Books & Audiobooks
The last decade or two has seen a plethora of memoirs, biographies and autobiographies being published. It seems that anyone and everyone who has had a hint of notoriety, for whatever reason, has felt the need to document their journey and publishers are hungry to reap the benefits from the public’s insatiable need to know about the lives of the rich and famous. Luckily, it remains the reader’s choice whether to partake in this genre but it does beg the question: what makes a person’s story remarkable? What about the lives of the great unsung, the people who face daunting and seemingly insurmountable challenges everyday? These stories are equally compelling and yet remain untold. Is an ‘unrecorded’ life not as interesting or meaningful?
Elizabeth Strout brings that question into focus with her latest in the ‘Lucy Barton’ group of stories. Tell Me Everything brings Olive Kitteridge back into the storyline as she strives to bring the experiences of the ‘ordinary’ people in their community to life through Lucy. While the protagonists are not famous, their stories are poignantly memoir-worthy. Those tales backdrop the ongoing drama unfolding in the book that also illustrate that major life experiences of ‘regular’ people can happen in heart-breaking and soul-stirring ways. We watch the evolution of the relationships between Lucy and her ex-husband Will, her best friend Bob, his wife Margaret and the other major/minor characters whose lives are intertwined in heart-warming and often heart-wrenching ways.
This book is classified as literary fiction, adult fiction, mystery, thriller and contemporary. It is all of those things, but it should also be listed as a memoir of the lives of everyday people.