When L finished the book she loaned it to me recommending that I read it. Thanks, L, it is was a fine read. Elizabeth Strout received the Pulitzer for her Olive Kitteridge. Now Tell Me Everything is up to her usual standards. Many characters from her previous books appear in Tell, so it's helpful, but not mandatory, to read her books in the sequence in which they were published.
A reoccurring theme in Tell is the obscurity and anonymity of many person's lives. This is particularly true of those who die young. As an antidote to this anonymity Lucy Barton, a main character in many of Strout's books, and elderly Olive Kitteridge, the character in the book for which Strout received the Pulitzer, meet to share stories of otherwise forgotten people. Thus, the book's title, Tell Me Everything.
The book is charged with wit and wisdom about life and the meaning of life. Strout's weaving of themes, characters and circumstances sustain attention. This is a book in which good things sometimes happen to the characters to whom the reader is attached. Strout obviously likes the characters with which she peoples her writings. Illustrations of grace abound.
Takk for alt,
Al
On this day, December 15, Ed and I graduated from Marine Corps Bootcamp, sixty-five years ago. Graduation is a big deal in the Corps. We'd shared life in a Quonset Hut and membership in the same platoon. Given mandatory leave by the Marines, Ed and I headed home. In 1959 airplane travel was not ubiquitous so we shared a twenty four hour bus ride from San Diego to Omaha, where Ed headed east and I north. Our farm backgrounds gave us much to share. After we finished our leave we were assigned to the same unit so we were together until I finished my enlistment.
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