Moving into a new home takes a lot of work! Only one read this month due to moving technicalities but can expect many more reads to come in the new year!
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
“You can become bigger or bitter.”
Lucy by the Sea—Elizabeth Stout’s third novel featuring protagonist Lucy Barton—is a chronicle of the first year of the COVID pandemic. This novel captures the pandemics disruptions, uncertainties, and resultant anxieties as Lucy flees pandemic-stricken New York City for Maine with ex-husband William.
Although simple on the surface, Strout's new novel touches on subjects ranging from love to shame, encircled by a troubling sense of growing unrest and division in America. Nevertheless, it doesn’t quite hit the mark in any meaningful way.
This is the third time Lucy has chronicled the events and emotions that shape her life, and the voice that was so fresh and specific in My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), and Oh, William! (2021), is not the kind of deep, resonant fiction we expect from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge.
Although not her strongest work, I rated it a 4 because I have so enjoyed Elizabeth Stouts’ previous writings, and I’m still a big fan!