A review by irena_smith
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

5.0

This book. The anxious, funny, fretting, erudite, preoccupied narrator. The fact that there are no sentences, just clauses that start with "the fact that." The fact that I couldn't read it and couldn't not read it. The fact that toward the end I couldn't stop reading it. The fact that I never read anything like it, and I'm pretty sure I'll never read anything like it again, ever. The fact that how the hell did she do that—tell the story of a family, a marriage, a second marriage, a surly teenager, climate change, polluted water, phthalates, Native American genocide, a toddler, tartes tatin, cinnamon rolls, open carry guys, ducks, a mountain lion, chickens, health insurance. The fact that the story spirals like the cinnamon rolls spiral, loosely at first and then tighter and tighter. The fact that I think it's going to take me a while to get over the feeling of loss at finishing this book. The fact that "good" doesn't even begin to describe it. The fact that I wish there were a way to override the five-star maximum and give it all the stars.