this book in my hands for the first time
April 8, 2024
When Elizabeth Strout publishes a new book: I shut up and LISTEN
July 6, 2024
In the continuing tale of Lucy Barton, it is post covid time and she is still living in Maine with her former husband, William. As she goes about her daily activities, she interacts with familiar characters like Bob Burgess and Olive Kitteridge and we meet new people in her life. It is about “people and the lives they lead.” What does anyone’s life mean?
This is another beautiful novel…well thought out and written. Strout is a gifted writer whose characters are idiosyncratic and delightful. This is about the living of life, particularly “unrecorded” lives, in all its poignancy. There is sadness, joy, despair, hope. Written with humor and pathos, Strout, through Lucy and her other characters, is profound in her simple observations. And yet there is also a reflection of the larger world and the divided country in which we now live.
Thanks to #NetGalley and @RandomHouse for the DRC.
This is another beautiful novel…well thought out and written. Strout is a gifted writer whose characters are idiosyncratic and delightful. This is about the living of life, particularly “unrecorded” lives, in all its poignancy. There is sadness, joy, despair, hope. Written with humor and pathos, Strout, through Lucy and her other characters, is profound in her simple observations. And yet there is also a reflection of the larger world and the divided country in which we now live.
Thanks to #NetGalley and @RandomHouse for the DRC.
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