Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

 

Characters

Bob Burgess – lawyer, told he was in drivers’ seat when car rolled down hill and killed father Margaret Estaver – wife, Unitarian minister   Jim – Bob’s older brother, really caused car accident Helen – wife, died Larry – son   Susan Olson – Bob’s twin sister     Pam – Bob’s first wife Ted - husband   Olive Kitteridge – age 90, in personal care home Isa – younger sister   Isabelle Goodrow – Olive’s friend in home   Lucy Barton – fiction writer, Bob’s friend William Gerhardt – ex-husband, lives with Lucy   Matthew Beach – painted pregnant nudes Gloria – mother, “Bitch Ball,” disappeared, body found in car in river Diana – sister, told guidance counselor she was abused by father, told scary stories on playground to other children, killed mother, suicide Thomas – brother   Avery Mason – Unitarian church member, slept through sermons, was going to try to get Margaret removed but died, her sermons improved after his death   Ashley Monroe – one of Matthew’s models, Gloria used her ID to rent car

  

Stories Lucy and Olive told each other

Olive’s mother was in love with Stephen Turner, her mother broke them up, they both named their daughters Olive and Isa   Janice Tucker – hairdresser, mother died when Janice was young, affair with college professor, husband suspected of being gay, she was a “sin-eater” (page 86) (ate other people’s sins)   Pauline – in love with a fisherman, sent to England to forget, married a wealthy man, daughter mental issues   Muddy Wilson – history teacher, wife died of cancer, he suffered and then remarried multiple times   Addie Beal – Lucy’s friend at college, charmed childhood (scrapbooks) but difficult adult, died young of cancer   Lucy’s love affair with Bob that never happened

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1.      One major part of the book was Lucy and Olive sharing stories of unrecorded lives.  At one point, Olive said to Lucy that she didn’t know what the point of the stories and people’s lives were.  Lucy answered, “People and the lives they lead.  That’s the point” (page 225).  Did you see any other points to sharing the stories?

2.      There was a lot of tragedy in the book – suicides, abuse, affairs, etc.  What, if anything, did you find positive?

3.      Were there any places in the book that you found humorous?  I liked when Olive first met Lucy and she was wearing boots.  Olive thought, “And she had the strangest things on her feet, boots with long big silver zippers right up the front of them…There’s no snow on the ground, don’t know why you need boots” (page 10).

4.      There were A LOT of characters in the book!  How did you keep them all straight?  Were there any that you particularly liked or disliked?

5.      Why do you think the author included so many characters.  There were several (or a lot!) that were only mentioned once or twice.  For example, Charlene Biibber (cleaning lady) and Carl Dyer who eventually got her to withdraw from society.

6.      Why did Margatet’s sermons improve after Avery Mason died?

7.      On page 118, why were Matt’s fingertips red and raw?  I thought this was a clue that he killed his mother, but that was not correct.  Why the the author include this detail?

8.      Gaslighting is defined as “the use of psychological manipulation to undermine a person’s faith in their own judgement, memory, or sanity” (according to the dictionary on my phone!).  Did you know what it was when you read about it?  How did people do this in the story?

9.      Discuss Bob and Lucy’s relationship. When something happened, the first person Bob wanted to tell was Lucy.  On page 227 they were described as “happy, these two – walking and talking – they were just happy.”

10. Last month we read Olive Kitteridge by the same author.  Did this novel stay true to the character from that book?   Did reading that book add to your enjoyment of this book?