Anything Is Possible

Anything Is Possible is a 2017 novel by Elizabeth Strout in which each chapter features a character who is separate from but interconnects with the book’s other characters. Each chapter thus serves as both an autonomous short story and a piece of a larger, cohesive narrative and echoes or parallels other chapters.

Strout, whose 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, received the prestigious Story Prize for Anything Is Possible. The novel follows on Strout’s 2016 novel My Name Is Lucy Barton, and many chapters are set in Lucy’s hometown—the fictional Amgash, Illinois—though some characters live in other Illinois cities and one chapter takes place in Italy. The novel demonstrates that a town like Amgash, in which people know everyone’s business and nothing ever really changes, can have a far-reaching influence.

Through the novel’s 10 characters, it explores themes of resilience, family, and identity. Each character experiences trauma differently and is on a unique journey to enhancing their self-esteem and sense of security. Anything Is Possible is a study of the beauty of human connection in an unpredictable world.

Plot Summary

Chapter 1, “The Sign,” introduces Tommy Guptill. Tommy lost his family’s farm to a devastating fire, which forced him down the socioeconomic ladder. He took a job as a janitor, which humbled his family’s finances but satisfied his need to take care of his family. When he watched his farm turn to dust, Tommy heard the voice of God guiding him to what’s important in life: his love for his wife and his children. Tommy is a good neighbor who believes in Amgash’s community spirit. He’s particularly taken with Pete Barton, a troubled young man whose impoverished and abusive childhood led to a quiet and diminutive adult life. Tommy checks in on Pete every week and establishes a friendship with him despite their age difference. When Pete reveals that it was his father who had started the fire on Tommy’s farm, Tommy chooses to believe that people are imperfect but ultimately good. Though the revelation makes him question his faith, Tommy never deviates from appreciating his present moment and his family.

Chapter 2, “Windmills,” features Patty Nicely, who grew up in Amgash and stayed there as an adult. She works as a counselor at the local high school and cares for her ailing mother, who ran out on the family when Patty was a teenager. Patty’s beloved father has died, and her sister moved away to start a new life, leaving Patty alone with her past. Patty’s ashamed of her family’s drama, a tale that’s still gossip fodder decades later. Patty is also ashamed of her body and her recently failed marriage. Patty tries to be kind to her mother despite resentment that stems from her mother’s affair. Patty reads a memoir by an author whom she knew as a child: Lucy Barton, once one of Amgash’s poorest children, grew up to be a successful author in New York City. Her memoir inspires Patty to reconfigure her relationship with Amgash and herself. Through Lucy’s perspective, Patty learns how to care less about what others think about her and work through her shame.

Chapter 3, “Cracked,” follows Patty’s sister, Linda, in her affluent town outside of Chicago. Linda married well and she and her husband, Jay, have a modern, beautiful house. Their open marriage fractured their relationship with their college-aged daughter. Jay seduces and sleeps with other women and keeps tapes of their sexual encounters on his computer. When their town hosts a prestigious photography fair, Jay and Linda become hosts to a beautiful, single, and accomplished photographer named Yvonne. Yvonne is immediately uncomfortable in the guest house and spends her week away from the house as much as possible. Her senses are correct: Jay and Linda watch Yvonne in their guest house through security cameras that stream to Jay’s computer. Jay is arrested after attempting to rape Yvonne, but Linda thinks he’ll ultimately be released.

Chapter 4, “The Hit-Thumb Theory,” focuses on Charlie Macauley, a Vietnam veteran first introduced in Chapter 2 as the object of Patty’s desire. Charlie is still traumatized by his time in the war, and his relationships with his wife and son have become stale. He engages in an affair with a sex worker named Tracy, with whom he falls in love. However, when Tracy asks him for $10,000 to help her son, Charlie angrily gives her the money and breaks up with her, using a death threat to keep her away. Charlie finds solace in an Illinois bed-and-breakfast, where he cries silently through his pain. Charlie recognizes that he has demons but believes that if he feels and embraces his pain, he can have hope.

