Elizabeth Strout brings many of her familiar characters back together in Crosby, Maine. By pulling in people and histories from her earlier books, she continues the character‑driven storytelling she’s known for.
This time, Lucy Barton and her ex‑husband William, Bob Burgess and his wife Margaret, and Olive Kitteridge and her friend Isabelle Goodrow all end up in the same orbit. It’s an unusual mix, and even when I tried to map out how everyone was connected, it still felt tangled. What holds the book together is the way these characters pair off and share stories about other people. There is a lot of this. Bob hears about his sister‑in‑law’s declining health from his sister instead of his brother. Olive learns about Isabelle’s future living situation from the retirement‑home staff. Bob hears about Lucy’s plans from William. Almost everything comes secondhand, like gossip passed along before reaching the source. It made me want to know the full truth behind each story.
Each character is trying to understand not only their own place in the world but also what life means more broadly. Lucy and Olive meet to talk about “unrecorded lives,” hoping to shine light on people who might otherwise be forgotten. The fear of not being remembered—or not mattering—runs through many of Strout’s stories about these women, and it feels like the force behind their need to tell and retell these moments.
Bob’s murder case also ties into this theme of being seen. The young man accused of killing his mother has lived a life mostly unnoticed while caring for her. Bob helps bring him into a world he has been shut out of. This storyline requires action based on what Bob observes in the present, while many of the other stories rely on looking back at things that have already happened.
I enjoyed reading about these people, but this is a very contemplative book.
The Source 4 Books 