BU Alum’s New Novel a Meditation on Friendship and Faith
Stewart O’Nan explores the lives of four women in Evensong
“I tend to write very different books and try not to repeat myself,” says Stewart O’Nan (ENG’83). Novel cover courtesy of Grove Press UK. Photo of O’Nan by Trudie O’Nan
BU Alum’s New Novel a Meditation on Friendship and Faith
Stewart O’Nan explores the lives of four women in Evensong
Throughout the summer, we’ll be republishing some of our favorite stories and videos from the past year. This week, we’re focusing on alumni and faculty authored books.
Over a career spanning more than three decades and producing 20 novels, Stewart O’Nan has earned a reputation for writing movingly about people often overlooked by society: fast-food workers (2007’s Last Night at the Lobster), a woman on death row (1997’s The Speed Queen), and struggling middle-class families (2008’s Songs for the Missing and 2022’s Ocean State).
In his latest novel, Evensong (Grove Atlantic, 2025), O’Nan (ENG’23) explores the lives of four women, ranging in age from their early 60s to late 80s, members of an informal group they’ve christened the Humpty Dumpty Club. The four take care of elderly acquaintances while navigating their own increasingly complicated lives. What could have been a maudlin, sentimental story is, in O’Nan’s accomplished hands, a buoyant, often funny, and always engaging meditation on friendship and faith.
Among the four characters, two will be readily familiar to regular O’Nan readers—Emily Maxwell and her sister-in-law Arlene. First introduced in his 2002 novel Wish You Were Here, and appearing again in 2011’s Emily, Alone and 2019’s Henry, Himself, the two women are now nearing 90, still living in their own homes and still as prickly as ever.
Bostonia spoke to O’Nan about his new novel, his characters the Maxwells, and his return to Boston after decades living in Pittsburgh. (For the record, the author is a huge Red Sox fan and cowrote with his friend Stephen King a nonfiction book, Faithful, about the team’s 2004 season.)
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q&A
with Stewart O’Nan
Bostonia: You write about characters you don’t see often in fiction—women in their 60s and older who lead quiet, unremarkable lives. What intrigues you about the subject?
O’Nan: Ever since interviewing scores of seniors for The Circus Fire [his account of the 1944 circus fire in Hartford, Conn., that claimed the lives of 167 people], I’ve been fascinated by how people’s lives change across decades, and how, even alone, in terrible physical and mental health, they endure. What keeps them going through all the natural losses we’re heir to?
Bostonia: The book’s title—Evensong—suggests an elegiac tone. Illness and the threat of mortality are everywhere, yet these women are resourceful and independent. What did you want to say about people who find themselves at this moment in their life journey?
O’Nan: They have faith in something beyond themselves, and while they recognize and regret their failures, they hope to bear them with grace.
Bostonia: The novel has a lot to say about the importance of community. In some ways, these women are closer to each other than they are to their own relations.
O’Nan: The four have chosen one another (and the club, and the church, and the music lovers of Cavalry Church, which they attend) as family, and are devoted to one another, despite whatever petty jealousies or slights arise. They can count on one another, which is a blessing at their age.
Bostonia: Many of your most memorable characters have been women. How do you write so empathetically and knowingly about women?
I try to understand anyone I write about, why they do the things they do, and what they can’t do. In my experience, women are asked to carry the emotional well-being not just of their families, but their friends, their neighbors—everyone. They’re responsible in a way men aren’t, and in bearing so much responsibility, they’re interesting characters. They care, and that’s what makes a great character.
Bostonia: Evensong marks the return of Emily and Arlene Maxwell, who make their fourth appearance. Is there more to say about their lives, or do you think you’re done writing about them?
Some readers ask if I’m ever going to do Arlene’s book—her life story—like I did for Henry Maxwell in Henry, Himself and Emily in Emily, Alone. I thought this might be it, but it turned out to be an ensemble piece instead.
Bostonia: Your hometown of Pittsburgh figures prominently in this novel and in much of your fiction. You recently moved to Boston. Do you think that will be the setting for future books?
I’m not sure what’s next. I’ve written about every place I’ve lived (and some I haven’t), so who knows. My very first stories, way back in the 80s, were about the people in my Brighton neighborhood—the guy at the convenience mart who sold me my cigarettes every day and was trying to learn English, the guys I worked with at the muffler warehouse—so I know there are stories everywhere here.