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“Lucy let out a huge sigh and said, ‘But it’s a sad story. Carrying that clipping with her all her life.�� She shook her head and said, ‘Jesus Christ. All these unrecorded lives, and people just live �ٳ��.�� Then she looked at Olive and said, ‘Sorry for swearing.��

‘Phooey, swear all you want.�� Olive added, ‘Well, that’s the story. I always wanted to tell someone. But for whatever reasons I never did.����

Olive Kitteridge is now ninety and living in a retirement home. She knows that Lucy Barton, the author, moved up to Crosby, Maine, from New York City at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. She’s read all of Lucy’s books and has plenty of stories to share herself.

Bob Burgess had mentioned to Lucy that Olive had a story to tell her, and Lucy has ended up in tears after hearing about Olive’s mother. Lucy has said in her books that she doesn’t cry easily, so this has surprised both women.

It is the first of several stories of unrecorded lives they are to tell each other throughout the book. Some are short anecdotes, some are ongoing even now.

I think the title means, “I’m listening �� really listening.�� It’s a book full of people who are familiar to Strout’s readers, and stories go back to childhoods, youth, and old relationships.

It’s something like listening in on private therapy sessions where people unburden themselves. Small towns are notoriously full of gossip, but opening yourself up is foreign here.

Bob Burgess and his brother Jim are discussing a legal case in Crosby, which touches on something sensitive in their own childhoods.

“But they had never spoken of it since; they were both from Maine, and all their years of living in New York City would not change that; people from Maine did not always like to talk of these things.��

Strout shows us the relationships between couples and friends and who is paying attention �� ‘really listening�� �� to whom, and how easy it is for people to become nostalgic about old romances or wish to rekindle old feelings with someone new.

“Lucy said, contemplatively, ‘I wonder how many people in long marriages live with ghosts beside �ٳ��.��

‘Henry and I never did.�� Though as Olive said that she had a quick memory of Henry liking that foolish girl who worked with him for a while in the pharmacy, and she herself had been attracted to a man she taught with. But weren’t those tiny drops of oil in a fry pan? Not like the story she had just told.��

She mentions these to Lucy, who “waved her hand. ‘Little infatuations, unacted-on crushes, they’re not like living with a ghost.����

Tiny drops of oil in a fry pan. Strout says so much in so few words.

Meanwhile, it’s autumn, becoming cold, and Bob Burgess takes walks along the river to have a secret cigarette, staying upwind of the smoke, hoping his wife, Margaret, a local priest, won’t smell it on his clothing. Lucy also walks along the river, and they’ve become regular walking companions, both feeling surprisingly comfortable talking to �� and listening to �� each other.

We can see where this particular story might be going, since both are with partners who are wrapped up in their own interests �� Margaret with her church (and sermon performances), and William with his scientific research.

Bob has agreed to defend a strange local man accused of murdering his mother, which puts him back in business, so to speak. He now has a new interest, and so do we. Lucy and Olive continue swapping stories.

Strout fills in the backgrounds of her people well, which is good for readers like me who don’t remember all the details, but I still wouldn’t recommend this as a standalone book. It will be so much better enjoyed and appreciated by those who have read at least some of her earlier books.

This is not part of a series so much as one of a collection of linked books that revisit old friends and acquaintances whom you may have met on a previous trip to their part of the world. I love visiting them.

Now I’m tempted to go back and re-read some. I’ve read Olive Kitteridge three times, I think, and I pick up something new each time.

I would call her style simple and understated - no flowery language or intellectual games, going on, although she is beautifully descriptive. But, she is deeply insightful, so characters like Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton, and others are real and memorable.

The writing is so smooth that conversations and stories just flow, full of subtle hints and shifts that suggest moods and feelings so that you end up with a sense of how things are, but you’re not always sure how you got there. Magic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy from which I have quoted (so quotations are subject to change).

My review of Olive Kitteridge(Olive Kitteridge #1)

My review of Olive Again(Olive Kitteridge #2)

My review of My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash #1)

My review of Anything Is Possible (Amgash #2)

My Review of Oh, William! (Amgash #3)

My review of Lucy By The Sea (Amgash #4)

My review of The Burgess Boys