Reading Order
The Burgess Boys Reading Order
The Burgess Boys (2013) by Elizabeth Strout is her fourth novel and the most conventionally structured — a family novel about Jim and Bob Burgess, two brothers who left their small Maine hometown of Shirley Falls (population declining, Somali refugee community growing) for New York City, and their sister Susan who stayed. When Susan's teenage son Zach commits a hate crime against the local Somali mosque — throwing a frozen pig's head at the mosque during Ramadan — Jim and Bob return to Shirley Falls to manage the fallout, and the novel becomes a portrait of the brothers' complicated relationship, their shared history in Shirley Falls, and the town's reaction to its growing Somali community. The Burgess Boys is less formally radical than Olive Kitteridge or the Lucy Barton novels — it is a more conventional narrative, with a plot that moves forward and characters who develop in legible ways — but it is recognizably Strout in its emotional intelligence and its attention to the specific dynamics of families that have been shaped by a particular place and a particular history. The novel is also unusual in its engagement with immigration and race — the Somali community in Shirley Falls is based on real Somali refugees who settled in Lewiston, Maine, and the novel addresses the town's responses to that settlement with more political specificity than Strout usually employs.
Where to start
The Burgess Boys — any Random House paperback. The most conventionally structured of Strout's novels and a good entry point for readers who want a more traditional narrative before approaching the formally innovative Olive Kitteridge or My Name Is Lucy Barton.
Complete The Burgess Boys Book List
- 1Buy
The Burgess Boys
Elizabeth Strout·2013·The novel — Jim and Bob Burgess returning to Shirley Falls, Maine after Susan's son commits a hate crime; the Somali community, the brothers' complicated relationship, the town's reckoning; Strout's most conventionally structured novel and her most politically engaged. - 2Buy
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout·2008·Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in stories — the companion in her Maine fiction and her best-known work; Crosby, Maine is the companion community to Shirley Falls, Maine. - 3Buy
My Name Is Lucy Barton
Elizabeth Strout·2016·The companion in Strout's fiction about difficult family relationships and the past's persistence; Lucy and her mother are the female companion to Jim, Bob, and Susan's sibling dynamics. - 4Buy
Olive, Again
Elizabeth Strout·2019·The companion Olive novel — Olive in old age; the continuation of Strout's Maine world. - 5Buy
Oh William!
Elizabeth Strout·2021·The second Lucy Barton novel — the companion in Strout's late fiction about long relationships and late-life reassessment. - 6Buy
Empire Falls
Richard Russo·2001·Russo's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — the companion in American fiction about small Maine towns under economic pressure; Miles Roby's Empire Falls, Maine is the comic-tragic version of what Strout portrays in Shirley Falls, Maine. - 7Buy
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini·2003·Hosseini's novel about an Afghan immigrant — the companion in fiction about immigrant communities; the Afghan experience in California is the immigrant side of what The Burgess Boys portrays in the Somali community in Maine. - 8Buy
A Long Way Gone
Ishmael Beah·2007·Beah's memoir — the companion in literature about displacement and refugees; a West African child soldier's account of survival is a companion text to the Somali refugee community at the center of The Burgess Boys.
The Burgess Boys — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Burgess Boys about?
The Burgess Boys follows Jim and Bob Burgess, two brothers from Shirley Falls, Maine, who left for New York City — Jim became a highly successful lawyer, Bob became a lawyer of more modest success and more genuine decency. Their sister Susan stayed in Shirley Falls, married badly, divorced, and is raising her teenager son Zach alone. When Zach throws a frozen pig's head at the local Somali mosque during Ramadan, Jim and Bob return to Shirley Falls to manage the legal fallout. The novel is about the brothers' complicated relationship (Jim is successful and dominant and has always overshadowed Bob; Bob is decent and has always deferred to Jim), their shared history in Shirley Falls, and the town's complicated reaction to its growing Somali refugee community.
What is the Somali community's role in the novel?
Shirley Falls's Somali refugee community is based on the real Somali refugees who settled in Lewiston, Maine, starting in the early 2000s, creating one of the largest Somali communities in New England in a predominantly white working-class city whose economic base had been declining. In the novel, the Somali community represents the complexity of the contemporary American small town: a declining economy, an influx of refugees who bring new cultures and new tensions, and a white community that is trying to figure out how to respond. Strout portrays the Somali characters with care and specificity — including a Somali teenager who befriends Zach — and avoids both romanticizing the community and using it merely as a backdrop for the white characters' drama.
What is the brothers' backstory?
Jim and Bob Burgess share a crucial piece of family history: when they were young children, their father was accidentally run over and killed by a car, and the accident was caused, in some indirect way, by both brothers. The precise circumstances are revealed over the course of the novel, and they explain the dynamic between the brothers — Jim's dominance and Bob's deference, the guilt and responsibility that have shaped their relationship. The past in Shirley Falls is as important as the present crisis involving Zach, and Strout moves between the two with the same precision she brings to the present drama.
How does The Burgess Boys compare to Strout's other novels?
The Burgess Boys is the most conventionally structured of Strout's major novels — it has a clear plot, characters who develop, and a narrative that moves forward in a legible way. It lacks the formal radicalism of the linked-stories structure of Olive Kitteridge or the compressed obliqueness of My Name Is Lucy Barton. It is also Strout's most politically engaged novel, addressing immigration and race with more directness than her other work. For readers who want a more conventional narrative before approaching her formally innovative books, The Burgess Boys is a good entry point; for readers who have loved Olive Kitteridge, it shows Strout's range.
What should I read after The Burgess Boys?
After The Burgess Boys, Olive Kitteridge (2008) is Strout's Pulitzer-winning Maine novel and her most celebrated work. My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016) is the companion in her formally innovative mode. For American fiction about small Maine towns in economic decline, Richard Russo's Empire Falls is the most important companion. For fiction about immigrant communities in small American towns, Edwidge Danticat's Brother I'm Dying and Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer are important companions in the tradition of the immigrant experience in America.
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