The Burgess boys grew up in Strout's trademark territory of rural Maine - this dying hometown burg is called Shirley Falls - but as adults they've escaped to New York. I mostly loved it because it feels like life: Color it chaotic. The Burgess Boys is not only a novel - it's a big, floppy, shambling jumble sale of a novel. I bet Poe would've preferred Strout's book Olive Kitteridge, given that it's a collection of interlocking short stories, and Poe always had a thing for short poems and stories over novels.

I kept thinking of Poe's matchy-matchy theory of writing as I was reading Elizabeth Strout's new novel, The Burgess Boys. I say that because in the essay, Poe insists that all good writing must strive for what he calls 'unity of effect.' For Poe, it was important that everything in his short stories - characters, setting, narration - add up to one big 'color-me-terrified' impact. In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a famous essay called 'The Philosophy of Composition,' in which he sounds like an interior decorator. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Īlso available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Burgess Boys Author Elizabeth Strout With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout’s newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art. Long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationships begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood. Susan's teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble and she desperately needs their help.

But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan, urgently calls them home. Bob, a Legal Aid attorney, idolizes Jim and has always taken it in stride. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives. Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could.

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout