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I Ragazzi Burgess (2013)

by Elizabeth Strout(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8864118993 (ISBN13: 9788864118994)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Fazi

review 1: Elizabeth Strout sets her latest novel in the fictitious small town of Shirley Falls, Maine, the town that “the Burgess boys” escaped as soon as they could to live in New York City, the antithesis of their small-minded, claustrophobic home town. Two rather shocking acts connect the characters within Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel. The first occurred 47 years before when one of the Burgess kids, playing in the family car, rolls the car into his father walking toward the car, killing him. Four year old Bobby Burgess is haunted by this throughout his life, rebuked and castigated by his mother, twin sister, Susan, and older brother, Jim. The second occurs when Susan’s 19 year old son, Zachary, throws a bloody pig’s head into a mosque during Ramaden. The first even... moret, while tragic, was an accident, and yet, Bobby has worn the mantle of guilt and been sometimes paralyzed with fear, despite years of therapy and a life lived kindly and a career committed to helping people as a Legal Aid attorney. His twin sister, rejecting everything we know of the close relationship between twins, has complete disregard for him, blaming him for their sad childhood and anything bad that has happened to her since. His older brother, Jim, a highly visible, successful attorney with a national reputation has directed a simmering anger toward his brother with an acerbic tongue, calling him names, disrespecting him even though he is accomplished attorney. “You have always made me crazy. I’m tired of you…I am so – Bob, I just want you gone…”The second event, explained as a “dumb joke” by the nephew, is a deliberate, flagrant act, reflecting the contempt of Susan and many within the community for the Somalis who have fled the mayhem and murder in their own country to the peace and quiet of Shirley Falls. While Zach’s behavior is shocking, his behavior does not seem to be driven by undiagnosed mental illness or motivated by politics or any understanding of the far-reaching consequences, which served to make it even more disturbing.This second act initially spurs the family members to action in their traditional roles: Susan, hand-wringing, feeling herself again victimized following her seven year divorce state. Jim and Bob return to Shirley Falls, Jim, using his national influence and calling upon political connections to keep his nephew from being tried for a hate crime and Bob, riding shotgun. As the case slowly winds its way through the system, so does change for the three siblings. Susan is forced to confront her thinking when Zach flees to Sweden to live with his father. “And it was too late. No one wants to believe something is too late, but it is always becoming too late, and then it is.” Jim experiences a fall from grace that is at the same a cliché and a reprisal. ”Bob himself was emerging into a world where all felt doable…he went about his life unencumbered by the crust of doubt he’d been so used to that he had not known it covered him until it was gone.”Along the way, minor characters serve to explain what might be complex or obtuse about the siblings’ behaviors and personalities and ultimately effecting the greatest change for “the Burgess boys.” Jim’s wife, Helen, Bob’s former wife, Pam, Margaret Estaver, the Unitarian minister who brokers the simmering tensions in Shirley Falls, and Abdikarim Ahmed, the Somali elder who has lost so much and still forgives, are imbedded in this family’s life, knowingly or not helping them to liberate themselves. In the end “the facts didn’t matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.” This novel builds with a quiet (and sometimes disquieting) force, wrestling with family tensions, reflecting the best and worst of how we sometimes behave, and reminding me again of Elizabeth Strout’s command of story and language.
review 2: Dopo aver letto e apprezzato "Olive Kitteridge" mi aspettavo, in questo ultimo romanzo della Strout, qualcosa di diverso... La scrittura �� sempre molto pulita e attenta ma ho fatto fatica a "ingranare" perch�� - almeno a me - non coinvolge e non lascia molto. Troppe pagine, troppi i personaggi che ruotano intorno ai fratelli Bourgess e le loro mogli, ex mogli, ex mariti... e poi la questione dell'immigrazione e della faticosa integrazione dei Somali... insomma. Troppe cose. less

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