Do you ever have such strong feelings that you’re afraid to let them out? After fifty-seven years of pent-up emotions, Artie Dam contemplates suicide. He feels too much about everything: his dead parents and sister, his son Rob, his absent friend Flossie, the kids in his history classes, and his dread of the president poised to take office in 2025.

It’s hard to reconcile Artie’s misery with the facts of his life. His marriage to Evie is solid, if imperfect. He communicates well with his students, he’s a former Teacher of the Year, and he has friends on the faculty. But he cannot stop dwelling on sad memories of the accident that changed Rob’s personality. And he comes to realize that everyone has something terrible bottled up inside, like the plumber who bursts into tears while fixing Artie’s faucet because his wife is having an affair.

Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge and other explorations of the human heart, has created in Artie a character with whom all of us can identify. He’s like a middle-aged Holden Caulfield, disturbed by the dark secrets in people’s characters. They hide their problems behind smiles, even lie to each other rather than expose their feelings out of fear they won’t be understood. At times Artie’s own behavior is bewildering, even dangerous to him. What keeps him going is his growing closeness to his son and the positive effects he has on certain students.

I can identify with Artie’s despair because Elizabeth Strout’s book is replete with words people should never say to each other. Excellent writers like her don’t need gutter language to express themselves. Without it, this could have been a five-star novel.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.