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The Burgess Boys: A Novel
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The Burgess Boys: A Novel
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The Burgess Boys: A Novel
Audiobook13 hours

The Burgess Boys: A Novel

Written by Elizabeth Strout

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Elizabeth Strout "animates the ordinary with an astonishing force," wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge. The San Francisco Chronicle praised Strout's "magnificent gift for humanizing characters." Now the acclaimed author returns with a stunning novel as powerful and moving as any work in contemporary literature.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan-the Burgess sibling who stayed behind-urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout's newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post Book World • USA Today • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Seattle Post-Intelligencer • People • Entertainment Weekly • The Christian Science Monitor • The Plain Dealer • The Atlantic • Rocky Mountain News • Library Journal

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 26, 2013
ISBN9780307967084
Unavailable
The Burgess Boys: A Novel
Author

Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestseller Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London.

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Reviews for The Burgess Boys

Rating: 3.7284688944976074 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I should probably start off this review by stating that I absolutely loved Olive Kitteridge, one of Strout’s earlier books that has received some mixed reviews. Strout’s stories won’t appeal to all readers. She has a habit of getting under the skin of her readers with her unwavering portrayal of, shall we say, characters that are not easily likable for the reader. I love her characters because they are “real”. They make mistakes. They say things that they may – or may not – regret later. For Strout’s characters, life does not come with a user manual. They learn (and hopefully adapt) when the unknown crops up. The results are not always pretty. In The Burgess Boys, Strout continues this character formula and tackles a number of topics, ranging from family dynamics to the economic decline of small town America to the politics of immigration and social intolerance. One reviewer nailed the gist of the story with this statement: ” It never hurts to be reminded that how we see ourselves and others is usually distorted by untruths, half-truths, and incomplete information. But being human, we try to define our world and the people in it based on the scanty information that we have.” Through Strout’s unidentified narrator, we get to see Jim and Bob’s relationship ebb and flow and redefine itself as events develop. We also get to see glimpses into their sister Susan’s more limited world of Shirley Falls as well as gain some, albeit limited, perspective on the Somali resettlement from the point of view of some of the refugees. Written in clear, straightforward language, Strout makes no apologies for this story or her characters, including Jim’s arrogance and overinflated ego. As I mentioned earlier, Strout’s stories will not appeal to all readers. For me, the racial ignorance/intolerance angle makes it an interesting and timely read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Gosh, I don't know what to say about this book. One of the words that keeps coming to mind is dysfunction! Everyone and I mean everyone in this story was suffering in some way or another. At times, while reading I felt incrediably sad. I put the book down many times thinking that I would not go back to it, but I did. I was drawn to the story and I was drawn to the characters.

    Why did Zach do what he did? Why was he so unhappy? Why was Bob such a sad sack? Would Susan ever be happy?

    As I was reading the sad story of these sad people, I was hoping that every thing was going to be all right. I was also hoping that Ms Strout was not going to tie the story up in a nice little box with a nice little bow. She did not, although, I did get to experience a bit of closure on a few issues. Many more issues were left to my own imagination.

    This is definitely a book that I would highly recommend to just about anyone. Be prepared for some dark times, though. This is not a comedy and it will make you feel grateful for all the good things in your own life.

