Elizabeth Strout has a very unique writing style. At least with the Lucy Barton books. It is a bit difficult to describe but in reading Lucy by the Sea, it felt as if she's having a conversation with the reader or, I suppose, more like a diary. The story takes place right at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. I wasn't quite sure about reading a story that takes place during this pandemic, didn't want to "re-live" it, but this was actually very enjoyable. It was a bit of a slow read but I thought it was well done. I liked the relationship between William and Lucy. His taking her out of New York City to live in Maine right before the lockdown happened showed how much he really cared for and loved Lucy. They had a very interesting but caring relationship. It's funny that when I first read "My Name Is Lucy Barton" six years ago, I wasn't a big fan of the book and thought it was just okay. I might have to reread it as I have thoroughly enjoyed the last three Lucy Barton books.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy.

Thoughtful, vulnerable, and oh so beautiful, “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout is a thought-provoking story that led to heartfelt self-reflection that made my heart explode.

Shining brightness in the darkest of times, Strout brilliantly tells the story of one of my favorite characters as she navigates through challenging times but written with such openness, insight, and love. The characters, mostly sweet Lucy, are so relatable that I sometimes forget they are fictional characters. It reads like having a catch-up conversation with a dear friend and left me looking forward to our next chat.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this incredible digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a continuation of the story of Lucy Barton, but it can be read as a standalone. Lucy's first husband William is a scientist and has been closely following the spread of the Covid pandemic in Europe. When it starts in America, he takes Lucy out of New York to a cabin in a small town on the coast of Maine. They also urge their two grown daughters to leave, but only one does. Lucy spends her isolation reflecting on her pre-pandemic life in New York, her relationships with her parents, her concern for her family, and her grief over her second husband's death. Spending this much time with her ex brings back the odd irritations of the past, but also the comfort of the familiar. This story brings a comforting yet refreshing voice to familiar feelings that most of America shared during the lockdown.
I received an advance reader copy of this book. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

I haven't read any of the previous books but I don't think that affects my rating. This book was a fictional retelling of a story that we all lived through. I found the book to be slow and I was waiting for something interesting to happen that would have nothing to do with covid. This book was pointless.

Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout is the fourth book in the Lucy Barton series. It picks up soon after Oh, William! and covers the train wreck that was 2020. In the previous book, Lucy's husband passed away and she reconciles with her 1st husband, William. They're not together romantically, but are deeply bonded as friends and confidantes. Fearing the worst about COVID-19, William invites Lucy to escape from New York City to the Maine seacoast in early March 2020 and encourages their children to leave the city.

It is written in short entries
described quarantine life perfectly. Strout's writing as always is simply superb. She captures Lucy's voice so distinctly. Her relationships with William and their daughters is so realistic and nuanced. I loved diving back into Lucy's life, though it definitely sunk me back into pandemic days! That may not be for everybody. I listened to the audiobook, which was perfectly narrated by Kimberly Farr.

Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for the complimentary audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

The 4th book on the Amgash series that I read straight through was not a disappointment at all. Tackling the many substantial topics (Covid, January 6th, social unrest, etc…) all while continuing the narrative of Lucy Barton. I can’t believe it took me so long to read this author and I intend on continuing through her cannon. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through netgalley that just released today. I will definitely recommend this series!

Could you have spent the recent Covid lockdown with your ex at an isolated house on the Maine coast? This book doesn’t just mention the pandemic as a background event but features this awful period of time as a main character, forming every decision and action taken by Lucy and her ex-husband William. I love Elizabeth Strout’s writing style, and feel she is just beside me while she tells me this story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest book by a favorite, Elizabeth Strout - 5 stars!

In the early days of Covid, William, Lucy Barton's ex-husband and still best friend, whisks her away to a home in a small town in Maine. There she experiences what we all experienced during that time period - isolation, fear, but also a new-found peace in the quiet.

