samkaye09's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
inthecommonhours's review
5.0
I preordered a copy but when it got delayed in shipping, I finally ran out during lunch on the 21st and bought a copy.
And finished it during lunch the next day.
I love Lucy’s voice, her way of moving through the world, her annoyance at the start of the pandemic, her attempt to break generational trauma and raise daughters who know they are loved.
Oddly, one of the main things that hit me was how different my experience of 2020 was from most people’s. Brian baked banana bread and took on one house project after another, building us a large garden. But I worked. I worked more than I ever had, and that’s saying something. I loved that I was home when the boys needed me—and they often stopped in with cups of tea or a smoothie during the day. And we did a puzzle as a family, watched Battlestar Galactica and read more about racism than we ever had. But mostly I worked, whereas so many people were forced to do nothing for weeks and months before places reopened.
I heard Strout say that she almost thinks of this book and Oh William! as one because they written on the heels of the other and another is in the works.
I think Oh William is still the strongest, though I loved so much here.
And finished it during lunch the next day.
I love Lucy’s voice, her way of moving through the world, her annoyance at the start of the pandemic, her attempt to break generational trauma and raise daughters who know they are loved.
Oddly, one of the main things that hit me was how different my experience of 2020 was from most people’s. Brian baked banana bread and took on one house project after another, building us a large garden. But I worked. I worked more than I ever had, and that’s saying something. I loved that I was home when the boys needed me—and they often stopped in with cups of tea or a smoothie during the day. And we did a puzzle as a family, watched Battlestar Galactica and read more about racism than we ever had. But mostly I worked, whereas so many people were forced to do nothing for weeks and months before places reopened.
I heard Strout say that she almost thinks of this book and Oh William! as one because they written on the heels of the other and another is in the works.
I think Oh William is still the strongest, though I loved so much here.
talalovesbooks31's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
Elizabeth Strout is a master storyteller and I can't find anything I don't like in the phrose, setting, and characters.
Everything seems so simple and everything is able to kept me reading and turning pages.
I was happy to read another book about Lucy and William. It was hard to read at times as the pandemics is still going and it was emotionally charged.
There's a lot of emotions, the pandemics is one of the main characters as Maine.
I read it in one evening as I wasn't able to stop reading and found the storytelling riveting.
A great book that can be emotionally challenging at times.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Everything seems so simple and everything is able to kept me reading and turning pages.
I was happy to read another book about Lucy and William. It was hard to read at times as the pandemics is still going and it was emotionally charged.
There's a lot of emotions, the pandemics is one of the main characters as Maine.
I read it in one evening as I wasn't able to stop reading and found the storytelling riveting.
A great book that can be emotionally challenging at times.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
narpetcards's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I adore Elizabeth Strout’s writing. I feel she does a lovely job of making a quiet story engaging and entertaining. While this was true for the first half of this book, Lucy made some choices and had some reflections in the second half that didn’t feel like her.
I think this did a nice job of reflecting what early days of 2020 felt like, and it would be interesting to re-read when we are further from that collective trauma.
I think this did a nice job of reflecting what early days of 2020 felt like, and it would be interesting to re-read when we are further from that collective trauma.
max63815's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I have read some amazing pandemic novels, and expected this to be one of them. Boy was I disappointed. I didn't like Lucy, and didn't feel like I gained much hearing about her privileged pandemic experience or her thoughts on BLM.
tjwallace04's review
3.0
Alas, this book was a disappointment to me. I have been a fan of Elizabeth Strout's writing since I first read "Olive Kitteredge," and I have generally enjoyed the Lucy Barton/Amgash books, especially "Anything is Possible" (which is actually a collection of loosely interconnected short stories, in which Lucy Barton only specifically features in one). "Anything is Possible" blew me away when I read it several years ago, and it is a book I still think about regularly.
But "Oh, William!" and "Lucy By the Sea" both felt drifting and and almost stale to me, "Lucy By the Sea" particularly. I like the character of Lucy, but I feel like she doesn't really have anything important or fresh left to say or give. And Strout keeps forcing these books out anyway.
"Lucy By the Sea" follows a year in Lucy's life from March 2020 - Summer 2021 and looks at her experiences of and reactions to the pandemic, George Floyd, the 2020 election, January 6, vaccines, etc. It is meandering and very choppy, with chapters made up of short sections of Lucy's random thoughts about anything and everything, including mundane every-day stuff like feeling annoyed with the habits of somebody with whom you live or being worried about why someone isn't confiding in you.
