I enjoyed this book, but the narrator’s persona was VERY unusual and I found it a bit difficult to get into a rhythm with this book. But I actually enjoyed the disequilibrium in a way even though it was a bit jarring. The story was interesting, so I think that made it worth sticking with.

Oh William! is the third book in Elizabeth Strout's Amgash series. I have not read the first two books, but I did not find that to be a problem. I will now read the other two books to see how the books flow together. Oh William! is the story of Lucy Barton and her reflections on life and her two marriages, and her first marriage to William. Lucy and William had two daughters but their marriage did not survive due to both Lucy and William. Lucy and William have remained friendly after the divorce and although Lucy welcomes the friendship, she does not want to get back together with William. But the fact that they were married, allows Lucy to understand William's actions as they work through a long=held secret in William's family. William turns to Lucy who knew his mother better than his subsequent wives. As the secret unfolds, Lucy re-examines her troubled childhood as well. She comes to the realization that she has risen above the challenges she faced in her childhood. I love Strout's prose and reflections as Lucy looks back on her life. Her writing style may be a little different from other writers, but I found it to be very refreshing and allowed me to reflect on what was being said.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me this ebook an exchange for an honest review. Oh Elizabeth! You challenge me as a reader. This is not a nice, neat story with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. I worked hard to recall details from MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON. As a matter of fact, I checked it out of the library and am rereading it. That shows how human, flawed, and authentic the characters are. I am going to read ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE and give this book another star.

Despite hearing wonderful things about Elizabeth Strout's books for years, I hadn't picked one up until now. I considered reading the first two books in her Amgash series before starting Oh, William, but other reviews I saw said it read fine as a standalone, so I went ahead without reading the other two.

The book started a bit slow for me, but I felt it was simply not knowing the back story of Lucy and William. The more I read though, the clearer the backstory became and it was easy to read on its own. I loved Strout's writing. It's poetic and narrative. While this is fiction, it certainly read like a memoir (which I know was totally the point.) It made it very easy to follow along.

After reading Oh William!, I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in the series, along with more from Elizabeth Strout.

All in all, it was a good book. Quick and easy to read.
3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the digital ARC in exchange for the honest review.

This is my first book by Elizabeth Strout and I did enjoy it. The book is written like Lucy is sitting here just talking about things she remembers and her memories. Many memories come up when her ex-husband asks her to go with him to Maine because he has discovered a family secret. The author writes quite vividly about Maine and the way life is there.
Throughout the entire book, it felt like I was sitting there with them and along on the journey. When Lucy and William are talking once, they were talking about choices. William said, very few times do we make a choice because we just do. Like we are following some unknown thing we don't understand or actually see, we just go. Lucy stopped to think about it, and so did I.
The book was a different aspect for me, but I found it comforting, it showed a different way of handling situations, and it just seemed so calm.
I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group through NetGalley and I would recommend this book. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would.

Elizabeth Strout does not disappoint in this new novel. I absolutely loved the voice, the details are pitch perfect, and the emotional arc is fascinating. Whenever I read one of her novels, I immediately want to go back and re-read all that came before. A real treat that this is out just as the season turns to autumn.

This was my first Strout novel and I liked it, but I am not sure this will be an author that I will be rushing out to buy future books of.

There was family, loss, grief, etc. and again I liked it, but it was a slow read for me which is usually an indicator that I didn't love it enough to keep reading or feel fully invested.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: October 19, 2021

In “Oh William!,” Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout explores the mysteries of friendship, marriage, loneliness, and betrayal in her unique, portrait-like style. This is the third book in her Amgash book series where all the novels take place in fictional Amgash, Illinois and the narrator is always a woman named Lucy Barton. The author writes Lucy in a natural voice who is sharing her memories with us. For those who are familiar with the previous two novels, “Oh William!,” will feel like you are catching up with your old friend Lucy.
The third book picks up after the death of Lucy’s second husband. She is now 63 and reflecting on her marriage to William who is the father of her two grown daughters. Even though he was unfaithful during the marriage, they remain close friends. This didn’t strike me as strange, though maybe that’s because I am a 65-year-old woman who remains friendly with my ex-husband. Still, I think the effectiveness of these characters is more rooted in the author’s ability to capture human behaviors and our common imperfections.

