by Elizabeth Strout
4.8 · 4 reviews4 reviews
Read it three times. She earns her endings like nobody else.
If you loved Olive you'll be right at home. Slightly less bite than the Kitteridge books, slightly more tenderness.
Almost nothing happens and I was wrecked. That's the Strout effect. The chapter with the two sisters in the car is perfect.
She writes small-town interiority better than anyone alive. Every character here is carrying something they can't name, and the moments when they nearly say it are unbearable.