Oh William! reads like a diary, and is Lucy's story about her ex-husband William, and a trip that brings them back together, as friends. William and Lucy divorced several years ago, but they reconnect when William struggles with night terrors, and eventually, his wife abandons him. Lucy helps William to deal with his feelings, and they soon embark on a journey to uncover his family history after learning that he has a sister. The passages throughout are honest, at times gut-wrenching, and depict familial relationships with nuance and heart.

Oh William! was my first book by Strout, and now I want to go back and read the others in the series to learn more about Lucy's past. This book was a bit odd, but very unique and addicting to read. I loved how it shared Lucy's inner monologue, and it was so interesting to follow along as she processed revelations about herself and her loved ones.

William is on a quest to find his long lost sister. He had no idea she existed and now he is determined to find her. William is a character we all know. He is a father, an unfaithful husband and a son who has been lied to. How he has handled all of this has not been great. He is human and he has made some mistakes. When he brings his ex wife, Lucy, along with him to Maine, it opens ups some old wounds along with some new ones!

William is someone in which half the time I want to hug and protect and the other half I want to pinch and say “watch your mouth!” Then there is Lucy. She has made mistakes in her life and she is learning to live with her decisions. Even though they have been divorced for quite a while and are now friends, these two still have lots of baggage.

No one does dysfunction like Elizabeth Strout. She takes the reader on a tour of therapy. She makes you, as a reader, examine your own life. Sometimes you are the victim and sometimes you are the aggressor. The first time I read a novel by this author, I was not a fan! However, I saved that novel and some of the underlined passages. And I have always come back for more! So, there is something about this author which makes such a huge impression. And this novel about William is one that opens your eyes to many issues between husbands, wives, children and mothers.

Need an emotional read you will not soon forget…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

This wasn't my favorite Elizabeth Strout book, but no matter what the content I just love her writing, the voices of her characters, and the detail and beauty they recognize in mundanity and small moments.

I so love Elizabeth Sprouts writing. So character driven and real. Here we return to Lucy Barton and her relationship with her now long ex husband William. William has a lot going on in his life and Lucy joins for some of the ride. And along the way she learns more about her self. It is a short quick read and I read it in one sitting (granted while on a plane). And now I want to read all her other books again.

I was given a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

When I received this book from Netgalley, I did not realize that this book was the third book in a series. That being said, I believe that this can be read as a stand alone book.

Lucy, drove me nuts in this book. And maybe that is because of the style it was written in, or maybe it is because this is the third book and I am missing some information. I just could not get into this book. It was short enough for me to finish it, but it just wasn't for me. 3⭐

I think I need to read the first two books and then read this one again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Oh, William! is the latest work of contemporary fiction in Elizabeth Strout’s “Amgash” series. Because I haven’t read the other two previous novels my review is based on this work alone.

Lucy Barton is recently widowed from her second husband when her first one (the William in the title) asks her to keep him company on a trip to rural Maine. As they travel through Maine, seeking out a relative William found using a ancestry service, Lucy has time to reflect on her childhood, their marriage and the years that came after.

On paper this does not seem like much of a page turner. But, both the pacing and details of Lucy’s recollections and her observations of the people in her life keep the reader interested and I flew through the story. I recommend this one to literary fiction lovers and I look forward to reading more from this series.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was not for me. Which is a shame! Elizabeth Strout is a fantastic writer, her prose is straightforward and clear, even poetic and intimate at times. The story is effectively many small vignettes. Taken together, they paint a vivid picture of Lucy's bleak childhood, her relationship with her philandering ex (William!), and the dissolution of their marriage.

Unfortunately, the narrative style of Lucy, Oh William!'s main character, was so awkwardly conversational and disjointed that it turned me off from both her and her story. I couldn't get over the confusing juxtaposition of her clumsy inner dialogue and her supposed success as a novelist. I suppose for this reason I felt little attachment to any of the characters, particularly to Lucy herself.

I know this is a highly anticipated book and I was excited to read it, but unfortunately it definitely just wasn't for me. There is definitely good writing throughout and themes and sentiments that will appeal to many I'm sure. However, for me I wasn't a fan of the narrative style, didn't find the story interesting, and wasn't drawn to the characters. I kept reading until the end hoping it would end up being enjoyable for me, but it just it remained the same throughout.