Most of the plot takes place when William's hardly-mentioned third wife leaves him. As in the other Amgash books, family secrets emerge. But the dots are connected slowly. William learns that before his mother, Katherine, married his father, she was married to another man and had a baby girl. Katherine deserted them both. This changes all of William’s perceptions of his mother. Through a DNA match, he finds his half-sister lives in Maine. He wants to see her and he wants Lucy to accompany him to Maine. Why Lucy? because his first wife is his only wife who would be as shocked as he is with this new knowledge regarding his mom. Young Lucy knew and loved Katherine too. She had a close relationship with her mother-in-law. Lucy agrees to join William and together they travel to Maine.

This trip is the meat of the story. It is bittersweet. You’ll be drawn in when reading about Lucy’s memories with William before and after their divorce. During the trip, William says, “I’m sorry.” Without any explanation of what he is referring to, Lucy replies, “I know.” Lucy and William’s life together feels very real. Stout manages this accomplishment while writing in sparse sentences, and poetry-like prose. If you are not accustomed to the author’s style, it might take some time to appreciate this novel, but it is so worth the effort.

I've read a number of Stroud's books and, though they are quiet sort of stories, they are moving and insightful. I won't be quick to forget this one! Recommended!

Oh William! is strangely, unexplainably compelling. No spoilers here, nothing really happens. But Strout expertly paints a point in time portrait of the titular William – seen through the eyes of his ex-wife, Lucy, while simultaneously painting a portrait of Lucy herself – through Lucy’s own thoughts, judgments and decisions. I couldn’t put it down. This from someone who, while reading the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, put the book down to go to sleep.

Oh William!, though not a plot-driven novel, is ostensibly about William, with Lucy’s accompaniment, finding out and learning more about a family secret. A secret of whose existence William was not aware of until just now, well into the final third of his life. But Oh William is about so much more: the choices and emotions that pepper each and every day. Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Finding pieces of ourselves in everyone around us.

Perhaps Oh William's ordinariness is what makes it so compelling. Oh William! does not purport to be anything other than what it is: a glimpse into Lucy’s life. No effort to persuade or teach. Oh William! simply is. Strout’s plain prose does not feel lacking, rather, it feels real. Most people do not go through life with a thesaurus by their side and Strout earns respect for leaning into sparse prose rather than embellishing with unnecessary flourishes.

Oh William! is not a splashy, knock your socks off, plot twist on every page sort of book, but it is brilliant nonetheless. Strout continues to perform at the top of her game.

I have always loved the forthrightness of the author’s characters. They tend to be open and honest but also capable of deep empathy. Not to say that self-deception isn’t a part of these stories. This is the third novel about Lucy Barton, and I was very touched by the deep friendship she still has with her ex-husband, William. I appreciate how
Ms Strout deals with the lives of people who have lived for many decades and who in their latter days deal with more issues than at many other stages of life. These people are fully realized on the page, faults and virtues, and rather than spoil the story I CAN say that fans of Lucy Barton and others who have never tried these books out are very likely to have a deep and rewarding experience that will stay with them for a long time.

Insightful and thoughtful, a compelling and intimate story about family, love, loss, and secrets. I love that I felt privy to the narrator’s thoughts, her doubts, her pain, her regrets, her grief.

This nugget of a novel by Elizabeth Strout is a satisfying morsel of insight into the mind of Lucy Barton. Readers of I am Lucy Barton will delight in the chance to revisit the character, but if the reader has not made her acquaintance before, they will be intrigued by Lucy’s voice nonetheless. The reflections on life, love and marriage are conveyed in Ms. Strout’s conversational yet concise writing. I felt like it was a conversation I was having in my own brain.