I can't say it was boring exactly. I read it quickly. The writing is pretty good. But ultimately, the book just felt kind of pointless. And maybe I wasn't quite ready to read a rehearsal of that terrible year from the POV of another privileged white woman like myself. Like...nothing new to report here. We wore masks, socially-distanced, worked from home, and got our vaccines. Yep.
The only parts that really resonated with me were Lucy's interactions with her adult daughters, who were sometimes forthcoming and needy and sometimes reluctant and almost cold to Lucy. I felt that in my bones, as I know I have behaved similarly to my poor Mom, sometimes crying out for help/attention and other times wanting to be left alone to deal with things on my own. Those parts may make me more self-aware in my relationship with my Mom, which would be a good thing to take away from this otherwise pretty forgettable book.
But "Oh, William!" and "Lucy By the Sea" both felt drifting and and almost stale to me, "Lucy By the Sea" particularly. I like the character of Lucy, but I feel like she doesn't really have anything important or fresh left to say or give. And Strout keeps forcing these books out anyway.
"Lucy By the Sea" follows a year in Lucy's life from March 2020 - Summer 2021 and looks at her experiences of and reactions to the pandemic, George Floyd, the 2020 election, January 6, vaccines, etc. It is meandering and very choppy, with chapters made up of short sections of Lucy's random thoughts about anything and everything, including mundane every-day stuff like feeling annoyed with the habits of somebody with whom you live or being worried about why someone isn't confiding in you.
I can't say it was boring exactly. I read it quickly. The writing is pretty good. But ultimately, the book just felt kind of pointless. And maybe I wasn't quite ready to read a rehearsal of that terrible year from the POV of another privileged white woman like myself. Like...nothing new to report here. We wore masks, socially-distanced, worked from home, and got our vaccines. Yep.
The only parts that really resonated with me were Lucy's interactions with her adult daughters, who were sometimes forthcoming and needy and sometimes reluctant and almost cold to Lucy. I felt that in my bones, as I know I have behaved similarly to my poor Mom, sometimes crying out for help/attention and other times wanting to be left alone to deal with things on my own. Those parts may make me more self-aware in my relationship with my Mom, which would be a good thing to take away from this otherwise pretty forgettable book.
wendoxford's review against another edition
2.0
As a longstanding Strout fan. I have loved all her books, to date. I felt underwhelmed by this novel.
I enjoyed being back with my "familiars" and slipped into the family with great ease. However, this is a pandemic book and I found it lacking, I suspect because of this. Normally the ramblings, insights, conversations of her cast make me pause and consider the slight yet hugely informative insights. I felt that, being so close to the pandemic, Trump, Capitol riots that there was nothing of the depths of an active mind that was surprising or new to me in her ponderings. Whether this is as a result of us having read swathes of news and ingested it ad nauseum ourselves, or whether Strout was aiming to capture the moment, I am unsure. I found myself (for the first time) irritated by Lucy (I always found William insufferable!), instead of emotional intelligence I found silliness.
Having said that, I did feel full immersion in the writing and how lockdown was for this family. I loved the pop up characters from other novels and I enjoyed the storylines involving her daughters and her siblings which oozed the multi-dimensions of previous Lucy books. I hope she comes back with more quirkiness, and ideally with William elsewhere!
I enjoyed being back with my "familiars" and slipped into the family with great ease. However, this is a pandemic book and I found it lacking, I suspect because of this. Normally the ramblings, insights, conversations of her cast make me pause and consider the slight yet hugely informative insights. I felt that, being so close to the pandemic, Trump, Capitol riots that there was nothing of the depths of an active mind that was surprising or new to me in her ponderings. Whether this is as a result of us having read swathes of news and ingested it ad nauseum ourselves, or whether Strout was aiming to capture the moment, I am unsure. I found myself (for the first time) irritated by Lucy (I always found William insufferable!), instead of emotional intelligence I found silliness.
Having said that, I did feel full immersion in the writing and how lockdown was for this family. I loved the pop up characters from other novels and I enjoyed the storylines involving her daughters and her siblings which oozed the multi-dimensions of previous Lucy books. I hope she comes back with more quirkiness, and ideally with William elsewhere!