This was a pandemic novel I didn't know I needed! With Elizabeth Strout being one of my favorite authors, I will pretty much read anything she writes — so of course I was ecstatic to have been approved for an early copy of her latest novel, Lucy by the Sea,which brings back one of my all time favorite Strout characters, Lucy Barton. This time around, it is the very early stages of the COVID pandemic and Lucy is whisked away to Maine by her ex-husband William, who, as a scientist, knows a thing or two about the situation going on with the virus. Lucy agrees to go with him to the isolated house by the sea for what they both think will be "only a few weeks" (one of my favorite scenes was early on in the book when Lucy is in her apartment packing her things and trying to decide what to bring for what she anticipates will be a short stay in Maine — the laptop scene was classic "Lucy and William bantering over the most mundane things" and I loved the familiarity of it!). As the weeks turn into months, the situation escalates, with Lucy and William eventually going into pandemic lockdown as things around the world become more and more dire.
Just like with the previous Lucy books, we as readers essentially live inside Lucy's head the entire story as she narrates her day-to-day experiences (whether good or bad), observations, and feelings toward everything that happens. As Strout does brilliantly with each of her novels, she provides keen insights into the human condition through her characters' astute observations and empathetic, heartfelt emotions that reflect the realities of our everyday lives. One difference this time though, is that many of Lucy's experiences and sentiments hit extremely close to home, given the timeframe spanning recent events such as the pandemic lockdown, the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, the January 6th insurrection, etc. — resulting in shared feelings of anxiety, fear, unease, and a sense of feeling unmoored in a country becoming more and more divided.
I read Oh William! last year and while I did enjoy that one, I felt that focus was more on William's story rather than Lucy herself, and in that sense, it felt a little less relatable than the first book My Name is Lucy Barton did. This new book, Lucy by the Sea, brought the focus back to Lucy, which I definitely appreciated, as it gave me the same poignant, relatable vibe that the original one did, which made me love this one just as much.
Fans of the Lucy Barton series will no doubt love this newest sequel, though it's definitely recommended to read the previous books before this one (except Anything is Possible, which is part of the series but doesn't focus as much on Lucy herself — I still need to read this one myself). Also, Elizabeth Strout fans who have read her other books will love the Easter eggs scattered throughout the story, especially the appearances by other characters who featured prominently in some of her other works. This added a "fun" element to the story that helped to balance out some of the "heaviness" of the subject matter for me. While I'm not sure if there will be another Lucy book after this one, I will absolutely read whatever else Strout comes out with in the future!
Received ARC from Random House via NetGalley.
No comments:
Post a Comment