“Anything Is Possible” by Elizabeth Strout

I used to think I was too fussy of a person to read short stories so I gave up on them for a while. Short stories are hard work to read. They don’t compare to the ease it takes to fly through a real page-turner novel or memoir. But I decided to give this collection of short stories a shot because they are all interconnected. Jeff talks about connections in data all the time. You might remember my review of “My Name is Lucy Barton” last year also written by Elizabeth Strout. I loved that book about a mother who sits with her daughter in a hospital room and they reflect upon their complicated relationship, sad lives and the small town in Illinois where they are from. You need to read that book first in order to understand this one. “Anything Is Possible” is a collection of stories showcasing the people from Lucy Barton’s hometown. I thought as I was reading this book that there might be one final story in which all of the characters come together, but there is not. Life is just not neat and tidy like that. Life is messy, people make detours and people move on.  You have to work hard to figure out the interconnected relationships in this book, but that is like completing a difficult Sunday puzzle. In April, when Jennifer Senior reviewed this book in the “New York Times,” she said the stories were about “an army of hurting men and women, desperate for liberation from their wounds” and later “many characters walk around with great satchels of unexpressed love.” There are plenty of books about people who find happiness, but to read a small book about people who struggle daily with loneliness is heartbreaking and also life affirming at the same time. Become of fan of Strout and you will not be disappointed. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.