The Burgess Boys
By Elizabeth Strout
A solid family drama about two brothers and a sister wherein the adult siblings are brought together again and must face the many past events that have shaped their relationships with each other and their lives. Strout wrote Olive Kitteridge, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In this family drama, the three siblings carry one particular event from their past with them and although they are each aware of the event itself, they are probably not quite as aware of how that singular event has been central in shaping their adult lives. I like sibling, family dramas and the analysis of all sides of a family …looking at the same group of people through the eyes of each one. I heard a very clever observation about siblings once, “Each child is born into a different family”…oldest arrives to the undivided, intoxicating attention of two doting parents, second arrives with an older sibling and parents’ immediately split attention, third arrives into some degree of hopefully happy chaos, fourth and beyond, well, good luck! Anyhow, family dramas like this one reveal the truth that every person in a family sees and experiences a different family. That is why I like such books; they explore that whole idea of perspective and how many people can be in the same family yet see and experience it dramatically differently.
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