If you
attended our meeting Monday May 20th, did you think we had a
particularly good discussion? I am not sure whether I enjoyed the discussion of
Anything is Possible, by Elizabeth
Strout because of the astute comments members made or because I didn’t take
very many notes! I did enjoy it and thought it was an outstanding discussion of
a book. A book about people with all their imperfections and struggles. This
wouldn’t be a rare description of a book; but in this case, it seemed that we
got to both know the characters and enjoy a spirited gossip session about them!
One member
had to force herself to read ¾ of the book but found it very slow and boggy (as
in getting bogged down in the reading). I commend Lydia for reading, admitting
she didn’t like it, and contributing that at the meeting. It’s always
interesting to hear criticisms of books we discuss, whether we agree or not.
Some of the
comments I interrupted my enjoyment of the discussion to write down were the
following:
Susan noted
that the characters had troubles but demonstrated compassion, giving the
example of the chapter called “Windmills,” in which Patty Nicely exercised her
compassion for the student, Lila Lane (Lucy Barton’s niece), who had been nasty
to her.
Regarding
the wealthy couple who spied on their guests in “Cracked,” someone (maybe
Susan, but the way I organized my notes, I’m not sure) said that the chapter both
satirized and criticized the upper class.
A question
arose as to whether Lucy Barton’s father could have also fathered the second
Pretty Nicely girl, Linda. We couldn’t answer this one. Lucy’s parents were invited
to Linda’s wedding. Lucy Barton’s father had an affair that caused her mother
to divorce her father, too. If I had an e-book edition, I would search to see
whether the unofficial fathering was alluded to in the book.
Ken noted the
Freudian undertones in the description of Charlie McCauley’s attraction to his
wife when they were planting crocus bulbs together during college, at the
beginning of their relationship. Ken made us laugh about the symbolism, but he
had a good point!
Pam thought
Patty married Sibby because she had low self-esteem and thought she couldn’t
find anyone better for her. Flo said that the women in the book tended to be
pathetic.
I remember
saying at one point toward the end of the discussion that the idea came to me,
as it has in a variety of our past discussions, that we could spend more
meetings just talking about this book, maybe adding Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton to round out the
discussion. Although this discussion was not focused on the Lucy Barton book, I found a copy of that
book on my bookshelf, started reading it a couple of days before the meeting,
and found it very relevant to the discussion and to my thoughts about Anything is Possible. During the
meeting, I wondered whether the author had a purpose in using the same characters
in the two books and whether there was any crossover between the life events of
these characters or continuity of the characters’ lives from one book to the
other. After the meeting, I finished reading My Name is Lucy Barton. I can almost promise that if you enjoyed reading
Anything is Possible, you will enjoy My Name is Lucy Barton.
Curious as to the author’s relationship to the Lucy Barton Book and Anything
is Possible as well as the relationship between the 2 books, I found a link
to a discussion with Elizabeth Strout:
Points of
interest I heard were that Strout doesn’t write consecutively but creates a
book like a collage. Papers all over her desk. Strout said that she wants
readers to know, by reading her books, that whatever troubles they have had,
others have probably had before. She said that if there are people, things are
complicated. Strout said when she wrote My
Name is Lucy Barton, she sketched out stories of the characters, which she
used later in Anything is Possible. Her background was not poverty, but she lived
in the countryside of New Hampshire and had noticed some poverty. She studied
some theater in college and thought it was fascinating because she had always
had an interest in what it would be like to be another person. She is working on
her next book!
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