New York: Random House,1998, 2006
Stories that Transcend their Imaginary Maine Landscapes
Don’t check the map to find the places in Maine where novelist Elizabeth Strout locates her books, because Shirley Falls, West Annett and the Sabbanock River are all fictional. Yet they feel real; testimony to the insight and empathy of Strout, a native of Maine.
Amy and Isabelle, her first book, opened with that imaginary landscape, providing both setting and mood. “It was terribly hot that summer Mr. Robertson left town, and for a long while the river seemed dead. Just a dead brown snake of a thing lying flat through the center of town, dirty yellow foam collecting at its edge. Strangers driving by on the turnpike rolled up their windows at the gagging, sulfurous smell and wondered how anyone could live with that kind of stench coming from the river and the mill. But the people in Shirley Falls were used to it, and even in the awful heat it was only noticeable when you first woke up; no, they didn’t particularly mind the smell.” In one terse paragraph, Strout has managed to convey important information. The setting seems ominous and toxic, the air suffocating. Already the river is a victim. We sense the inhabitants are stoic types who have learned to ignore a kind of daily assault on them, one that outsiders consider dramatically noxious. And so Strout’s story builds from there, centered on Isabelle Goodrow, a single mom raising Amy, her 16-year old daughter, in Shirley Falls, and where that summer both were working in the local mill.
Abide with Me, her second book, takes place in West Annett, said to be north of Shirley Falls. Strout begins, “Oh, it would be years ago now, but at one time a minister lived with his small daughter in a town up north near the Sabbanock River, up where the river is narrow and the winters used to be especially long. The minister’s name was Tyler Caskey, and for quite some while his story was told in towns up and down the river…until it emerged with enough variations so as to lose its original punch, and just the passing of time, of course, will affect the vigor of these things… And if you inquire with enough patience and restraint of curiosity, you can probably get them to tell you what it is they claim to know, although its accuracy might be something you’d have to sort out on your own.” So now we suspect something rather dramatic has occurred with the minister and the town where he preached, and that its telling would differ, depending on the person and perspective.
Strout’s book invites us to become observers too — watching, listening and deciding for ourselves what we make of the state of affairs she presents. Tyler Caskey, as a minister, someone in the community with visibility, responsibility, respect, and influence — has a personal tragedy to attend to, besides attending to his congregation. The congregation depends upon him to be strong; after all, he’s their leader. As Caskey experiences his own mire of emotions, the congregation grows restless, discontent, dissatisfied. The plot poses the question: what happens when someone (it could as well be a parent or spouse, therapist, teacher, coach, physician, elected official — anyone to whom we attribute authority) has issues that tear at them? When they’re someone we need to see as strong, what do we do when they’re not? How do we understand that? That their vulnerability or imperfection might suggest our own makes it a difficult realization, if not untenable.
Strout challenges us to understand those complex combinations. Reminiscent of Alice Hoffman’s novels colored with “magical realism,” Strout’s seem archetypal in what they embrace. This story, rooted in a gritty Maine, ultimately transcends its setting. Qualities initially experienced as hard and cold, both in characters and location, become transformed. Strout concludes with this image: “And everything seemed remarkable, the familiar scent of his child, the snarl in the back of her hair, the quiet house, the bare birch trunks, the snow on his face. Remarkable.”
And I would conclude: so is the writing of Strout.