    Many thanks to Random House Publishing and Edelweiss for this ARC.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Elizabeth Strout is clearly one of the preeminent authors of our time. She has a unique style that captures the ordinary happenings of a person's life and imbues them with tenderness and understanding. Bob and Jim Burgess, as well as their sister Susan, were raised in the small town of Shirley Falls, Maine. The boys both left for the brighter lights of New York City while Susan stayed behind, a divorcee with her son Zach. All three have forever been impacted by the accidental death of their father when they were young, killed when Bob shifted gears and let their car roll downhill over him. The main plot has to do with Zach rolling a pig's head into a mosque. The boys are both lawyers and come home to help support Susan and Zach. Both Jim's wife Helen and Bob's ex-wife Pam are part of the story, but Jim is the center, the oldest Burgess boy.I enjoy all Ms. Strout's works, but this was contemporary and thoughtful. The Somalis who were impacted by the incident also have a say as Maine and her people struggle to come to grip with the refugee immigrants. There's a lot to ponder here.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Based on the flap copy, I expected this story to focus on the inflammatory tale of a young boy, Zach, arrested for throwing a pig's head into a mosque in a small town in Maine, and the racially-divided townspeople's reactions to this hate crime. Strout introduces some Somali characters here, but never takes them anywhere, and occasionally drops in mild epithets to explain the complacent attitudes of the Mainers towards the immigrant Somalis, but that's as far as it goes. This aspect of the story just eventually faded into nowhere. Instead, Strout takes a left turn and begins to explore the relationships among Zach's mother, Susan, and her two brothers, Jim and Bob.

    The Susan/Jim/Bob dysfunction was mildly interesting, but not nearly as introspective as the relationships explored in Strout's other work. These characters were slightly more one-dimensional: the difficult sister, the ignored but has a heart of gold middle brother, the asshole litigator eldest brother. I didn't really care for any of them. The minor characters were much more fascinating - the Somali refuge, the woman minister who's aims are only vaguely described, Bob's conflicted ex-wife. Those characters would have possibly made a more interesting story than the trio of Maine upper-middle-classers dealing with a long ago family tragedy.

    My main complaint with this book? Jim was a self-indulgent, insecure, arrogant asshole and everyone kowtowed to him. Over and over and over again. "It's okay, Jim, we know that you were rude to everyone, but you've had a difficult time keeping up with all your lies. Poor Jim! Come here and give me a hug!"

    Kill him, already. Come on, Bob, throw a drink in his face. Kick him out, Susan, and slash his tires. I kept waiting for this to happen and it never did. It left me exhaling at the end with a "that's it?" expression on my face.

    If you've never read Strout, start with Olive Kitteridge or Amy and Isabelle. They're both awe-inspiring. Try this one if you're a die-hard fan, as I am. I'll keep reading anything she puts on paper and I'd love to take her out for tea. Call me, Elizabeth, I still love you!

