The Burgess Boys
Ratings17
Average rating4.1
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton comes “a portrait of an American community in turmoil that’s as ambitious as Philip Roth’s American Pastoral but more intimate in tone” (Time). “What truly makes Strout exceptional . . . is the perfect balance she achieves between the tides of story and depths of feeling.”—Chicago Tribune A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Good Housekeeping Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed the brothers’ relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. This edition includes an original essay by Elizabeth Strout about the origins of The Burgess Boys.
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From the beginning of the book the reader notices the narrative stance–someone who knew the Burgess family back in Maine is telling their story. She then gives herself license to tell it in an omniscient voice, which is an interesting choice. She flits through the thoughts of siblings Jim, and Bob, and Susan, of Jim's wife and Bob's ex-wife, and various other characters. If there's a single dominant presence in the book, though, it is Bob, the younger, ineffectual brother, the one who is the target of Jim's cruelty. While none of these characters are likable, I did find myself sympathizing most with Bob.
In the end, the book is a story about family, but it's also a story about tolerance and forgiveness.
I almost gave up on Burgess Boys. I was a third of the way in and I wasn't feeling that I-can't-stop-turning-the-pages feeling like I did when I read Strout's Olive Kitteridge.
Then I went to see Strout in Houston. She was charming. Funny. Endearing. She read aloud from the book. She talked about how messy she is. She spoke about how she taught herself to write.
Okay. Let's give her one more chance.
Glad I did. No, BB is not OK. But it is close. Ordinary life. Characters who are a just-right mix of good guys and bad guys. Solid plot. Yes, a worthy read. But, be forewarned, it's no Olive Kitteridge. Just so you know.
