The Burgess Boys

What a great book! What a great writer, Elizabeth Strout. I really enjoyed her short stories/novel Olive Kitteredge, which surprised me as I don't generally enjoy reading short stories- too abrupt. But as these stories were related and centered around the character of Olive Kitteredge, it worked for me. The Burgess Boys worked for me too. Strout has a way of taking deeply flawed, even kind of horrible characters and making you understand them and care about them. They seem like real people, you feel for them, you can forgive them for their weaknesses and failings because they are simply fellow humans bumbling their way through life just like you! This is a story of family, of forgiveness and understanding, of what makes a home. But most of all is family. I'll read anything by this author. She is that good.