The thing I enjoy the most about Elizabeth Strout’s writing is how her stories sound as if she were sitting in my kitchen passing along some local gossip over a cup of tea. Her particular Maine-sounding colloquialisms are so familiar (even though I’m Canadian and not from Maine) to anyone who grew up in a small town. “Here is what was happening with Olive:” she writes as if she were updating me on what Olive Kitteridge had been up to since we last had tea a week ago. Strout’s books also remind me of the Peyton Place books by Grace Metalious. Small towns in reality are not as innocent as many people assume them to be.

In Tell Me Everything, Strout’s latest novel in her series set in Crosby, Maine, she touches on all her familiar characters. Lucy Barton and an aging Olive Kitteridge meet every week or so to exchange stories. Bob and Jim Burgess are still struggling to find out who killed their father. Everyone has trouble with their offspring. Bob Burgess is conflicted about his love for Lucy. Matthew Beach is a mysterious character with hidden talents, but was he capable of murdering his mother?

With an extensive cast of characters and their multiple marriages and children, it was tricky to reconnect with everyone’s back story when I first started reading Tell Me Everything. I almost felt like I should start again at the beginning reading the first book, Olive Kitteridge, and then each subsequent book again to bring myself up to date on the characters’ complicated lives. Fortunately, I soon fell into the rhythm and Strout is very good at backfilling her narrative so we’re not confused. It refreshed my mind on the depth of her characters and how much I enjoy reading about them.

Strout is brilliant at narrating stories in Norman-Rockwell-like settings with beautiful descriptions of budding spring vegetation, lush summers, and crisp, colourful autumns. Even the clothing worn by her characters reflects the changing seasons and helps keep the story moving along chronologically. Incidentally, her Lucy Barton character shares my love of dandelions. As soon as I see them each year I know spring has arrived. As I watch them pop up in greening grass alongside sidewalks and in front yards, they’re like tiny bursts of warm sunshine. Relatable and familiar.

Amidst the background of early daffodils and bursting spring buds, however, runs a dark undercurrent of murder, sexual abuse, and deception. As someone who grew up in a similar, semi-rural community, I find small-town life is often romantically over-simplified by outsiders. The author sets us straight on this misconception.

Skilled writers like Elizabeth Strout have an innate understanding of human behaviour and emotion. Describing Bob Burgess’s love for Lucy Barton as “To be in love when the outcome is uncertain is an exquisite kind of agony,” resonated deeply with me. Who among us hasn’t suffered similar insecurity in the early stages of a new love affair? Her characters are flawed, as every human being is. But each has a deeper story that helps explain their shortcomings and questionable behaviours. These stories are part of the complex quilt that makes up everyone’s lives.

When I first started reading Tell Me Everything I was slow getting into it, then I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down once I fell into the familiar storyline with characters I felt I already knew. I have read all the books in Strout’s Crosby series and I hope this is not her last. Olive Kitteridge is in her nineties, but she’s still alive. Will Bob and Lucy’s love ever be consummated? Will Lucy’s new marriage work out? Will Larry Burgess ever forgive his father? Is Matt Beach finally going to get the life he deserves? There are so many potential plotlines to be followed in this lovely soap opera, so I’m optimistic Lucy’s visits with Olive will continue. I look forward to reading more news on the lives of the people from Crosby, Maine. Put the kettle on and pull up a comfy chair. Elizabeth Strout is a wonderful storyteller.

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