Five stars: Elizabeth Strout delivers boomersex in full force

Before anyone raises a skeptical eyebrow at a comparison between Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel and the dating show “Hotel Romantik,” the reviewer makes one point clear: Strout ranks among the United States’ most acclaimed and beloved writers.

Her books about the irritable Olive Kitteridge have won the Pulitzer Prize and become a television series starring Frances McDormand. Her novels about Lucy Barton have also earned strong reviews and a devoted readership around the world.

In the new novel, Strout once again writes about ordinary middle-class Americans who go through an extraordinary amount of pain. They are often changed by what they endure, emerging with greater insight on the other side.

The review finds parts of the book banal, but it also calls the novel genuinely moving and wise about life. Its five-star verdict presents Strout’s familiar attention to everyday people as both emotionally direct and deeply affecting.