The Burgess Boys | Elizabeth Strout

I had read something that referenced the incredible storytelling chops of Elizabeth Strout, so when I was in my local library I picked up The Burgess Boys (2013). I read the whole thing, but I've got to say, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. She's written other books since so I should probably give her another try. Or not. In this story, the plot went adrift, and characters either didn't need to be there, or they needed to be there and were thinly drawn. At the core of the story is the Burgess family--two brothers, one sister, a mother (now dead from cancer) and a father (long dead from a tragic accident that's central to the story). The sister, Susan, has a teen-age son with problems, who, for reasons never made clear, rolled a pig's head into a mosque frequented by Somali refugees who are beginning to settle in the small Maine town where the family lived. (The two brothers, both lawyers, now life in NYC). The dynamic between the brothers was fairly well drawn, but there were a few story lines that didn't need to be there, and the plot just kind of fizzled out by the end.