This was generally slow and uneventful and a bit of a trial to get through.
The writing style bugged me, as well; the author was fond of using way more words than she needed to, to say something that was probably unnecessary to the story anyway.
The protagonist, Lucy Barton, mentioned frequently that she felt invisible, which I found kind of amusing since her character came across as such a nonentity to me. I could totally see her blending into the wallpaper at a dinner party. Perhaps I would have been able to appreciate the character more by reading the previous novels featuring her, but there’s no way I’m going to.
Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhouse for this ARC of #ohwilliam in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Strout revisits the story of Lucy Barton in her latest novel Oh William! Lucy and her first husband have been married to others since they parted ways years ago, but they still seek each other out from time to time. Now a widow, Lucy spends a lot of time reflecting on her life and how she has often felt invisible. Though this is the third book of a series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. I intend to do a re-read of My Name Is Lucy Barton and check out Anything Is Possible, which I somehow missed. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review Oh William!

Oh William!

But seriously, for most of the book I was thinking Oh Lucy! Oh, how I loved having Lucy Barton back. Lucy's second husband, David Abramson, has passed away and Lucy is looking back on her life, her first marriage to William Gerhardt, with whom she has two daughters. While David was the perfect husband, William was a cheater and yet, he and Lucy have remained close, confiding in each other, and supporting each other. In this book, William will learn some truths about his family.

Lucy is telling her tale through a conversation with the reader. At 63, she has come a long way from when we first met her. She has grown, is a published author and mother. She has her insights and observations. This book is just as much about her as it is William.

As Lucy looks back on her marriage, having children and moving on, she begins to see her ex-husband and herself in a new light.

This is a book about relationships, about mental health, about being a parent, about feelings both resolved and unresolved, about awareness and about insight.

Strout knows how to get to the nitty gritty of human emotion. Her books focus on relationships and contain unique and interesting characters. If she writes it, I am going to read it! Strout delivers every-single-time!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is such a special book about a very special character! This is the third book about Lucy Barton, now 63 and widowed. This book is primarily about Lucy’s relationship with her ex-husband, William. But ultimately it is about figuring out how well we know ourselves, how well we know anyone in our life, and what we hold as truth. Technically this works as a stand alone but I would not recommend it if you haven’t read the previous books, My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible. Lucy is a quirky storyteller and I think you need her backstory to appreciate her fully.

“But we are all mytholigies, mysterious. We are all mysteries, is what I mean. This may be the only thing in the world I know to be true.”

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an honest review of the book Oh William! by Elizabeth Stout.
Elizabeth comes back with Lucy Barton in her later years. She is a divorced woman still in a very comfortable relationship with her ex-husband who has remarried and whose wife has left him as she did. William has received a DNA kit as a gift and this leads to a lot of family secrets he never knew existed. Lucy and William head out to find out about these secrets.
#Netgalley #RandomHouse

While I found this book a descent read, there is something I can't quite put my finger on that makes me unsure of my overall feelings. While the plot revolves around an older couple who is still friendly and help each other out when possible, I didn't feel like they should have ever been together in the first place. William seems to be a very reticent man, brilliant in mind, but never faithful in his relationships. Lucy is a woman who tries to be there for William and support him, but she has never truly overcome her childhood.
A book that only has two long chapters packs a lot into those chapters. I wish there would have been more of a breakdown of events. William is on the hunt to find his sister, one he never knew existed until he did a DNA search. He has a hard time believing that his mother kept the information from him. As he and Lucy search for the sister, they also learn some things about other people in their lives. I felt bad for William when it came to his sister's reaction. I was also left wondering why Lucy would agree to his request at the end of the book.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I am not sure if I would read more. The characters were well developed and the story was good, but there was something about it that makes me hesitant to read any more about these characters. I kind of felt like William and Lucy still loved each other but were set in their ways, since they had both been remarried after they divorced.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

Thought provoking novel of family relationships Full of interesting family dynamics and their results
Good read

Oh I Wish I Had Read the Previous Books in This Series!

I would never let that affect a review, though, and I'm glad I got to meet Lucy Barton. The writing is more quiet than I'm used to, but I appreciated the realism of Lucy's thoughts and the ways in which she conceptualizes her own upbringing, her relationship with her daughters, and her romantic relationships over the years. William is a frustrating character, but Strout writes him in a way that Lucy's affection for him makes sense.

DNF at 50%

This is part of a series that can be read as a standalone, but I think it would be better read as a follow up to the others.

I just couldn't connect with the writing style. It read like the random ramblings. The main character's reminiscence had no context for me.

I still have the previous two books on my TBR, I will definitely come back to this one after having read the others.