I can't begin to express how much I love Strout's writings and getting to spend more time with Lucy and her family. Reading these books (and, yes, you need to read them all!) feels like talking to that one friend who you can talk to about anything. I love the style of writing that feels like a conversation, especially after getting to know these characters. It was also a treat to meet characters from her other books - The Burgess Boys and Olive Kitteridge. While some books about Covid can feel traumatic, this one didn't. In Strout's capable hands, I was sent back to that scary time with a friend who was going through it with me. It was the feeling that life as we had known it was gone - and it really was. But with a friend like Lucy to guide us, there is also hope in grief, new friends, second chances. A definite must read!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, which I believe is being published today! I have read many books by Stout, (Abide With Me is one of my favorite books) but it has been a while. I read I Am Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge many years ago and don't really remember them. I did not read Oh, William, so I basically felt like I was reading Lucy By the Sea as a standalone book, rather than as one of a series.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the character of Lucy and I loved the way Stout wrote her. I equally enjoyed William's character. Their relationship and interactions were very intriguing to me and I liked seeing their relationship evolve throughout the book. As a mother of adult children, I totally related to the relationships she had with her daughters and how she worried about them.

This book takes place in the first few months of the pandemic, and Stout was very good at capturing the strangeness we all felt at that time - dealing with lockdowns, isolation and safe distancing. I loved the setting and wish I had been able to quarantine there!

While I did find this book to be a bit depressing, with it's themes of loneliness, loss and the current state of the world, I felt it did also touch on theme of resilence and making the best of a bad situation.

This novel takes place right after “Oh William” and covers the deeply unsettling time when we were all panicked and afraid. Lucy is no exception and finds herself grappling with mortality and her choices. It is an intimate portrayal as Lucy comes to terms with herself and her past. And Lucy and William’s relationship is sweet, not because it is perfect but because it’s so real. They are both full of selfishness and selflessness, like all of us. Strout writes about the human experience so beautifully and succinctly—the more I read her writing, the more I like it. One thing I didn’t love—when certain real events (like the murder of George Floyd) took place in Lucy’s timeline, they took me out of the story. I wasn’t as convinced that I was reading about them from Lucy’s POV. But overall, I really enjoyed Lucy’s next chapter.

Welcome back to a visit with Lucy Barton, our intrepid author and favorite character from previous books written by Elizabeth Strout. In LUCY BY THE SEA, we are very much present with Lucy in current time as the Pandemic begins quietly and with little notice and then swings into full force, whipping Lucy and her family back and forth, as she struggles to make sense of the world around her. Lucy is always an internal character, sifting through ideas and recollections in ways that enlighten and delight readers. This book, so soon after the real life events on which they are based, offers balance and reflection, and hope, to readers still not quite sure what happened to them a few years ago. The book is a wonder and delight. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

In Lucy by the Sea, familiar Strout characters Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William flee New York City for rural Maine during the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel offers introspection, vulnerability, and new beginnings.

In Elizabeth Strout's newest novel (published today!) Lucy by the Sea, Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William, characters from earlier Strout novels, leave New York City for rural Maine during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Lucy's sparely recounted version of events is peppered with diarylike "I do remember hearing that" remarks, offhanded mentions of characters we've met before (like Olive Kitteridge), and Lucy's incessant, varied worries.

But despite her insecurities and what sometimes feels like fragility, Lucy is often able to see the difficult truth in situations and face them with stolid resolve. She alludes to her difficult childhood circumstances (which are more fully explored in My Name Is Lucy Barton), and we see that her lifelong ability to cope with despair and grim events serve her well in her current circumstances.

The nearby ocean is a haunting presence but also a steady, everchanging comfort to Lucy. To her surprise, she begins to notice and respond to the wonders of the light, the weather, the air, and the changing scenery of her daily walks in beautiful and immersive passages in the book.

And the ocean was immense; we could hear it at night now with the windows open. I learned this about the sound of the sea: There were two levels to it, there was a deep ongoing sound that was quietly massive, and there was also the sound of the water hitting the rocks; always this was thrilling to me.
Strout takes us into the heart of a stressful, unusual pandemic situation in which Lucy and William, longtime friends and ex-spouses, live in intimate solitude together, wondering about and worrying about their daughters, each other, themselves, and the world.

