Reading this novel was like visiting old friends from a social distance. We got to know Lucy and William both in prior novels (My Name is Lucy Barton, Oh William!, Anything is Possible) and revisit characters introduced in Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again, and even The Burgess Boys. And that is lovely, as we have come to know that Elizabeth Strout’s voice is true and authentic, we can trust these characters just as we trust our own friends. Strout let’s our friends Lucy and William experience the pandemic on the coast of Maine, as physically isolated from Lucy’s beloved New York as they can be. This book isn’t for anyone still experiencing pandemic PTSD, because in her honesty, Strout brings us right back to the uncertainty of 2020 and the horror of separation from those we love most.
Personally, I love these characters and Strout’s writing style, which is probably apparent from my familiarity with her books and recommend Lucy by the Sea to anyone else who fell in love with the characters in other books. But the book also stands alone for anyone who has not read the others, as these characters don’t depend on their past iterations to come to life. As yet another pandemic book, this one stands out as a chronical of what was, and how emotional humans, especially older ones, can thrive, and survive
An Arc of Lucy by the Sea was provided to me by the publisher, Random House, and will be released September 20, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment