Secrets

Review: The Things We Never Say

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Cover image of "The Things We Never Say" by Elizabeth Strout

The Things We Never Say

The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout. Random House (ISBN: 9798217154746) 2026.

Summary: Outwardly, Artie Dam is a beloved teacher; yet his life is fraught with the secrets kept by him and others.

He’s won “teacher of the year” awards. Students love and colleagues respect fifty-seven year old Artie Dam of the white socks and dumpy black tennis shoes. He teaches history. But more than that, he teaches students what special and unique persons they are. He lives on the New England coast and the beautiful old family home of his wife Evie. The son of a handyman/apartment supervisor whose mother struggled with insanity, his marriage to Evie meant marrying up into a wealthy family. However life seems good with outings with close friends and sailing in the bay.

And yet Artie is deeply troubled. It is the run-up to the 2024 election and its troubling prospects. Then there are all the unresolved feelings about his son, Rob’s, accident in which the girl he was with died. Since that time, Rob has become more distant, although successful in his work. The accident separates him, he senses, from Evie, who deals with her grief by becoming a therapist. A family friend he often confided in moves away after her husband’s death and he misses her. He expresses these things only to himself in his thoughts. He even obsesses about ending his life through suicide.

Then a boating accident where he nearly drowned brings him to understand he does not want to die. Not only that, his son, who seems to have suspected that he might have tried ending his life, draws closer. And he begins meeting Ken Moynihan, and starts sharing some of the secrets and questions that trouble him. It lifts him.

Then he learns of a secret involving his wife and closest friends. Not only that, it is a secret they knew. So, what should Artie do? Does he participate in the secret, acting as if he doesn’t know? Or does he reveal that he knows, risking his marriage?

It tears Artie apart. He even takes up petty shop-lifting. Meanwhile, he continues to care deeply for his students, particularly a troubled young woman and young man, whose lives he changes. But can he live with the loneliness of the unspoken, the secret lives and lies of which he is a part?

Strout explores the deep pain of human existence. Although we may seem embedded in close relationships, there are the secret hopes, the hidden transgressions “we never say.” We long to know and make ourselves known to others. Yet, we fear that such revelations may shatter rather than strengthen relationships. And so we live in the proximate companionships, respecting the boundaries of what we cannot say. Yet we long for one who knows all our secrets and never flinches, and never stops loving.

Review: Buckeye

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Cover image of "Buckeye" by Patrick Ryan

Buckeye, Patrick Ryan. Random House (ISBN: 9780593595039) 2025.

Summary: Two couples in a small, post-war Ohio town have secrets between them that will shake their lives and the son who connects them.

Why was everyone in small town Bonhomie, Ohio celebrating? That’s what Margaret Salt wanted to know when she went into the hardware store where Cal Jenkins worked as a clerk. They go down to the basement and turn on the radio to learn the Allies had defeated Germany in World War II. Spontaneously, she kisses Cal–passionately, on the lips–igniting a passion that would change forever two families.

Margaret, a woman of striking looks and red hair, had been raised in an orphanage in eastern Ohio, abandoned by her mother. When she comes of age, she moves to Columbus, where her sexuality is awakened. She meets Felix, a dashing executive for a manufacturing company. They marry after a short courtship but he seems to have little sexual drive, though he treats her wonderfully. He is promoted and assigned to a plant in Bonhomie, a fictional town located near Findlay, Ohio

Meanwhile, Cal Jenkins grew up in Bonhomie, raised by Everett, a father with PTSD from World War I (though no one called it that). One of his legs was shorter than the other. Yet he learned to work hard, and in the course of things, met Becky, whose father owned the hardware store and several other small businesses in the area. Becky had a special gift of being able to connect with spirits of the departed. They married and Cal went to work for her father. Soon, a son, Cal, Jr. but Skip to everyone came along.

Then something else came along. World War II. Eventually, Felix enlisted in the Navy, assigned to a ship in the Pacific. Cal was turned down for service because of his leg. Becky developed a practice, especially for those who’d lost sons or husbands. She came to the attention of a promoter by the name of LaGrange. who would have used her gift for a money-making scheme (she never charged for sittings). Instead of letting her handle it, Cal threatens the man and drives him off, creating a rift in the marriage. It is while this was going on that Margaret encountered Cal. Soon they struck up an affair. Meanwhile, Felix has an affair of his own, with another man, Augie, who dies when their ship is sunk. Felix survives and after recovering from injuries receives his discharge.

When Felix’s ship was sunk, his fate was unclear for a time, and Margaret cut off contact with Cal. Until the night before Felix was due home. They got together one last time–without their usual precautions. Then, the next night, Felix wanted to be with her. You guessed it. Shortly after, Margaret was pregnant. They raised Tom as if Felix was his father. He had Margaret’s red hair. But there were other signs that he was Cal’s son. Those in the know kept the secret.

And it seemed to work for a time. Cal and Becky got back together, aided by timely counsel to Cal from Becky’s father. Felix and Margaret gave themselves to raising Tom, even though Felix struggled with his own PTSD and kept the secret of Augie. Felix’s career nosedives as Cal takes over the management of the hardware store, expanding it. Becky continues to offer sittings. And in an awkward turn, Skip and Tom become friends, with Tom nicknamed “Buckeye.”

But secrets have a way of coming out. Much of this story centers on the unraveling of secrets, and what they meant for everyone involved. Each person made different decisions, to lean into or turn away from relationships.

Parentage is a big theme of this story. Margaret struggled with abandonment. Cal coped with a difficult father. Felix wrestled with being a good father to Tom. Cal lived wondering about whether he had a second son. And for so many of Becky’s clients, the fate of a lost child or relative was their great concern. Patrick Ryan reminds us of the ways parentage inescapably weaves through our lives.

Ryan also is pitch-perfect in capturing post World War II America. The boom of growth. The hiddenness of gay life. The brewing tensions of race…and a far off conflict in Asia. Likewise, Ryan captures the ethos of Ohio during this time. While not an Ohio native, he did graduate work in Bowling Green, Ohio, not far from the location of his fictional town. His place names and descriptions in Toledo, Columbus, and small town Ohio are spot on, even though Bonhomie is a fictional place.

As much as I enjoyed all this, I most appreciated the intergenerational story Ryan wove. Against the Ohio canvas, he invites us to remember our own loves, families, and secrets. While these shape us, he also reminds us of the choices each of us may make–to love, to be vulnerable, to accept, to forgive–or not.