    This review is also posted on my book review blog: flyleafunfurled.com
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I recently read an interview with a book critic and he advised that a reviewer should state whether he/she liked or disliked the book being reviewed and why. In harmony with that advice - I could not connect with this story on any level. There were too many words and too much description for such one dimensional characters. The storyline was predictable. I found myself not enjoying and not interested after 50 pages but I "stayed the course" and now I am sorry that I invested precious time reading this novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (Fiction, Contemporary, American) With The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout continues her tradition of fine fiction (see my notes on her Amy and Isabelle.) Her writing is beautiful and the stories are memorable.Read this if: you want a literary summer read (another one!) 4 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A family living in Shirley Falls, Maine is struck by a tragedy that kills the father of three children. The children are Jim, age 8 and 4 year old twins Bob and Sue. Is seems that Bob somehow released the clutch on the family car and a rollover killed the dad. Years later we meet the adult Jim, who is a successful criminal lawyer in Manhattan and living in Brooklyn. Bob is a mediocre lawyer living in Brooklyn and Sue, an optometrist, remained in her hometown.The story reunites the family in Shirley Falls when Sue's 18 year old son Zach is found to have thrown a frozen pig's head into the local mosque and is charged by the police. This becomes a media sensation and we get to see the siblings close up as they deal with their emotions and their past as the story plays out.A minor character, Abdikaram, is introduced at this stage. He is a member of the local Somali community, which is growing in Shirley Falls and causing a lot of resentment. Initially he is a appalled by Zach's behaviour but he gradually begins to understand that he's a scared young man without intent to hurt people.This a very good story about family, guilt, mental health, success, failure, hope and reconciliation. It is also about change and changing attitudes towards minorities. The characters are very well developed and described. It's interesting to see the changes in the siblings and their relationships over the story's timelines.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very well done.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I didn't enjoy it as much as Olive Kitteridge but it was a decent read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Story of three adult siblings drawn back together to deal with a possible hate crime committed by one sibling’s son in their hometown of Shirley Falls Maine. As always, the author has a way of drawing you in and wrapping you into the family and the surroundings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Families have secrets and secrets within secrets that live on to cast shadows in the present.While the Burgess kids were playing in the family car, the car is accidentally put into gear. Their father run over and killed. Blame goes to four year old Bob Burgess, who, from that point onward is made a target of his older brother Jim's sarcasm and passive aggressive wrath.Both boys became lawyers; both chose to leave the small town in Maine where the accident happened and have practices in New York.But that's where the similarities end. Jim is handsome (once voted sexiest man of the year), a partner in a high profile legal practice and the father of a picture perfect family. Bob does low paying legal aid work and is divorced. Jim disdains Bob. Bob persists in maintaining the unhappy relationship with his brother.Their sister Susan, decided to stay in their small hometown in Maine. But the dynamics in the town are changing. Somali refugees have been resettled into the town and the small town is reeling at this very different population with limited English.When Susan's isolated and withdrawn teenage son throws a pig's head into a Somali mosque, the state does not consider it a mere prank, but a hate crime with serious legal consequences. Susan reaches out to her lawyer brothers whom she has not seen for years.I found this a sympathetic look at the refugees. The reader sees relationships within the Somali community as well as their relationships with the small town. white community.The focus of the book does not stay with the problem with the refugees. The pig's head incident is almost pushed to the background, as the case winds on, we see the Burgess siblings come to terms with who they were and who they are.4 stars. I think I'll remember this one.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Story of three adult siblings drawn back together to deal with a possible hate crime committed by one sibling’s son in their hometown of Shirley Falls Maine. As always, the author has a way of drawing you in and wrapping you into the family and the surroundings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bob Burgess is as amiable a character as Olive Kittredge is prickly. He and his family, and their complicated dynamics, are the core of this novel. Well told and original.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Elizabeth’s Strout‘s fourth novel, The Burgess Boys, with its Maine setting and its themes of trust, home, and family, is as impressive and thought-provoking as her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge – ranging more widely through large themes of religion and race, while still delving deep into the hearts and minds of her characters.The author takes a real incident as the launching point of the story. In small-town Maine, a frozen pig’s head from a slaughterhouse is rolled in through the front door of a mosque, contaminating the space with an animal that is considered unclean by practicing Muslims. But she changes most of the actual details of the controversial incident that took place in Lewiston, Maine, where Somali immigrants have been congregating over the last decade. She creates the fictional Maine town of Shirley Falls; gives it a large community of Somali new arrivals like Lewiston’s; and makes the thrower of the head a lonely, 19-year-old boy instead of a 33-year-old man.The only similarities between the real person involved in the incident, who committed suicide the following year, and the fictional character, Zach, is their race (white), home (both born and raised in Maine), and the confusion everyone in town, in Maine, and eventually in the national media, is left in about the incident. Prank or hate crime? Clueless or malicious?If you liked the clash of eco-politics and family ties in The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass and the muddied controversies in Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, or if you just like thoughtful novels that don’t come down too easily on either side of life’s big questions, you will love this memorable novel by Elizabeth Strout.Read full review at Bay State Reader's Advisory blog.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Elizabeth Strout?s wonderful previous book, ?Olive Kitteridge,? was a collection stories about the eponymous school teacher and her fellow residents of the town of Crosby, Maine. The short story format worked beautifully for Strout, who used it to introduce a large number of characters, each involved in their own, only sometimes interleaved, stories. In the ?Burgess Boys,? Strout returns to Maine, this time to the fictional town of Shirley Falls, where the now-adult Burgess children?Jim, Bob, and Susan?were raised. Jim and Bob have moved to New York, but Susan remains, the divorced mother of a troubled teenaged son named Zach. Shirley Falls has in many ways remained the same since the Burgess children were growing up, but it has also changed in one significant dimension: it is now home to large population of immigrant Somalis. There are two central events in this book. The first which occurs before the book starts, when the Burgess children are quite young: Bob accidently releases the handbrake on the family car, killing his father. The other occurs years later, when Zach, possibly in a misguided attempt to impress his father, throws a frozen pig?s head into the mosque that has been built in Shirley Falls by the local Somalis. (This account is based on a real event that took place in Lewiston, Maine in 2006.) The problem with ?The Burgess Boys? is that Strout doesn?t quite succeed in tying together these two central events. Nor does she fully integrate the ongoing story of Jim?s marriage, or of the lingering relationship between Bob and his ex-wife, or of the overly kind Somali who helps Zach. It all feels rather choppy, as if she?s trying to force into novel form what would have been much better as another collection of short stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Elizabeth Stout's latest novel, The Burgess Boys, introduces us to the whole Burgess family. The boys, now middle aged men, are Jim and Bob. They both escaped their hometown of Shirley Falls, Maine, as soon as they could and are currently living in New York City. Susan is Bob's bitter, divorced twin sister who stayed in Maine with her teenage son, Zachery. When we meet the Burgess boys, Jim is a well known, successful corporate attorney. He married Helen, a wealthy socialite who is devoted to Jim and making his life comfortable. Jim is still basking in the laurels he received from defending a famous client in Maine years earlier. Jim constantly belittles Bob, a divorced Legal Aid attorney, who seems to amicably drift through life, perhaps a bit befuddled and carrying latent guilt for a childhood occurrence, but taking everything in stride.

