Elizabeth Strout

Oh, because he's arty.

I mean, I just, you know, I just, because he's, because I feel like I know him so well, you know, he's the last full character that I've written.

And so he's still fresh in my mind.

And, and I just, I just find him to be fundamentally so decent and just kind of bumbling through his life as we all do.

And then coming across things that confuse him as we all do.

And then he begins to figure stuff out.

He begins to understand a little bit more than he did at the beginning of the book.

Well, Artie is feeling, for him, quite unnaturally lonely at that point.

And then I hope that the stage has been set for the reader to ultimately understand why.

Because without him even knowing, and yet the reader has to understand a little bit, that his wife has been

Separating herself from him in little ways every so often as she goes through her own thing.

And then his son has very much been distancing himself for a number of months.

And these things make Artie feel very sad, really quite sad.

And then he finds out why.

And also, you know, when his life is saved by that man, he's realized, oh, I didn't want to die.

I just didn't want to live at that moment.

But he's fully back engaged in life.

Well, you know, Artie, he's been thinking these miserable thoughts, but he doesn't act on them.

And then he actually has an accident in the water and this man ends up saving his life.

And in the hospital, Artie realizes, oh my goodness, I didn't want to die.