The Correspondent

https://tinyurl.com/466e2dz8

It's like an Elizabeth Strout novel.

That's what someone e-mailed me when I was halfway through "The Correspondent" and the similarity resonated, as in you've got normal women, not famous, not setting the world on fire, and their lives, opinions, personalities.

Not that Virginia Evans is in the league of Elizabeth Strout. If you've never read any Strout, start there, and I'd recommend you read the books in order of publication, because sometimes the same characters are featured and... Like I said once before, don't equate the books with the highly-regarded HBO version of "Olive Kitteridge." You can't get the vibe of the state of mind of living in Maine from a TV show. Maine is a surprisingly large state, and except for the Portland area, it's mostly rural and nearly off the grid. Sure, some people retire to Maine, but usually they want to be closer to the big city. No, many Mainers have been there for generations. They're hardy, the environment demands it, and they're not looking for a handout, they know you regard them as less than, and they don't care, Maine is its own private universe, and Strout does an incredible job of delineating that.

As for "The Correspondent," I refrained from reading it. I'm wary of these little engine that could books, that build momentum months from release. Too often they're tomes that pull on the heart, that are mostly feel-good, I was wary of both lowbrow and chick lit.

And I can't say that I was hooked from the beginning. I'd say I had to get about a third in to be riveted, and then I was. You don't really get the heart and soul of the book until you make headway.

Sybil is a correspondent, as in she writes letters, occasionally the e-mail kind, but almost always on special paper ordered from England and... Once you get the cast of players, the people she's writing to, once you can see the entire universe, then it all starts to become clear...before that it just seems like an old woman writing letters.

Then again, how old is seventies? Today most people consider that positively young. But Sybil considers herself an old woman, she's retired and her eyesight is failing and...

Her life is complicated. Although she has a family, she dedicated her years to her job. And that leaves her alone in her old age, where she convinces herself she's happy, but is she?

And then events start to unfold.

Like Olive Kitteridge, Sybil can be a curmudgeon. She's not all queasy nice. She can stand up for herself, get into arguments, can display an edge ignorantly, all the while feeling alone...

Maybe that's what brings readers of fiction together, what draws them to books, their aloneness, they're looking to connect. They know they exist, but they don't feel like they quite fit in, haven't for their entire lives, reading is more than looking for comfort, it's connection... Maybe explanation, a few lessons. Does anybody else feel this way? Especially in a world where people hold their true feelings close to their vest.

So Sybil can be oblivious. Can't see when men are interested in her. Feels she's past all that anyway. That's the difference between men and women, men always believe there's a mate lurking around the corner, that there's still time left, they have hope. Women? They don't even see it that way. They envision living alone, they're content, with their friends and...

Sybil corresponds with all kinds of people. Her brother in France, her best friend from growing up who lives in Connecticut... She even goes back and forth with tech help in California. She establishes a relationship with a Syrian immigrant working below his station and... Deep down Sybil wants connection, she wants more, but she won't admit it to herself... She's cobbled together a life and she doesn't want to look at herself, for fear of falling apart. And she's not the only one. When you see a Boomer baked in their ways, wondering why they can't see things from a different perspective, why they can't change, it's because they're afraid of crumbling. They're afraid if holes are revealed they'll be seen as less than from not only those on the outside, but themselves too. They'll have to re-evaluate all their choices of the past. It's easier just to stay the course, even though oftentimes they're their own worst enemies. Like Sybil.

But Sybil has a heart, and she can connect with other square pegs who can't relate, like the bullied teenage boy Harry.

As much as Sybil is writing, at times she is paralyzed. And unlike with iMessage/text and e-mail... When you write a letter, you think, you contemplate, you take time...it could be months between missives, whereas if you don't hear from a friend in a matter of days electronically, you're worried something happened to them, that they got into an accident, that they died.

Now the plot does hook you. What happens and what doesn't happen. You wince and your heart breaks, but you don't feel manipulated.

All the while, you're looking at your own life, especially if you're on the back nine... Your own choices, your own behavior.

There are certain things that happen in this book that I'd love to talk to you about, but to write about them would ruin the reading experience.

"The Correspondent" is not highbrow, but it's not lowbrow either. Ultimately it's very satisfying, because it's about life, and no matter how long you've lived, it's still a mystery.


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