~ Abide With Me, by Elizabeth Strout ~
Even from the opening lines and pages of this novel, it was immediately clear why Elizabeth Strout has such an excellent reputation as a writer. The narrative is beautifully unfolded and paced, every word and every sentence another building block in the structure of the story. Unlike many other somewhat annoying novels where events and phrases lead nowhere despite apparent significance, Strout’s words are all part of the whole, and every turn of phrase reveals more of the community she is sketching. It is pure joy to read a novel of such careful and elegant craftsmanship. And not only are Strout’s words impactful and well placed, she is witty too:
The minister drove the back road to Hollywell, looking for God and hoping to avoid his parishioners.
p16
Tyler Caskey is the new minister sent to the small town of West Annett, in the 1950s. He brings with him his new bride, the luminous, privileged, and fairly self-absorbed Lauren, his new bride. She knows herself to be unsuitable minister’s wife material, but Tyler and Lauren are so in love that they both avoid making this an issue. Right from the outset, I was asking myself, why do I find Tyler such a sympathetic character? What makes him so endearing? And right from the start, it is as if Strout had guessed the reader might so wonder, and pre-emptively provides the answer:
He was a large man, tall and big-boned […]His voice, in keeping with the rest of him, was deep and resonant, and what saved him from being “too much” was a gentleness of expression that passed frequently over his features […] In other words for someone who could, with that build and presence, walk into a room and throw his weight around, that he did just the opposite, that he tried to be accommodating, tried, as he moved through the activities room at coffee hour […] to speak quietly, gently, to otherwise harness the depth of power he displayed from the pulpit: There was something touching about this.
p51
Lauren dies young, shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Jeannie. Their elder daughter, Katherine, is only 5 years old. Jeannie, the baby, is taken to live with Margaret Caskey, Tyler’s censorious but caring mother. Katherine, deeply troubled, lives with Tyler whom she adores, and is looked after by Connie, the housekeeper the church authorities had chosen for Tyler and paid for. From the start, it is obvious that although Connie is married and of a much lower social class than Tyler, she is attracted to him, and although Tyler is still grieving Lauren, he is attracted to Connie in return.
He stood back to let her [Connie] by. In whose spirit there is no guile, he thought.
p84
Tyler has a habit of thinking in Biblical quotations, and they are constantly sprinkled through his thoughts, helping him make sense of his world. In his grief over his loss, Tyler thinks,
Let not the heart in sorrow sin.
p85
When he has driven to his seminary to try find solace and see his mentor,
He sat in the car a few moments, looking at the campus, the massive grey trunks of the elms before him. Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
p122
The title of the novel, which comes from this hymn, resonates throughout, with its multiple meanings. When Tyler is pondering how to get his two children back under his roof and looked after by Connie, he thinks:
My heart is unquiet, til it rests with you.
p135.
There are always many possible meanings when Tyler thinks in biblical quotes – the ‘you’ could refer in this case to both children, to the dead Lauren, to Connie of course, even to God. And knowing Tyler, it possibly means a little of all of those.
Connie looked up from polishing the table. The room smelled like lemons. Tyler stood still, unbuttoning his coat, and he thought of the line from Matthew: I was in prison, and you visited me.
p148
This is a particularly poignant quotation thought of by Tyler, and which he thinks of more than once. Tyler does indeed find some release from his grief over Lauren’s death in Connie’s company. And later on, in a much more literal way, he has to visit Connie in prison indeed.
This novel brings out the richness and aptness of biblical quotes in a wonderful way. Tyler is a man who lives inside his own mind, as much as in the practicalities of ordinary life. He is in constant prayer, and seems to live his life in a state of prayer, always striving to be good, to be better. His relative lack of self-righteousness, is what makes this characteristic touching rather than irritating.
It is a typical small town cast, with pettiness, gossip, individual hurts and angsts playing out, and ultimately, concentrated on Tyler. West Annett goes from admiring love to condemnation, based on a few key incidents which are misunderstood. There is the sexy but dissatisfied teacher, Mary Ingersoll, who dislikes the 5 year old Katherine immensely, but disguises this under a cloak of concern. There is the self-important Rhonda Skillings, full of her doctorate authority and expertise. There is Doris Austin whose relationship with her unfaithful husband has poisoned other aspects of her life, and who fixates on new church organ as a result. There are many more such characters who have secrets in their lives, confusions and fears they cannot or will not articulate, but which muddy the waters of their relationships with their closest family, and eventually find expression in faulting the minister.
Everything comes to a head at the end, and the threads are drawn masterfully together. Strout’s style is deceptively simple, understated and quiet, but she creates such a meaningful silence in the space of this book, into which every sentence falls with resounding significance, and the reader’s sympathies are simultaneously engaged on a number of levels. A simply wonderful reading experience, at once rich and gentle.
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