    The boys receive a call from Susan begging for help. Her son, Zach, has committed a thoughtless misdemeanor that has serious social/political repercussions, not only in their community but in the state. It is causing a media frenzy as a hate crime against Somali refugees who have immigrated to Maine. Although the Burgess family has not been close, Bob rushes to Maine to support Susan and Zach. What Susan wanted, however, was Jim's support. Jim and Helen told Bob to go to Maine while they proceeded with their vacation plans. Bob's help seems inept and he is told this by Jim and Susan. But, as the novel progresses, everything is not quite as it seems. There are hidden anxieties and secrets.

    The story is told from the point of view of several characters: Bob, Helen, Susan, Zach, Bob's ex-wife Pam, a friend of Helen's, and a leader in the Somali community, but not Jim. These are all very realistic characters with the foibles and frailties that many middle-aged people encounter along the way. The story is about family loyalties, disappointments, community, isolation, ego, racism, and anxieties. The novel itself is broken up into 4 parts and they flowed smoothly and quickly for me. Each of the characters had an individual voice, and everything was expertly blended together to tell the story.

    The Burgess family is a very dysfunctional family, and Strout excels at capturing the very human emotions and feelings of her characters with remarkable sympathy, wisdom, and poignancy. The clarity and keen insight she manages while describing very realistic observations about the human condition is commendable. There were times when her writing just left me breathless. Literally breathless. The depth of character she creates and the intense discernment she manages to capture in a few sentences is brilliant.

    The Burgess Boys doesn't end with all storylines reaching a graceful conclusion, but like life, the novel is better for this.

