The Burgess Boys in Bound Together

Sep 04, 2020 PattyMacDotComma rated it really liked it

Shelves: award-win-listed, aa-col, fiction

4.5★
“But after Susan Burgess’s son did what he did—after the story about him had been in the newspapers, even in ’The New York Times’, and on television too—I said on the phone to my mother, ‘I think I’m going to write the story of the Burgess kids.’

‘It’s a good one,’ she agreed.

‘People will say it’s not nice to write about people I know.’

My mother was tired that night. She yawned. “’Well, you don’t know them,’ she said. ‘Nobody ever knows anyone.’ ”

Ain’t that the truth? I don’t always ‘like’ ...more

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Oct 25, 2012 ☮Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: giveaways-librarything

The most obvious trait about Elizabeth Strout that I’ve latched on to is her ability to write dialog. So often when authors use pages of conversation to tell their story, I find myself re-reading parts asking myself -- who is saying this? It can get confusing and disconcerting. With Strout, the dialog just flows, smooth like silk. Also let’s not forget how Strout absolutely gets us into her characters’ heads to the point I’m often thinking of real people I know who are just like one or another o ...more

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Jun 30, 2013 Irene rated it liked it

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

I wanted to love this book. The two previous books I read by Elizabeth Strout were amazing. But, this one fell so far short of my expectations.

Socially awkward and marginalized 19-year old Zach throws a frozen pig’s head into a mosque while the community is at prayer. Frightened for her son, Susan reaches out to her brothers, both successful Manhattan attorneys. It is not long before the reader understands the well established family dynamic operating and the The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

I wanted to love this book. The two previous books I read by Elizabeth Strout were amazing. But, this one fell so far short of my expectations.

Socially awkward and marginalized 19-year old Zach throws a frozen pig’s head into a mosque while the community is at prayer. Frightened for her son, Susan reaches out to her brothers, both successful Manhattan attorneys. It is not long before the reader understands the well established family dynamic operating and the roles assigned to each. But, after Zach’s trial ends, the siblings go home and, over the course of the coming year, each changes, and with each change, the family dynamic alters. Meanwhile, the reaction of the dying New England mill town undergoes its own change as it adjusts to the recent influx of Somali refugees.

In the previous books I read by Elizabeth Strout, I felt like a participant in the unfolding story, like a neighbor of Olive, like the proverbial fly in the home of Amy and Isabel. These women were tangible, their complex motivations and complicated emotions were felt in my own gut. Ending each of those books, I was reluctant to begin another novel, wanting to linger with my time with those people. Closing the back cover, I felt as if a good friend had moved away. I re-read Olive quickly after the first time because I wanted to visit with her again.

But, The Burgess Boys lacked that immediacy. It was if Strout began with an idea or theme that she wanted to explore and created characters and settings with in which to work. Jimmy and Helen, Sue and Zach, Bob and Pam never gained a life off the page. Their motivations were murky. We never have any sense of Zach’s motivation for the stunt with the pig’s head; it is not out of animosity for the recently arrived refugees, anger at a lifetime of peer taunting, a plea for attention or help, a futile attempt to fit in, nothing. Likewise, the changes in behavior and family roles that the various characters undergo occur for the flimsiest of reasons.

Through much of the book, I felt lectured at. Whether through the musings of a leader of the Somalian refugee community who is sympathetic to Zach, or the patient explanations of the Unitarian minister or the various books and articles being presented to someone in the Burgess circle, the reader is provided with the details of the Somalian situation designed to debunk popular myths, inform and coax the reader to a more sympathetic attitude.

No one ever developed his or her own voice. The wealthy attorney’s wife with her trust fund and the old lady renting the New England attic, the Somalian patriarch and the alcoholic uncle all sounded much the same. Their personalities were explained to me, but I never discovered these people on my own.

Despite all of my complaints, the book was still far better than many I have read. I have read many comments/reviews that note the severe dysfunction of the Burgess family. I did not see this family that way. These people were far from perfect, but their bond was strong. Despite differences, they knew that they could count on one another in their worse moments and that level of trust is far from severe dysfunction.
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Feb 22, 2013 Karen rated it liked it

I liked this newest book from Elizabeth Strout. It was low-key and quiet, which I don't mind as long as the writing is good, and it is. But I really loved Olive Kitteridge and so had high expectations for The Burgess Boys. ...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Bucket rated it liked it

Shelves: parents-affecting-children, reviewed, literary, race, religion, many-perspectives

I read this book very soon after reading American Pastoral, and I think that made me enjoy it less than I would have otherwise. There are a large number of similarities between the two novels.

First, a "frame" where an unrelated person is writing about another family's tragedy. In American Pastoral, this is well woven in and the narrative voice is a major piece of the story and a constant reminder that what really happened is unknown, this is the writer's invention based on what he knows. In The I read this book very soon after reading American Pastoral, and I think that made me enjoy it less than I would have otherwise. There are a large number of similarities between the two novels.

First, a "frame" where an unrelated person is writing about another family's tragedy. In American Pastoral, this is well woven in and the narrative voice is a major piece of the story and a constant reminder that what really happened is unknown, this is the writer's invention based on what he knows. In The Burgess Boys, there is a prologue indicating someone is writing about the Burgess family, but that voice never returns and the prologue is basically pointless.

Second, both novel center around a teenager who has committed a pretty intense crime and their families are dealing with the aftermath, and also with the disappearance of the teenager. In American Pastoral, Merry's (the teenager) character is built to show why she committed her crime and her family's reactions over time are in line with their characterization. In The Burgess Boys, Zach's crime is very random and unexplained - it makes no sense. He's strangely helpless for a teenager who would commit the crime he does, and we never gain any sense of his motive. He is also very suddenly and bizarrely "better" towards the end of the novel after spending time with his father.

I think that Strout must have intentionally riffed on American Pastoral to write this novel, but for me she The Burgess Boys failed to live up to this goal - so that was disappointing.

Strout does take on the issue of race in interesting ways. What her characters are mostly guilty of (or wrapping their minds around) is mostly not blatant, hateful racism. Instead, it's the subtle, sometimes subconscious racism that we're just beginning to talk about openly in this country. I also found the few parts of the novel that put the reader in the perspective of the tertiary characters much more interesting than the perspectives of Jim and Bob Burgess and their wife and ex-wife, respectively.

I only marked three quotations as I read this novel, and all of them came from minor character perspectives:

"Abdikarim continued to shake his head. "It is not right," he whispered, "for anyone, with laws or without, to continue making fear.""

Mrs. Drinkwater: "She pictured a dandelion gone by, the white, almost airless pieces of her family scattered so far. The key to contentment was never to ask why; she had learned that long ago."

"Haweeya had never been able to figure out exactly what Americans wanted. (Everything, she sometimes thought. They wanted everything.)"

Overall, I expected to enjoy this book much more than I did. Perhaps it's unfair to pit it against American Pastoral, but it also didn't stand up to Strout's previous work, the incredible group of interconnected stories that is Olive Kitteridge, either.

Themes: race, racism, class, family relationships, family tragedy, parents affecting children, guilt, fear, Maine ...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Pat rated it it was ok

What a sucker I am for prize winning books and authors!!!!! Unlike so many others, I didn't like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Ketteridge, but The Burgess Boys was acclaimed as another GREAT book. So I had to read it; I know not why??? Sorry, not for me! Once again, I did not like any of the characters in this book much like her previous one. They had NO redeeming qualities! I just don't care to read about unhappy people wallowing in their unhappiness instead of garnering the courage to change their ...more

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