Play Book Tag discussion

I liked this book better than Olive Kitteridge which says quite a lot. Elizabeth Strout is most certainly one of my favorite, if not my favorite author right now. Her writing comes across as really quite, and sort of minimalist, but the emotional punches she packs are not those of any welterweight.

This book reads like a series of short stories. In each story, the characters are in some fashion tied to the protagonist of her last book, My Name Is Lucy Barton. Personally, it made me want to go re-read that one again and perhaps draw a picture of the various relationships amongst these characters to Lucy and to one another. The stories do build upon one another so there's more of an effect of a novel than merely of short stories. But after each story, I felt myself wanting to pause and think about the story more before moving onto the next. There's really no one like this author when it comes to illuminating some of life's hard truth. I think some people might find her writing to be depressing, but I feel it speaks to people's deepest emotions which is no easy task. I'm usually not someone who reads all the work of one author, or even attempts to do that. This author will be the exception.

I bought this one yesterday- I may need to get to it sooner rather than later, since I've only heard good things. I loved Olive, so this bodes well!

You'll love it Tracey! Anita, re-reading Lucy Barton sounds like a great idea. I think I'll do just that.