Chapter 5, “Mississippi Mary,” is the story of mother and daughter Mary and Angelina Mumford. Like Patty Nicely, Angelina grew up in Amgash and never left. She and Patty are friends now that they both work at the local high school. Angelina’s marriage is on the rocks; the father of her two children left her a year earlier. Angelina visits her mother Mary, who lives in Italy with her second husband Paolo, a much younger man. Angelina’s visit is her first since Mary’s surprising move to Italy. While their mother-daughter bond is strong and loving, Angelina resents Mary for leaving her father and marrying a man in another country. Angelina misses her mother, but Mary sees her second marriage as her opportunity to start a new chapter in life. Mary endured a difficult marriage with Angelina’s father, and though she’s now older and less wealthy, Mary is happier. Angelina fixates on the past, while Mary focuses on her present. Chapter 5 follows the two women as they reconnect in Italy, sharing gossip from Amgash and tearfully revealing their inner conflicts.

Chapter 6, “Sister,” centers on Pete and Vicky Barton and their relationship with their sister Lucy (the famous author who inspires Patty in Chapter 2) when she visits Amgash after 17 years away. Pete is nervous about his sister’s visit and tries to make their childhood house presentable and even welcoming. The reunion of the three siblings in Pete’s home brings immediate tension. Though Lucy has sent Vicky money, Vicky’s resentful that Lucy left without coming back. Pete tries to keep peace between the two sisters, but he and Vicky have endured their past in more direct ways than Lucy. Lucy, who wrote about Amgash from her decades-long physical distance, tried to be truthful about her family. However, Vicky and Pete have different versions of the truth. Integral to their strained relationship are their childhoods, in which Vicky bore most of the brunt of their abusive parents. During her visit, Lucy has a panic attack and flees to Chicago. Despite Lucy’s success, Pete and Vicky are grateful that they have one another. Though neither of them has a glamorous job or secure life, they’re satisfied that they didn’t turn out so bad after all.

Chapter 7, “Dottie’s Bed & Breakfast,” focuses on Dottie Blaine. Growing up in Amgash, Dottie and her brother, Abel, were even poorer than the Bartons—so much so that they stayed with the Bartons for a few summers. Since then, Dottie married, divorced, and started her own business. The bed-and-breakfast gives Dottie financial security and presents an interesting array of guests. Despite her childhood traumas, Dottie lives life with compassion and patience. She realizes how other people may judge her for being single, old, and childless but doesn’t internalize their perceptions. Dottie’s bed-and-breakfast is the one where Charlie finds refuge in Chapter 4. Dottie remembers Charlie, who cried in silent distress. She thinks of him often, haunted by his pain. Dottie’s central conflict is with Shelly Small, the wife of a physician who accompanies her husband to Dottie’s little town in Illinois for a conference. Shelly spends inordinate time telling Dottie a story that still makes Shelly cry: She and her husband bought a lake house in New Hampshire for their retirement. Their friend David invited his girlfriend, the actress Annie Appleby. Shelly confided in Annie, but when Annie and David broke up, Shelly didn’t hear from Annie again. What’s more, David told Shelly that Annie spoke derisively about the lake house and Shelly. This hurt Shelly’s feelings. However, Dottie finds Shelly’s story superficial. When she overhears Shelly mocking her with her husband, Dottie confronts Dr. Small to reclaim her integrity.

Chapter 8, “Snow-Blind,” focuses on Annie Appleby. Annie grew up in a tumultuous household, though her memories of her temperamental father are positive. As a child, Annie enjoyed wandering through the woods, to her father’s chagrin. Annie left home at age 16 and started a successful acting career but returned home when a scandal disrupted her family. Her father, Elgin, was kicked out of his elderly care facility for sexually harassing male employees. The story reveals that Elgin had a long, intimate affair with a man in town, and the two often met up in the woods, which explains why Elgin didn’t want Annie wandering there. Though Elgin’s affair hurts and even disgusts the family, Annie has enough perspective to feel empathy for him. She realizes that no one can truly know another person’s passions and truth.

Chapter 9, “Gift,” ends the novel through Abel Blaine’s point of view. Now in his older years, Abel has run a successful air-conditioning company and has been long married to a woman of extreme family wealth. His primary joy comes from being a father and a grandfather. Though Abel doesn’t dwell on his past traumas, he feels guilty for his successes. One night, he returns to the local theater to retrieve a stuffed pony that his granddaughter lost. There, he runs into an actor, Link, who interrogates him about his clothing and socioeconomic status. Like his sister, Dottie, Abel is patient, kind, and compassionate and has a strong sense of self, and he therefore speaks patiently with Link. Link decides that he likes Abel’s “realness” and helps him retrieve the pony. However, Abel starts blacking out; his health has been fragile since a heart attack a year earlier. In the ambulance, Abel has a revelation that informs the novel’s title: Anything can happen to anyone.