No one writes a book quite like Elizabeth Strout! Touching, thought-provoking, and visceral, Oh William! is classic Strout, as she delves even deeper and gives readers further illumination into her Lucy Barton character.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout in exchange for my honest review. This is my first book by Elizabeth Strout. While this is the third book in the Amgash Series, I was still able to follow along as if it were a standalone novel. This book will be released on October 19, 2021.
The story involves Lucy and her first husband William. He is the father of their two daughters. They are divorced because William was unfaithful during their marriage. William continues to have flings, and marries two more times. Lucy also remarries and the book begins after the death of her second husband.
While Lucy and William are still close friends, they both still need each other, William more than Lucy. William discovers that he has a half-sister that never knew about until recently and he asks Lucy to help him explore the possibility of meeting her.
The relationship between Lucy and William is very complex and often sad. Lucy feels that she is invisible to the world and never really had a home. She grew up very poor in a very tiny house and left for college and never came back. William discovers his beloved mother Catherine, also grew up very poor.
There is a lot of going back and forth in time, which I sometimes found confusing to follow. Lucy is the main narrator of the story. She and William discover many secrets along the way during the course of this tale.
In Lucy’s own words: “This is the way of life. The many things we do not know until it is too late.”

Tender, beautiful writing (as Elizabeth Strout is known for), deeply personal. To be immersed once more in the world of Lucy Barton, what a literary treasure. Oh William! is a deeply moving novel and one of the best I've read this year.

Elizabeth Strout is a favorite writer. Her work is deeply compassionate, leaving readers better people for having read her. She addresses the mysteries of life and human relationships.

Lucy Barton first appeared in My Name is Lucy Barton, which was followed by Anything is Possible. Now, Lucy returns in Oh William!, reunited with her first husband who is in crisis.

Both Lucy and William have lost their spouse; Lucy’s husband has died and William’s wife has left him. William has learned that his mother had a child from her first marriage that he never knew about. He asks Lucy to accompany him on a trip to Maine to learn about his half-sister.

During their days together, Lucy remembers their love affair and marriage, and William’s lovely, if intrusive, mother Catherine.

“I came from terrible bleak poverty,” Lucy tells us, escaping after winning a college scholarship. She has been haunted by her early life, scarred by its depravations and lack of love, unable to truly feel safe in her marriage to William. Later, she found success as a writer and discovered the man who became her second husband.

The loneliness of marriage and family, how we never really understand or know each other, or even ourselves, is the theme of the novel. William learns his mother had surprising secrets that help explain her behavior.

“Only many years later did I realize I had been sustained by a myth,” Lucy explains, as she comes to gripes with the mythologies of her life, the relationships that brought her a sense of security.

I related to William’s unexpected discovery researching his ancestors. In my research, I encountered something quite shocking and unbelievable about a beloved grandparent.

We keep so many secrets in this world. As Lucy concludes, “we are all mythologies, mysterious, we are all mysteries, is what I mean.”

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I found this book to be a bit depressing. Elizabeth Strout is a favorite of mine, but I was disappointed in this book. However, I know people will want to read it.

For some reason, a lot of this book wasn’t connecting. I’m not sure if it’s the age difference between Lucy and I OR that I haven’t read any of the others, but if just wasn’t clicking. I do however love Elizabeth Strout’s writing so I think I’m going to go back and read the other books to see if that history gives me the depth I’m missing her and then I’ll come back and finally finish this one.

“This is the way of life: the many things we do not know until it is too late.”

This is a strange novel for a few reasons. One, the narrator, Lucy Barton, doesn’t use contractions. I’d read the first book, My Name is Lucy Barton, and don’t remember being so thrown off by that. The only folks I know who don’t use contractions are people from other countries in which English is not their first language. Also, the story-telling style is odd—in some ways, nothing actually happens. Lucy is reminiscing about her life, including her time with her first husband, William. Her second husband, which was a much better fit for her, has died, but because Lucy and William have two daughters together, they’ve had to remain civil with each other over the years, and they turn to each other in difficult times.

Lucy is hard on herself. She grew up in poverty in a secluded, unhappy, unloving home. She feels invisible and awkward in most situations, in part because her odd upbringing didn’t prepare her for the social aspects of life with the college education she managed by earning a scholarship. Even though the narrative style is a bit strange, there is something that kept me turning pages (electronically, since I got this as an advance copy from NetGalley).

This novel RELEASES OCTOBER 19, 2021.

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