    Very Highly Recommended - one of the best

    Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Random House via Netgalley for review purposes.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Like all of Elizabeth Strout's novels, this book is well written. Characters are well developed, the plot flows seamlessly. This book illustrates the complicated relationship between three siblings who have survived tragedy in their youth but are still dealing with the aftermath into their adulthood. Each sibling has a distinct personality and their relationships with one another are drastically different; Strout painted a very realistic family with this story.Characters in this novel are struggling with similar issues as those Olive Kitteridge struggles with, such as Helen struggling with an empty nest as her children leave home. I've read all of Strout's novels, and one thing I've noticed is that there seem to be no happy characters in her novels; although there may be glimmers of happiness for the characters, usually that happiness is an illusion that doesn't last for much of the book. Each of her characters seems to be struggling with depression and there are no happy characters to balance that out and her use of humor is minimal. Despite the fact that her books are well written, I find them all to be real downers, so I can't say I ever walk away having enjoyed one her books. Her characters are too realistic and "normal" for their struggles to be amusing; instead I just find myself sad for all of them.As the book jacket advertises, the knowledge the siblings have about their past tragedy shifts at the end of the book. I found this twist to be predictable and knew what the twist would be very early on in the books, so I found it hard to connect with the characters' reactions to the news.If you're looking for a well-written book, you will definitely find that here. If you're looking for something funny or light-hearted, try another book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Elizabeth Strout’s wonderful previous book, “Olive Kitteridge,” was a collection stories about the eponymous school teacher and her fellow residents of the town of Crosby, Maine. The short story format worked beautifully for Strout, who used it to introduce a large number of characters, each involved in their own, only sometimes interleaved, stories. In the “Burgess Boys,” Strout returns to Maine, this time to the fictional town of Shirley Falls, where the now-adult Burgess children—Jim, Bob, and Susan—were raised. Jim and Bob have moved to New York, but Susan remains, the divorced mother of a troubled teenaged son named Zach. Shirley Falls has in many ways remained the same since the Burgess children were growing up, but it has also changed in one significant dimension: it is now home to large population of immigrant Somalis. There are two central events in this book. The first which occurs before the book starts, when the Burgess children are quite young: Bob accidently releases the handbrake on the family car, killing his father. The other occurs years later, when Zach, possibly in a misguided attempt to impress his father, throws a frozen pig’s head into the mosque that has been built in Shirley Falls by the local Somalis. (This account is based on a real event that took place in Lewiston, Maine in 2006.) The problem with “The Burgess Boys” is that Strout doesn’t quite succeed in tying together these two central events. Nor does she fully integrate the ongoing story of Jim’s marriage, or of the lingering relationship between Bob and his ex-wife, or of the overly kind Somali who helps Zach. It all feels rather choppy, as if she’s trying to force into novel form what would have been much better as another collection of short stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I almost stopped reading "The Burgess Boys" after the first fifty pages. I didn't care for any of the characters, books about living in NYC tend to annoy me, and it seemed like it was going to be a "issue" book. I'm glad I kept reading, because Elizabeth Strout just doesn't disappoint. I came to love all the characters (though not without arguing with some of them in my head a few times) and the "issue" regarding Muslims and hate crimes was made very human. This book has a soul, a great plot and wonderful characters. It's well written, as always. Try the book, tell the characters what you think about what they're doing, and enjoy seeing how Strout brings it all around in the end. Great reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The book is a story about two traumatic events and their impact upon 3 adult siblings. The focus is on the inner psychology of each of the main characters as well as the minor ones. It's an engrossing story but one does wonder why some characters were included. It's partly those questions, however, that keep the book rattling round the brain long afterwards.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Burgess brothers, Bob and Jim, along with their sister, Susan grew up in small town Maine. A tragedy in their childhood has coloured their lives and their relationships and now a new family crisis will either destroy this family altogether or it may be the means by which these siblings are finally healed.The Burgess Boys is a very complex novel; one could almost say chaotic. The brothers are both lawyers but, while Jim is a successful and famous defender, Bob, unable to face the stress of the court room, works for Legal Aid. If Jim, the eldest, is the head of the family, Bob is its heart. And Susan, well, she is the emotions. When Susan's son Zach, nineteen, lonely and sad, commits a shocking act against the Somali refugees who live in their small town, the family is thrown into crisis. But as they deal with the aftermath of Zach's action, the siblings must work together to save him. Just as the earlier tragedy has left all three siblings emotionally scarred, this new crisis will bring them together or it will destroy them. And in the book as in real life, the answers are not always the ones we want and the outcome can never be predicted. The lives of the Burgesses are big and messy and never simple and it is this realism which makes the reader want to know what will happen. But, again, just like in life, things don't always work out as expected, people do unpredictable things, and answers aren't always forthcoming. Sometimes there are no answers, not even explanations, but that's what makes this book and life so enticing.