Title: Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
First page snippet, from the story "The Sign":
Tommy Guptill once owned a dairy farm, which he'd inherited from his father, and which was about two miles from Amgash, Illinois. This was many years ago now, But at night Tommy still sometimes woke with the fear he had felt the night his dairy farm burned to the ground.
2nd snippet, page 57, from the story "Windmills":
Now, as Patty drove into her own driveway and saw the lights she had left on, she realized that Lucy Barton's book understood her. That was it -- the book understood her.
Summary: Anything Is Possible is the 2nd book in the Amgash series by Elizabeth Strout. It is a collection of related stories about people who live in or around the small town of Amgash and who knew Lucy Barton, the protagonist of the series, when she grew up there years ago.
My thoughts: Lucy Barton grew up poor, real poor in Amgash where she and her two siblings were outcasts at school and desperately unhappy. Lucy's dream of becoming a writer was helped by a counselor at her school who helped her get a scholarship to college. She did become a writer and published several books which, to the people left behind in Amgash, makes her either a celebrity or someone who advanced beyond her station in life. This book is populated with these people, who periodically interact with Lucy.
Back in 2016 one of my book clubs read I Am Lucy Barton, the first book in a new series by Elizabeth Strout. In the book Lucy has an operation, which she barely survives. During her convalescence, her mother comes to stay with her. It isn't until this book, published in 2017, where we come to understand how astonishing it is that the mother came to be with Lucy since the she had never shown Lucy or her siblings any kindness at all when they were growing up. In fact we learn about how dire Lucy's whole childhood was and how amazing it was that she made it out of the life of such terrible poverty.
I'm not sure at the time I realized the first book was part of a series at all and so I didn't read on until 2022 when that the same book club selected the 4th book in the series, Lucy By the Sea, for a club meeting. This time I felt more connected to the story since it was a COVID lock-in story, one we could all relate to since we had all lived it. In 2024 when the 5th book in the series, Tell Me Everything, was published I was first in line to read it. Having now read the 1st, 4th, and 5th books in the series it was time to go back and read #2 and #3. Oddly I picked the third book, Oh, William, to read next and now finally I have finished the whole series by completing the second book, Anything is Possible.
I liked the whole series, I think I gave all the books a rating of 4 stars, and I really like Elizabeth Strout's writing style, which I find very readable. In this book, for example, I was able to easily make the jump from one story to the next as I learned about Lucy Barton's life through the eyes of others. It was a very clever writing technique. If you are familiar with the author's body of work at all you have probably heard of her Olive Kitteridge book and series. The first book won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. In that series, as in this series, characters from other books often make cameo appearances, which makes one feel connected to the town/setting. I like that a lot. Today I will start a new book by the author, published in 2026, The Things We Never Say. I expect to meet some old "friends" along the way.
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Welcome to a combined Book Beginnings on Friday and Friday56 with a new name Friday Book Snippets. I am co-hosting this weekly blogging event with Olivia at Bemused & Bookish. You can link up at either of our sites but be sure to still visit and comment on other participant's blogs to increase our community.
Directions: Share two snippets (a sentence or short paragraph) from a) the book's opening and b) page 56 (or another page) from the book you are currently reading. No spoilers, please.
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