Strout’s return to fictional town a winner

By: Reviewed by Bev Sandell Greenberg Posted: 4:00 AM CDT Saturday, Apr. 29, 2017

In the words of the author Barbara Kingsolver, “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.”

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In the words of the author Barbara Kingsolver, “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.”

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In the words of the author Barbara Kingsolver, “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.”

Such is the case in Elizabeth Strout’s compassionate sophomore novel-in-stories. Replete with tales of love, loss and redemption, it takes an unblinking glimpse at the characters who inhabit Amgash, a fictional town in northern Illinois. In terms of social class and setting, the novel brings to mind Alice Munro’s short stories and Dianne Warren’s novel Cool Water, albeit with a different treatment.

Strout is an acclaimed American novelist currently living in New York. She is best known for Olive Kitteridge, her debut novel, which received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize and was later produced as an HBO miniseries.

Her most recent novel My Name Is Lucy Barton, published in 2016, was a New York Times bestseller; it tells of a visit between an estranged mother and her seriously ill daughter, the eponymous heroine. This is Strout’s sixth novel.

Readers should note that the book can stand alone for those unfamiliar with Strout’s writing. However, it also functions as a companion piece, delving further into the lives of some of the townspeople mentioned briefly in My Name Is Lucy Barton.

The aptly chosen title Anything Is Possible has two meanings: Not only does it refer to the remarkable trajectory of Lucy’s life from an outcast who came “from nothing” to become a famous author; but it also forewarns us that the characters will behave in unexpected ways.

Anything Is Possible is set in Amgash 17 years after Lucy’s last visit there. Accordingly, the succinct, lucid narratives centre around characters who are either middle-aged, like her, or senior citizens from her late parents’ generation.

Among them are the school caretaker, a farmer, the Nicely sisters and a Vietnam vet, as well as some cousins. The fact that these characters are introduced in more than one story helps the reader get better acquainted with them.

Throughout the novel, Lucy serves as the linchpin, for she remains ever present in the minds of the townspeople. Much to Strout’s credit, the internal monologues of the other characters reveal telling details about Lucy. In one instance, a cousin recalls a memory of her as a child. “How terribly poor she had been as well, how when he went as a kid to stay with her family a few weeks each summer she would go with him to look for food in the Dumpster.”

Two of the chapters involve Lucy’s family members. In Sisters, Lucy arrives at her brother’s place in Amgash in the midst of her book tour; at first, the visit goes well until their sister shows up and the unexpected occurs. In Gift, a relative sets out to retrieve his grandchild’s toy from a performance they attended, only to encounter some unsettling surprises.

Strout’s latest book demonstrates her ability to plumb the depths of her characters’ lives. Anything Is Possible will no doubt appeal to a wide audience and win her new fans.

Bev Sandell Greenberg is a Winnipeg writer and editor.