This is the third book by Strout I have read and though good, none of her books measure up to OLIVE KITTERIDGE, her prize winning novel from ten years ago. This one is set both in Maine, where the Burgess Boys grew up, two of them, Jim and Bob, and their sister, Susan and in NYC where Jim and Bob have moved in their adulthood.
The defining event, which has shaped the Burgess boy's life took place when they were young. Their father left the car at the top of the drive way to go move something out of the way. The car started to roll, ran over the father, killing him and Bob was sitting in the front seat, behind the steering wheel. Though only six, he was silently blamed by the family for the accident and has had to live with the guilt of having killed his father all his life. This incident begins the story; the second event is the arrest of Susan's son, for having thrown a sheep's head into the local mosque, in a small town in Maine, where numerous Somalis have immigrated, to escape the devastation back in Africa. The mixture of locals, Somalis, and the Burgess brothers forms the triangle of this story.
Jim, a lawyer, having become famous in his early career for winning a famous O.J. like case, comes back to town to help out his nephew but ends up causing more harm than helping, a result of his no longer being a Mainer and the locals dislike of someone who is successful and left town. Bob, too tries to help but he's never been able to get over his guilt, has gone through numerous depressive episodes and has seen a psychiatrist on and off during most of his adult life. We also see Jim's wife Helen, unhappy and aimless in her marriage since her children have grown up. And Pam, Bob's ex wife, also unhappy, still good friends with 'good old Bob.' Jim treats his brother like a loser, calls him names, gives him little credit for having carved out a life in NYC and we wonder why he is so tough on him till we find out why. Jim has had to live with the guilt of having put his brother in the front seat of the car after having been there himself and run over his father. He finally admits this to Bob who thinks, at first, that Jim is lying but later realizes the truth, completely changing his life and who he is, understandably, as the guilt he has felt forever has disappeared.
Things fall apart after Jim admits his betrayal of Bob and, because of a marital affair his wife leaves him. For Bob, however, things seem to brighten; for his sister Susan, they brighten as well as her son is not prosecuted, a result of the Somalian elder withdrawing charges, realizing that the boy could just as easily been his son, and he exhibits the compassion and care lacking in most of the Mainiacs. The novel ends with Jim having lost his job and wife, getting on a bus, hoping to throw himself at the mercy of Helen, that she will take him back. And it ends. Strout's characters are always interesting and she does not fail in this novel, as we are kept interested because of their quirks, the inclusion of outsiders like the Somalians, which create unexpected results when thrown into a Maine town. Well worth reading.
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