When I got a note from Penguin/Viking inviting me to dive back into another Elizabeth Strout book I couldn't accept fast enough. Most will be familiar with the brisk tones of Olive Kitteridge but Lucy Barton is just as singular if a softer personality and I was absorbed in her story immediately. Strout captures characters like flies in amber, unique and perfectly formed. These are women that you hear and see, nodding along as they hold conversations like friends. Lucy rambles, loses her train of thought and circles a bit until finally getting back to her original point, her anecdotes stuffed with both useless details and astonishing wisdom. She's an older woman but she gets there eventually. Just like Olive, she is endearing.

Already I have made calls to announce the book is coming out in the autumn, and preordered copies for others to enjoy. Oh William is clever little masterpiece of simple fiction. There is no aha moment or neat end. I like the void that we are left with as readers to fill as we see fit and even if there is no revisiting Lucy I can't wait to see what comes next.

4.25 stars

As with so many people,I was excited to hear there was a new Strout book coming,and even more so to hear it revisits past characters,.
This was all I'd hoped for.
The narration was pitch perfect,and felt like an old friend catching me up at times. I genuinely heard different tones in the "oh William" said at frequent intervals.
Whilst keeping us up to date with Lucy and family,it brings back the brutal childhood we've read about before.
It was a sequel I didn't know I needed.

Reading an Elizabeth Strout novel is like having tea with an old friend. Her voice is so personal it is as if someone is talking directly to you, telling you about themselves in an open and honest manner. Lucy Barton is the protagonist in this novel although it is as much about her first husband, William, as it is about her. We have of course met Lucy before as she features in more of Strout's work both as a principal character in the eponymous Lucy Barton and as a secondary character in other work such as Anything is Possible.

Lucy is now in her seventies and a highly successful writer. Her beloved second husband David, has died and she reconnects with her first husband William (not in a romantic way). He is going through a difficult period and they go on a road trip together to find a hitherto unknown member of his family. In so doing she reflects on their relationship.

As in all Elizabeth Strout novels, nothing much happens, Except life. That is the beauty of them. They are quiet and understated and above all, real. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

As a newcomer to this author’s work, I wasn’t sure what to expect other than that this is a highly rated writer by all and sundry. However, I must confess that I found this hard going for the first few chapters, with so many characters introduced. At first it seemed like a fictionalised autobiography, but then the intimacy of the narrative turned the reading experience into that of reading someone’s diary, which is a clever feat to pull off. This may be due to the ‘authority’ of the writer’s voice, which is mentioned in the text as necessary for a feeling of authenticity - and which finally engaged me with Lucy Barton’s story.

There is no one quite like Elizabeth Strout her style, her narrative and her characters just sing off the page. She has a flair for writing about highly emotional and important subjects in an accessible and easy to read way and yet there is so much said and unsaid in her writing.

Oh William follows on from My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is possible. Our narrator Lucy is grieving the loss of her second husband and still has a strong friendship with her first husband William. William and Lucy are connected emotionally by their past lives, infact this is at the core of the novel, the past and how it continues to play an important role in the present. The novel deals with memory, love, loss, grief and all of the other things that make us what we are ..human. This is an absolute gem of a novel and a must read for anyone looking for great fiction.

Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton have the deserved accolade of being Elizabeth Strout’s best known heroines and she has written sequels to both novels. This is in fact the second follow up to My Name is Lucy Barton but, although it works well as stand alone novel, if you haven’t me Lucy yet then stop reading this review and go and read that brilliant book first!
Following the death of her second husband Lucy becomes closer to her first husband William and when 2 life shattering events hit him in quick succession she agrees to go on a road trip with him in search of his past. As with all of Strout’s books this is more about the foibles of the characters as they discover themselves and the impact they have on others and both Lucy and William have things to find out. A worthy follow up to My Name is Lucy Barton.

I can never get enough of Elizabeth Strout. There is something about her writing - her ability to get into the heart of her characters, that makes her so appealing.

Her new book about Lucy Barton, doesn't disappoint and I will be recommending it to my book club and my other serious reader friends.

Maureen Haltrecht

Absolutely devoured this. It’s another triumph from this fabulous author. I can’t tell you how much I loved it. The third book in the Lucy Barton series. Absolutely 5/5. Shame I can’t give more.

A story of reflections on two lives haunted by past memories, insecurities, abuse and poverty. A marriage between joyous and joyless individuals and an attempt to understand what mixture of past events, personality and insecurities had drawn them together. A slow understanding drip fed to the reader from emerging knowledge how the circumstances of two childhoods ultimately formed the strengths and weaknesses that ultimately held together and destroyed the relationship and marriage. Exquisitely drawn characters in all their complexities enriching the slowly emerging storyline whilst simultaneously revealing a harrowing series of historic events that would blight and cast a long shadow over all subsequent relationships. This writer delves into the thoughts and actions, past and present , of the protagonists in such a considered way that we feel, ache and despair at the circle of life’s wrongs subsequently visited on future generations. Like other books by this writer I remain in awe of the high standard of writing, characterisation, finely drawn actions and events all drawing a picture of human nature in all its fragility , endurance, and ability to withstand hardship and adversity.of birth.

Delighted to be given the opportunity to read Oh William! as I am a big fan of Elizabeth Strout's previous novels. I am now bereft to have finished it. She writes so brilliantly about people growing apart and coming together.

One of my favourite authors! I love the way she writes with such depth and warmth and touches on subjects that you don’t realise will mean anything to you, until your completely absorbed! Lovely to see Lucy Barton return and the continuation of her life...good and bad! A 12 out of 10 read for me.

A continuation of a series that I never knew I needed. I really enjoy these quiet slow books. It’s incredibly rare to get the inner monologue of an older women. Especially if the book is not about a loveable curmudgeon. These stories have taught me things I didn’t know I needed.

<i>And I had not known. This is the way of life: the many things we do not know until it is too late.</i>

My God, I don't know how she does it! I'm just obsessed with Elizabeth Strout. The tautness of her sentences. The brutality of her themes. A big appeal to me is about how she writes about older people- she came to writing quote-unquote "late", in her 40's, and her work provides a really badly needed counterpoint for me. I love my Generation Z students, but it's good to have a contrast in terms of life perspective, you know?

<i>Oh William!</i>'s narrator is Lucy Barton, reappearing in Strout's work for (I think) the third time. A person with time on their hands could probably do a spiderweb chart of how all the characters in Strout's work connect with each other, a la David Mitchell, but I am not that person. I think I MAYBE spotted a cameo from Olive Kitteridge's son, but I am not sure.

The other elements of Strout's work that I love: the dialogue, the humour, the unexpected brutal moment. I loved Lucy's line about a small Maine town: <i>"If I were a man who wanted to kill a young girl and get rid of her body and get away with it, this is where I'd do it and dump her, Jesus."</i> It's the 'Jesus' that really makes the line sing, imo.

Themes here are of regret, performance, projection. If the people we love do not know us, can we ever really be known? The plot of <i>Oh William!</i> deals mainly with secrets and secrecy - what gets revealed, and what that does to our prior conception of a person.

I loved the characters in this. I loved the depiction of Lucy's loving if imperfect relationship with her daughters. I loved the development of her relationship with her ex husband William, and her discussions of her second husband David. Overall, this had strong rings of Anne Tyler for me, in terms of its examination of family ties.

What a wonderful book, and a wonderful writer. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.