A review by tjwallace04
Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout
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.