As I was reading Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, “Tell Me Everything,” I kept thinking about the recent box-office smash, “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Mrs. Biblioracle and I are both moderate fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having seen — I don’t know — maybe 20 or 25 of the various products, including the first two Deadpool movies, but we are not obsessives or fully-versed in MCU arcana.
We both mostly enjoyed our time in the theater watching Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman punch, kick, slice and quip their way through the film. But at the same time, even while watching the movie, I knew there were all kinds of references, associations and in-jokes rooted in the broader MCU that I was missing. This was confirmed once I got home and found an article on the 45 “Easter eggs” that are apparently embedded in the film, the vast majority of which flew right past me.
Over the course of her amazing career, which includes multiple bestsellers and a Pulitzer Prize for 2008’s “Olive Kitteridge,” Elizabeth Strout has been doing something similar to Marvel Comics, building a universe of characters — in this case centering on rural Maine rather than the, uhh … entire universe — whose lives overlap across many different stories.
Just to show I’m not a total cretin unaware of literary precedent, Strout’s project is similar to William Faulkner’s approach with his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, but honestly, the way Strout puts her characters into juxtaposition with each other is more similar to the MCU than what Faulkner was up to.
The Deadpool and Wolverine of “Tell Me Everything” are Strout’s most enduring, recurring characters, the sour, but deep-down tenderhearted Olive Kitteridge, and the sunny, but deep-down troubled Lucy Barton, first featured in “My Name is Lucy Barton,” and most recently seen in “Lucy by the Sea.”
“Tell Me Everything” picks up where “Lucy by the Sea” leaves off, with the residents of small-town Maine emerging from lockdown and trying to reorient to a world that seems suddenly strange. Lucy and Olive are connected by Bob Burgess (from 2013’s “The Burgess Boys”), a mostly retired local lawyer in the midst of a second marriage. Bob tells Lucy that Olive has a story he thinks she’d like to hear, and periodically throughout the book, Lucy and Olive trade vignettes about people they’ve known or things they’ve experienced.
Other threads populate the narrative. Bob and Lucy appear to be falling for each other on the frequent walks they share. Bob takes the case of a reclusive man who is suspected of killing his mother and is secretly a brilliant painter. A good dozen or more of the characters from Strout’s other books make appearances of varying importance, sometimes becoming the focal point for a single scene, other times carrying a story thread over several chapters.
The book is structured by following the seasons as Maine thaws out from both the pandemic and its usual harsh winter. At times, the depth of affection Strout has for all of her creations can threaten to become saccharine. Olive Kitteridge is a rather defanged version of the woman we first met in 2008, but perhaps this is simply the effects of aging and time. Other times, while I appreciated callbacks to previous episodes I recalled from Strout’s other books, I wondered if someone not immersed in the Strout-verse would experience the same resonance.
But then, some small observation or exchange between characters would stun me with the depth of Strout’s connection to the inner lives of her people, and my breath would catch.
This is the pleasure of Strout’s books. No previous experience required.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The Violin Conspiracy” by Brendan Slocumb
2. “Toxic Prey” by John Sandford
3. “Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet” by George Monbiot
4. “Cracking the Nazi Code” by Jason Bell
5. “The Lost City of the Monkey God” by Douglas Preston
— Jim M., Buffalo Grove
This book is a bit strange, but I think Jim will appreciate the combination of suspense and philosophical exploration of people trapped in an extreme situation. “The Wall” by John Lanchester.
1. “The Guest List” by Lucy Foley
2. “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden
3. “Camino Island” by John Grisham
4. “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” by Gillian McAllister
5. “Beneath a Scarlet Sky” by Mark Sullivan
— Jarrett R., Elk Grove
We need something with some tension and mystery. I think Jarrett is a good match with my friend Teddy Wayne’s page-turner, “The Winner.”
1. “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder” by David Grann
2. “Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time” by Dava Sobel
3. “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer
4. “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer
5. “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer
— Jack G., Chicago
Well, a very clear reading pattern here, nonfiction of the adventure story variety. This was a very popular book, so Jack might have read it, but it was published almost 30 years ago, so maybe not, “The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
