Anything Is Possible has nine chapters, each one either introducing us to a character, or fleshing out characters that we'd heard of in other chapters. The setting is a rural area in Illinois with a number of small towns that are presumably not too far apart.
Some of the ties between the characters are blood ties, as in Abel and Dottie Blaine, who grew up so poor they looked in trash cans for food, or Peter, Lucy and Vicky Barton, who were poor and abused by their parents. Some ties are between neighbors and friends, like that of Patty Nicely and Angelina Mumford. Some of these people transcend their poverty and make a good living. Others seem mired in their status. Strout uses a light touch to show us the lives of these very believable people. In spite of the poverty that we often see, there's also hopefulness.
This was just the right book for me at this time.
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