Book Review – “Abide With Me” – by Elizabeth Strout

Book Review - "Abide With Me" - by Elizabeth Strout

I have just finished this book, and I feel as if I have struck gold. The author, Elizabeth Strout, is sure to become one of my favorites.

"Abide With Me" is the story of a young Protestant minister, Tyler Caskey, who marries before he finishes seminary school in Boston. His bride is a beautiful, but spoiled, daughter of well-to-do parents who have no interest or connections with any religion.

After graduation, Tyler finds a position as minister of a church in a small town in Maine, where they are provided with a somewhat run-down house two miles out of town. Tyler is liked and well accepted in his position as minister, but his wife, Lauren, has a contrary attitude, and makes little effort to fit in. This baffles the good people of the congregation who continue to try their best to make her welcome, but although she is a good mother to her daughter Katherine, her main interest remains shopping for clothes. Yet Tyler loves her so much, he refrains from criticizing her.

Lauren becomes pregnant again, and after giving birth to another daughter, she becomes even more reluctant to try to fill her position as a minister's wife. During this time, before the baby is out of her infancy, Lauren contracts cancer, and after a period of great suffering, she overdoses herself on pain pills that Tyler has forgotten to remove from her bedside table.

After the passing of his wife, Tyler goes on faithfully fulfilling his duties with an outwardly cheerful appearance. The church leaders hire a woman of uncertain character to cook and clean for him. She doesn't like children.

When Lauren dies, Tyler's mother takes the infant, Jeanne, but refuses to take five-year-old Katherine. The loss of her mother has a devastating effect on Katherine that reduces her almost to not speaking at all, and to misbehavior at school, where she has no friends. When her reaction takes the form of screaming in school, and drawing inappropriate pictures, Tyler is called in for conferences.

At this point Tyler's problems grow to proportions he can not deal with. Gossip and rumors circulate that he may be having improper relations with his housekeeper, and Katherine's behavior worsens. Tyler seems unable to relate to anything except biblical quotations or philosophical thoughts of a dead Christian martyr. It all comes to a head one Sunday when, although he has prepared a sermon, he is unable to deliver it.

Although the storyline seems over-simplistic as I review it, I found it very well written, and so compelling that the book was hard to put down. The venue of the story reminds me of the books of Jan Karon, but in this case, the events are more true to life, and harsher in nature. And although I enjoyed it just as much or more, the story doesn't give me the heartwarming finality of Karon's stories.

Perhaps I enjoyed the story especially because I was born and brought up in a small New England town, and I have attended church suppers in Maine.

From information on the jacket, I think this is the author's second novel. Her first novel, "Amy and Isabelle" was a best seller, and it won several important awards. Previously, the author wrote short stories, some of which appeared in the New Yorker.

I liked "Abide With Me" very much, and I look forward to reading other books by this author.