Anything is Possible is a kind of sequel to My Name is Lucy Barton - “kind of” because there’s no overarching plot to this series, but it does continue to explore Lucy’s life and the people in her orbit, many of whom were introduced in the first book, and all of whom are connected via the small fictional town of Amgash, Illinois. It’s also much better than the first book, although the experience of Anything is Possible is definitely improved having read My Name is Lucy Barton first, so it’s worth sticking with the series and reading it in order.
At first glance the book looks like a short story collection, with each one telling the story of a specific character, but actually all of the stories are connected and complement one another - so wouldn’t that make it a novel? And then I was reminded of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and Anything is Possible’s format has more in common with that book than the novel or short story collection labels; this is that rare beast, a short story cycle, where the stories are composed and set out in a specific way to create an enhanced experience when read in sequence, rather than reading them individually/separately.
My favourite story here is also the first one: The Sign, about Tommy Guptill, the retired janitor of the school Lucy and her siblings attended. He goes to visit Lucy’s brother Pete, the only one still living in the old family home, and we see what a wreck poor Pete is. It’s a very moving piece that sets out a key theme to this series: the after-effects of trauma and how isolated it can make its victims (the book closes out with a mirroring story featuring cousin Abel who is also terrifyingly lonely).
Windmills is another excellent story, this one featuring Patty Nicely, a high school guidance counsellor who encounters Lucy’s teenage niece, the deeply troubled, but precociously intelligent (like Lucy), Lila Lane. Elizabeth Strout is so amazing at drawing you instantly into each character’s life, taking you through Patty’s past relationship with her now-deceased husband, her dementia-riddled mother in the present, and introducing her friend Angelina, who’s going through marriage issues, her distant sister Linda, and her secret crush, the Vietnam vet Charlie Macauley.
I thought all of the stories would be connected to Lucy Barton in some way but Windmills is the branching-out story that sets up the next three stories about Angelina, Linda and Charlie. Cracked is about Linda Peterson-Cornell, wife to a fabulously wealthy creep, who patronises an arts festival and has one of the guest artists stay at her and her husband’s palatial house. Without giving too much away, this story is quite shocking because the material is so dramatic - I’d got it into my head that Strout was a writer who only focused on subtle, everyday behaviour, but she goes full thriller-writer with this story, and it’s pleasantly surprising and riveting too. She’s got range!
The thriller-esque qualities continue in the next story, The Hit-Thumb Theory, where we find out what supposedly-PTSD-ridden Charlie Macauley has been up to instead of attending his group therapy meetings. Again, I won’t get into the details, but it’s another memorable, powerful and enthralling story.
Mississippi Mary is my least favourite story in the book. It follows Angelina visiting her 78 year old mother who ended her loveless 50 year marriage, fled to Italy and took up with a younger man. Good for Mary, making no apologies for living her life while she’s still alive, but it’s still a fairly unremarkable mother/daughter story.
Sister sees Strout returning to the Barton family and is one of the best pieces here. Lucy reunites with her siblings Pete and Vicky after years of being away from Amgash. Strout captures the awkwardness of their relationship perfectly as well as writing dialogue so convincing that you totally believe these characters have decades of history together and a deep bond that shared family trauma gives you. It’s incredible writing.
Dottie’s Bed and Breakfast is about Lucy’s cousin Dot who encounters a snooty doctor and his wife as guests. It’s not a great story, though it has its moments, connecting to and providing a conclusion to Charlie Macauley’s story from earlier, and Dot seems a likeable character who overcame her horrible upbringing and became a stronger person as a result - albeit alone, tying back in to the loneliness theme. The story also introduces the actress Annie Appleby, whose story is explored in the next one, Snow-Blind.
Snow-Blind isn’t particularly standout either and seems to underline much of what’s been explored before: that small town folk aren’t different from city folk, they’re just a microcosm of the same.
Gift is the final story, about Lucy’s cousin Abel, Dot’s older brother, a successful businessman who takes his extended family to a performance of A Christmas Carol and who ends up going back to the theatre after-hours to find his granddaughter’s toy where he’s cornered by the strange actor who played Scrooge.
Gift is similar to Cracked in that Strout surprises you by sorta taking a genre approach to her narrative - this time a supernatural angle. Because the actor, Linck McKenzie, almost doesn’t seem real because his behaviour is so bizarre - like Abel created him as someone to talk to out of his extreme loneliness. It’s an unexpected way to close out the book but no less brilliant for it.
I suspected Elizabeth Strout was a writer worth continuing with after My Name is Lucy Barton so I’m pleased to be proven right with Anything is Possible which comes close to being a modern American literary classic - it’s certainly head and shoulders above Winesburg, Ohio! One of my problems with the first book was the plain nature of it - Lucy and her mother’s stories were, on the whole, rather mundane. Here, the stories are vastly more varied and exciting, and that’s why I like it so much more.
Peopled with fascinating characters who are relatable and extraordinary by turns, the narratives are almost always compelling and unpredictable, the writing couldn’t be more pitch perfect, both in description and dialogue, and amidst all the dazzling wordplay are real emotional moments. Regardless of labelling, Anything is Possible is fantastically entertaining fiction - I really enjoyed it and look forward to more from this outstanding writer.
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