When I find out that Elizabeth Strout (“Olive Kitteridge,” “My Name is Lucy Barton”) has a new book out, I know I am going to read it, but I tell myself that I won’t be reviewing it because I’ve already reviewed a bunch of her books. And she’s well established, so readers will inevitably hear about it from somewhere else.
But then I read the book and think I must tell people about this.
The new book is “The Things We Never Say,” a standalone novel after several consecutive novels’ worth of exploration of Lucy Barton and the Allagash community. I knew I was going to write about it after a moment when I was trapped on a plane in the midst of a total “ground hold” of indeterminate length, and a brief moment of prolepsis (flash forward) had tears springing to my eyes and my row mate next to me asking if I was OK.
Strout has a signature ability to make me feel for her characters; in this case, Artie Dam, a middle-aged high school history teacher who is excellent at his job, has a loving wife, a grown son, and, by all possible measurements, a happy and fulfilling life. But he also feels increasingly dislocated from the world and even those, maybe particularly those, he holds most dear. He is thinking that maybe his time on Earth is done and that one day he shall step from his small sailboat into the Massachusetts Bay, leaving the world behind.
The Germans have a great word for this condition, weltschmerz, literally translated as “world pain,” but meaning a kind of melancholy or weariness. Artie is not sure that what he values — kindness, careful study of history, caring about the fates of young people — is important to enough people anymore. Even his students can be casually cruel to each other, emulating a president that Artie almost cannot fathom.
There is a risk of turning Artie into a naif, but in her careful, close observations, his depths become increasingly legible. You wish he were not experiencing this pain, but you understand where it is coming from. Occasional brief forays into the internal experiences of other characters flesh out the dynamics of a world that Artie struggles to navigate.
The power of the novel is in Strout’s ability to bore into small moments of character revelation and connection, as when Artie has an incident that convinces him he doesn’t want to die, or when his unravelling emotional state has him acting impulsively, but a stranger recognizes the nature of his distress and chooses grace over punishment.
I am being vague about these events on purpose, as you will want to encounter and experience them for yourself. Artie’s childhood with a mentally ill, frequently institutionalized mother begins to resonate with the present. His marriage to Evie, a young woman above his station when they met, has unhealed wounds over the clear opinion of Evie’s family that Artie was not fit for their daughter. A secret in their marriage is revealed in a way that is both earth-shattering and uneventful.
Because Strout always cares about and for her characters, the story navigates Artie and others through the challenges, but throughout, there is a disquieting hum of concern about the world they inhabit. We wonder if all of Artie’s kindness and care for his students, or love for his family and friends, is simply not enough to counteract a kind of madness.
The result is a reading experience of both great warmth and great worry. I don’t know anyone else doing it quite like this today.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Listening to the Law” by Amy Coney Barrett
2. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain
3. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
4. “James” by Percival Everett
5. “Heart the Lover” by Lily King
— Peter F., Naperville
Lydia Kiesling’s “Mobility” feels like a good fit for some reading about justice and love in the past and present.
1. “A Far-Flung Life” by M.L. Stedman
2. “The Lion Women of Tehran” by Marjan Kamali
3. “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy
4. “Rules for Visiting” by Jessica Francis Kane
5. “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage” by Belle Burden
— Marsha C., Rolling Meadows
Patrick deWitt’s “The Librarianist” has a warmth of feeling that I think will appeal to Marsha.
1. “The Elements” by John Boyne
2. “All the Broken Places” by John Boyne
3. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
4. “Mothers and Sons” by Adam Haslett
5. “Fox Creek” by William Kent Krueger
— Kathleen F., Michiana Shores, Indiana
For Kathleen, we need some dramatic tension rooted in character, “What We Can Know” by Ian McEwan.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.