Lucy by the Sea captures an otherworldly feeling of drifting in time while facing horrifying, previously unimagined realities of illness and death, disease risk and spread, and the weight of the unknown:

There was for me during this time a sense of being dazed. As though, in a way, I was not capable of taking in everything that was happening in this world.
Lucy by the Sea references the characters' experienced small-town resistance to New Yorkers, notes the privilege of being able to isolate without hardship, and includes real-life pandemic-era events such as the murder of George Floyd. Lucy explores with insight the perspective of those on the other end of the political spectrum from Lucy herself:

They had been made to feel poorly about themselves, they were looked at with disdain, and they could no longer stand it.
I didn't feel particularly connected to the characters of Lucy or William in Strout's novel Oh William! But I love Strout's books, so I was delighted to dive back into the many reflections, vulnerabilities, memories, and unexpected moments in Lucy by the Sea. They each seem to find the other--and their relationship--awkward and irritating at times, but their deep caring for each other and their moments of shorthand after decades of being in love and then linked together are lovely.

In order to feel the full weight of this book, I think it's important to first read Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton. Lucy's creation of an imaginary, supportive mother and her loving responses to and comfort for Lucy in this book absolutely broke my heart.

I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley.

Click here to check out my reviews of Strout's Anything Is Possible, Olive, Again, My Name Is Lucy Barton, and Oh William! Elizabeth Strout is also the author of Olive Kitteridge.

I think this is going to be one of my top reads of 2022! I have read both Oh William and Lucy by the Sea and this was definitely my favorite. This book gives off similar vibes to TJR in the fact that you feel so much! This is one of the first books about the lockdown that did not give me the ICK! We have Lucy Barton and her ex husband who recently got divorced, but because of the lockdown they are forced to live together. They have so much history together and will always care for one another- so that history truly just creates for an amazing story of love, friendship, and relying on one another. I loved how well done the feeling of isolation is in this book, and I found myself relating to Lucy so often! You will absolutely devour this book.

Title: Lucy by the Sea
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House Publishing
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"Lucy by the Sea" by Elizabeth Strout

My Assessment:

'Lucy by the Sea' was an excellent literary read that was very well delivered with the storyline. That featured the Covid quarantine. Who would have that an ex-husband of Lucky Barton [William]
who had been married to two other ladies would come to the aid of the ex-wife Lucy at this horrible time in our history? But we find William doing just that and getting her out of New York to Maine, also making sure his daughters Chrissy and Becka, with their husband, were in a safe place. The story surrounds this 'covid quarantine island, mask fears, loneliness and pandemic, the election of 2020, along with the January 6 riots.' The author did an excellent job of bringing out the story about this family, with family ties and friends along the way. What exciting characters will the reader find that were brought out from this read? It was so good to see how 'Lucy and William will struggle through the surprising new phase of life and wonder just what life will look like on the other side.'

"Lucy by the Sea" ended up being quite a story of how this divorced couple with family and friends sheltered during one of the world's most horrible pandemics. So, to get a good read, pick up this novel and see how well this author brings it all out this pandemic read to the reader.


Thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author, for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Lockdown With Lucy

Elizabeth Strout’s last novel, “Oh, William!,” was recently longlisted for the prestigious Booker Award… and I enjoyed this year’s “Lucy by the Sea” so much more. Both books feature the title character first arriving in “My Name is Lucy Barton.” In “Oh, William!” Lucy constantly referred back to previous events and characters and followed up with “...but I’m not going to go into that now…” asides. The book was enjoyable and made sense as a stand-alone, but I had the sense of missing out by not being privy to the source of these references.

Now, in “Lucy by the Sea,” The Pandemic. She is having trouble grasping what is happening to her world, the whole world, during the opening days of the outbreak. We were all thrown for a loop and it is hard to choose to revisit the panic we felt during the height of the disaster. Many editors counseled their authors to shy away from the topic, that readers were looking for escape.

Too soon? Reading “Lucy by the Sea” I felt I could trust Elizabeth Strout with my post-covid fears. Lucy is not smarter than us in the way she reacts to the crisis, she is a real and ordinary and flawed human being. Viewing her response in hindsight we can sympathize with her bewilderment, the effects this is having on her. She worries about her memory and mental capacity at times. One of her friends reassures her that she is not alone, she could chalk it up as “Covid mind.” Nothing in that time was easy to digest.