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I LOVED Olive Kittredge and looked forward to the Burgess Boys for that reason. Although completely different, Strout layers her characters in a way that makes you want to keep peeling. There is no huge event in this book to make you go, "Wow", I will never forget that...What there is is a quiet closing of the book after reading the last page that is a sigh of satisfaction.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Advanced access to this book was kindly provided by Netgalley. Although I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as the wonderful "Olive Kitteridge" by the same author, this book, "The Burgess Boys" was interesting in its own right. Blending themes of family dysfunction, siblinghood, fidelity and American multiculturalism, this is essentially a story about the relationship between adult siblings.The characters were fully developed and somewhat sympathetic, and the writing, in usual Elizabeth Strout fashion, was superb. Unfortunately, I prefer a somewhat quicker-paced story, and found this novel, at times, difficult to commit too. Overall, a solid three star read for the literary fiction fan.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A family with secrets and tragedy is reunited when a teenage son/nephew throws a pig's head into a Muslim mosque in a Maine mill town (Lewiston?) that is already tense because of the influx of Somali refugees. The real story is the relationship between the boy's mother, her twin brother, and their older brother. She has remained in the same house where they grew up and is bitter about her plight as a single mother and least favored sibling. The older brother is an extremely successful attorney who has achieved national fame and fortune, while the younger brother, also a lawyer, is more plodding and awkward, has always idolized his brother in spite of being continually put down by him. The crisis of the boy's crime heightens the ties among the siblings as well as the conflicts. The points of view are strong, the depiction of Maine spot-on, the pacing seamless, and the story line captivating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is not a happily ever after book. It took a relatively long time to really engage me. I truly could have put it down in the middle. It's a story about a truly dysfunctional extended family. These people are really horrid to each other most of the time. But the last third really got interesting. Not as good a book as O. Kitteridge but quite good at that.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The Burgess Boys is an interesting analysis of a family. We may dislike our family, but in the end, the family is part of our heritage. I felt sorry for Susan, the forgotten child. The child that is not loved by her mother like Bob nor brilliant like Jim, but this is part of the family dynamics. I like the short chapters by Strout, but felt that the division into various books was a disruption of the flow of the story. The writing is easy to follow, but at times, the style becomes tedious. The different characters needed to be handled in a different manner. The story starts with a neighbor relating the saga of the Burgess family, and her perception seems slanted in the favor of Bob. The setting is hazy, at times. I felt like I would never finish the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Elisabeth Strout is very adept at character studies but this one does not compare to her prize-winner, Olive Kitteridge.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Having read "Olive Kitteridge" I was looking forward to "The Burgess Boys". In addition to the excellent prose and character development displayed in "Olive Kitteridge" Elizabeth Strout created an interesting story line in this book. The relationships among the siblings were complex and changed as the novel moved on. Although some reviewers found the book slow moving, I thought that there were enough plot twists to keep the story moving. Strout got into the heads of the many different characters which gave the book a well rounded perspective. Overall I found this to be a sad book because of the nature of the character's lives. There was a certain bleakness that might put some people off but that is what makes literature fun. Being able to see into situations and how people react and then measure that against your own experiences. I fully attend to read Strout's other 2 novels and suggest that anyone that likes good literature take the time to read this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A young man's hate crime against a Somali community in Shirley Falls, Maine has the unexpected result of reconnecting estranged siblings.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this book. The characters were flawed, but ultimately adaptable & realistic. There were some predictable twists, but they were satisfying & kept the story moving. Strout's a great storyteller.