Tell Me Everything

Elizabeth Strout has been a prominent voice in mainstream literary fiction since the publication of her first novel, Amy and Isabelle (1998), which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. In it, Strout introduces the world of Shirley Falls, Maine and the surrounding area, including the nearby town of Crosby. Strout’s most well-known book, Olive Kitteridge, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009; this novel and Olive, Again (2019) are also set in the same area in Maine. Most recently, Strout has published a series of books known as the Amgash series, featuring Lucy Barton.

Tell Me Everything is the fifth book in Strout’s Amgash series, which also includes My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), Anything is Possible (2017), Oh, William! (2021), and Lucy By the Sea (2022). It is called the Amgash series because the protagonist, Lucy Barton, is originally from the small rural town of Amgash, Illinois. The settings of the various books range between Illinois, New York, and Maine. In My Name Is Lucy Barton, Lucy’s mother visits, which spurs Lucy’s exploration of her family history and relationships with her parents. The exploration reveals childhood trauma that she still struggles with. Anything is Possible is a series of interconnected stories about residents of Lucy’s hometown of Amgash, who grapple with their pasts and work to define and shape their lives. In Oh, William!, Lucy goes to Maine for the first time with her ex-husband William. In Lucy By the Sea, Lucy and William leave New York and move to Crosby, Maine, during the pandemic.

With Lucy’s move from New York to Maine, Strout weaves the worlds of her various novels together. In Tell Me Everything, Strout brings many of her characters together, including, Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, and Bob Burgess from The Burgess Boys (2013). She references events and characters from other books throughout. By continuing to explore the world and characters from different perspectives over time, Strout adds complexity to the characters’ stories and further establishes the world of her series. The specificity of the fictional world that Strout created also lends a sense of authenticity to her novels.

Strout’s fictional world of Crosby, Shirley Falls, and the surrounding area is an isolated rural community on the rugged coast of Maine. The population is mostly working class, and a loss of local industry has economically depressed the area. An uneasy relationship with tourists exacerbates this financial predicament, as they contribute to the economy while spurning the locals. This includes people like Lucy and William, who take advantage of the low property cost to buy homes and represent a frightening change to the locals. The narrator of Tell Me Everything notes that the locals are suspicious of Lucy and William because they are from New York City. Lucy is more suspect because she is a writer. 

Political tension also divides the locals and newcomers, which Strout illustrates through Lucy’s relationship with Charlene Bibber. Lucy, a New York writer, and Charlene, a working-class local, struggle to find common ground and build a friendship. In Tell Me Everything, Lucy and Charlene’s friendship dissolves when Charlene’s new boyfriend sows doubt about her work at the food pantry and her friendship with Lucy. Through her creation of this fictional world, Strout addresses real-world tensions between rural and urban populations while immersing her audience in the powerful Maine environment.