Elizabeth Strout

Yeah.

But I do think that there is a subtle growing sense of distress.

I don't really know, to tell you the truth, because I don't discuss it with any of them.

Yes, of course it is.

Of course it is.

I mean, back in the day, you know, my parents would talk about what was happening with the government with their friends and they would disagree, but never in an ugly way.

You know, it was just part of the conversation.

No.

That's right.

The moment Artie is brought in by the principal and told that the school board, because Artie teaches, he teaches his Civil War history class by assigning all his students either a Massachusetts soldier or a Massachusetts nurse.

And having them take on the role of that person from the Civil War, and they look at their letters, that's how he's done it for years.

Because they live in Massachusetts, and he wants to make it relevant to them.

And then the moment the principal calls him in and says, look, the school board wants you to start taking on Confederate soldiers, that's a signal that the reader may or may not pick up on until much later.

But that's the beginning of Artie's life.

you know, situation of the external world coming at him.

Yes.

Yes, I did.

And I talked with a couple of high school, contemporary high school teachers all over the country.

School boards are changing their curriculum and stuff.

Yeah.