Oh William! is Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout’s third novel in the Amagash series featuring author Lucy Barton. Lucy is grieving the loss of her second husband, David and she notes that grief “is like sliding down a really long glass building while nobody sees you.” In her loneliness and grief for David, she also feels more of a connection with her first husband William who lives not far from her in New York City. Lucy met William when she was in college and he’s the father of her two daughters. After Lucy learned of Willaim’s affairs, she left him, but they’ve remained friends so when his third wife leaves him, anguished William calls Lucy.

This quiet gem of a novel explores the way we’re all mysteries no matter how well we think we know one another. Lucy grew up poor, isolated, and essentially ignored by her parents. William grew up with money and his mother doted on him. William’s mother wore a signature scent and Lucy adopted one too. She could never buy enough body lotion with her scent. Her psychiatrist told her, “It’s because you think you stink,”

“She was right.

My sister and my brother and I were told on the playground almost every day at school by the other children, while they ran off with their noses pinched. ‘your family stinks.’”

It wasn’t until recently with the success of her writing career and her happy marriage to David that Lucy began to value herself and to see that she was more than an unloved child. So when William told her that he’d learned that his mother had had another child before he was born and that he wanted Lucy to go with him to Maine to learn about his mother and his relatives, Lucy obliged. She and her daughters were concerned about William’s recent behavior and when she saw him wearing pants that were too short, she exclaimed “Oh, William.” As she traveled with William, there were many more occasions for Oh William! declarations as Lucy accompanied him to abate both his and her own troubles.

Strout’s low-key observations of the dying small towns, the minuscule hovel where Lucy’s mother-in-law grew up, the cluttered living room of William’s half-sister, and the random people they passed on the road create an amalgam that offers an “Our Town” meets Travels with Charley view of humanity. Her astute observations remind us that we can know everything there is to know about people yet they’re still “mythologies, mysterious. We are all mysteries.”

Elizabeth Strout is the queen of understatement. She captures readers with her restraint as she boils everything down to the essentials. Oh William! is a masterpiece of a novel that made this reader grateful to be human.

Summing it Up: Read Oh William! and fall into Elizabeth Strout’s subtle, yet masterful narrative of two seemingly average people dealing with grief, loneliness, and the vagaries of life.

Rating: 5 Stars

Categories: Fiction, Five Stars, Grandma’s Pot Roast, Gourmet, Book Club

Publication Date: October 19, 2021

Author Website: https://www.elizabethstrout.com/

Read an Excerpt: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534452/oh-william-by-elizabeth-strout/

What Others are Saying:

Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-strout/oh-william/

Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8129-8943-4

"Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement." - Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House

Elizabeth Strout is back with a new book about Lucy Barton, who narrates the novel My Name is Lucy Barton and is featured in Anything Is Possible. Lucy is now 63 years old, a successful writer and has recently lost her second husband David. She has remained connected to her ex-husband William, who is the father of her two grown daughters. Lucy overcame a difficult childhood yet has come to terms with her past. William cannot seem to manage his relationships and is having night terrors. He is struggling. Lucy is in mourning. Both are lonely and trying to fill a void in their lives. They decide to take a trip to Maine and set out to the hometown of William’s late mother Catherine. A recent DNA test on an ancestry site has uncovered some shocking revelations.

Oh William! is a short book packed with lots of emotion. Lucy remains a character to care about. Based on her traumatic childhood, she continues to deal with the feeling that she is an outsider. Lucy is an astute observer of others and is very aware of her strengths and failings. If you are at a stage in life where you have become reflective on where you’ve been, choices you’ve made (good and bad) and what might lie ahead, you will be able to relate to Lucy and Strout’s heartfelt book.

4.25 stars.

Elizabeth Stout writes character-driven novels. Oh, William is another look at the life of Lucy Barton, this time told through the story of her first husband. Here we find an older Lucy, dealing with the death of her second husband, and dealing with unresolved grief over her divorce from William. Lucy is still carrying feelings of inadequacy that she exposed in earlier novels. But Lucy is aging, and maturity has a certain comfort to it (Those who are of that age will understand what I mean).
In this conversational, voyeuristic novel, Stout delves into Lucy’s past as she resolves some of her inner conflicts. At the same time, William is going through several major crises at once, and he turns to Lucy for support. Since Lucy is the narrator of the story, it really is a story of William through Lucy’s perspective.
Stout immerses the reader into the story in a natural way. I felt as if Lucy were telling me this story over a cup of coffee in her sunshine-filled kitchen—confidentially, friend to friend. As the story progresses, we see Lucy growing while William is diminishing. William is losing his authority. Wow. Lucy Barton is finally getting there.
My thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Elizabeth Stout for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And my congratulations to Elizabeth Stout for another in-depth look at Lucy—I like her much better than I did earlier!