Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything
(Amgash, #5)

Elizabeth Strout

352 pages, Hardcover, Expected publication September 10, 2024

Tell Me Everything: Well, I am telling you this, there are no words that I can find that will ever adequately describe the beauty, the joy, in losing yourself in this extraordinary novel about people who are broken in their own unique ways. 

The story centres around Bob Burgess who is the intersection, the linchpin of everyone in the story. It is a burden Bob carries with good grace but at times his weariness is very evident. No matter how heavy the personal toll, Bob Burgess is always there helping people. Crossing through Bob’s world is Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Margaret Burgess, Jim Burgess, and Pam Carlson. Yes, they are all here and it a master class in writing how seamlessly these interactions occur. 

There are several narratives that are key in this story. You have Bob Burgess undertaking his activities in the community by helping those in need and his representation of Matthew Beach who is facing allegations of murdering his mother. Bob is there to support his brother and family when his sister-in-law dies. Then the women in Bob’s life, his wife Margaret, his ex-wife Pam and his growing feelings for Lucy Barton. It is complicated but so deftly handled.  

 Olive is in a nursing home, still as feisty as ever but age takes its toll on all. Lucy is trying to navigate a relationship with her children. Lucy meets with Olive and they start an ongoing conversation about unrecorded lives. For Olive it initially comes across as if she wants to pass these stories on, to allow them to continue to live. They talk about ordinary people, fleeting moments of engagement, with the last story being the most poignant of all. 

Strout’s writing is simply divine and from those opening words I was hooked into this world that has become almost like a second home. It is quite simply glorious.