"The Things We Never Say" by Elizabeth Strout

 

Elizabeth Strout’s latest jewel, The Things We Never Say, comes to us this year loaded with the same realism, sympathetic characters, and emotional clout we have come to depend on from this splendid author. She does not disappoint. No, far from it. This book’s charms will stay with you long after you finish.

This time Strout introduces us to Artie Dam, a high school history teacher, and onetime Massachusetts Teacher of the Year award winner, who has reached a crossroads in his life on the job and away from it. Unfortunate events and a willful silence surrounding them have conspired to sink Artie into a depressive mire in the second half of his 50s. As he navigates his life and career from his seaside home, a series of wrenching revelations will affect him profoundly.

A time of polarized national politics weighs on him (and the other characters) too. He is forced into changing his method of teaching the American Civil War, but this is mere background to his immediate challenges. At the outset of the book, he is deeply unhappy, but successful at hiding it from his students. He understands that his wife, a family therapist, has her despondent moments, too. Very little of this is communicated between the two of them, which I found surprising, given their professions.

But this is Artie’s story. In a pivotal moment, he has an accident, losing his footing trying to climb into his small sailboat from the little dinghy he rowed out to it. He slips and falls, his boots fill with water, and every handhold he tries for, on either vessel, moves just beyond his reach. He understands this is the end and suddenly realizes he doesn’t want it to be the end. The episode spooks his wife and his son Rob, who wonder if it really was an accident; they have understood at some level how unhappy he’s been.

He returns to his life after his lucky rescue, and finds it surprising that others have guessed his heartache. His students remain engaged, and become even more so. (Classroom scenes are special, exceedingly well done.) His influence over his students, and the long-lasting change he engenders in them, form the hallmarks of his worth; he and his son reaffirm their love in spite of a shocking secret they share. 

I’ve spent enough time on the plot. These characters are sympathetic, the zeitgeist of the political moment is spot-on, and a driving suspense plays out and maintains our interest. Pick this up and enjoy yet another entry in Elizabeth Strout’s parade of deserving hits.