While set in the Covid era, this is Elizabeth Strout and we are not limited to social disaster. Interpersonal relationships are at the core. Lucy has fled New York with her first husband, William, and is now isolated from her daughters, her brother, and her sister. Life went on during the pandemic, including friends dying at long distance, family breakups, troubled pregnancies– all the life altering events hard enough to cope with when families are there to support one another. When the shocking attack on the Capital happens on January 6, she is so overloaded she can not watch the coverage, bolting from the room.

Lucy has had a lot of loss and it seems magnified now. People do come to the rescue and provide hope. William confesses that hers is the life he wanted to save. Neighbors reach out to offset the initial hostilities the couple experienced moving into the small seaport village. The imaginary “nice” mother she has conjured is there to encourage her. This counters the negative messages of her real, much colder mother from a childhood she views as a lockdown of its own.

“Lucy by the Sea” reexamines the impact the isolation had on us and the repercussions felt in our relationships. Lucy is such a riveting character– emotional and confused at times, reeling from grief, but always resilient. It is intriguing to rerun this period through her eyes.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #LucybytheSea #NetGalley

I've been a fan of Elizabeth Strout since the first book of hers that I read. Her style is sparse yet descriptive, optimistic yet sometimes overwhelmingly sad. It's not necessary to have read her other books before this one, but it's fun to hear the occasional references to previous characters.

Enjoyable book!

Oh Lucy, I hope we get to see more of you soon. I know you're getting older and William wants to retire, but you and your new friend Bob Burgess need to come around more now that the pandemic is over.

Is it? I thought I'd never hear myself saying that!

Lucy tells of how when Covid hit, her ex, William, rushed to save her by moving her to Maine, getting her out of dangerous New York.

“Here is what I did not know that morning in March: I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in ways I could never have anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.”

I relived lockdown with them, and I had to agree with just about all her observations. From early 2020 to shortly after people had their vaccinations, Lucy takes us through her daily routine, her talks with her friends and her daughters, and her walks around the neighborhood. She thinks she knows nothing of any value to anyone, but she really does know a lot. She imparts much wisdom in her simple language.

A quiet little gem of a book. A big loud thank you to the publisher for my free galley copy.

Hands-down, my favorite character-driven novels are by Elizabeth Strout. I’ve read all the Olive and Lucy books and was delighted to get advance copies of Lucy by the Sea from both @librofm and #netgalley.

In this fourth book in the Amgash series, Lucy and her ex-husband William go to a small town in Maine at the outset of the pandemic. The novel is about Covid and those early days of isolation, but really, this is a story about relationships and family. Strout tackles how we deal with loss when we’re apart and the fear of the unknown. This book is beautiful and emotional and I love that the perspective is from an older character. My parents spent the first year of the pandemic isolating in Maine, and it really gave me a different outlook on the pandemic.

Kimberly Farr narrates the audiobook, and her narration is pitch-perfect. If you choose to read Lucy by the sea, the audiobook is the way to go. Highly highly recommended, especially if you like character-driven novels or a Maine setting. I think the Amgash series is best enjoyed in order, though, so start with My Name Is Lucy Barton.
#LibrariansOfInstagram #MiddleSchoolLibrarian #AdultLit #LucyByTheSea #ElizabethStrout #AarynReads2022

Lucy By the Sea, which returns to Strout's familiar characters, is an excellent, human, honest book about the pandemic, and what we fear, and who we hurt, and who we connect with. I could feel Lucy's fear and anger and horror as I read, and similarly understand William, who, in the later years of his life, is able to find joy in newfound family. However, it is, yes, a book about rich white people with immense amounts of privilege and resources. Although Lucy's background is one of poverty and abuse, she's plenty comfortable now, at least based on the description of her NYC apartment. Strout does have William acknowledge his discomfort with the family fortune, and Lucy does wonder about the experiences of the people she sees on the news--the people who died at home, or with glass separating them from their families, the poor, who can't leave New York--it's more of a passing thought than anything else, and while that's a very real response, it's one that goes a little too unexamined, I think. Readers who are already fans of Strout will like the book, I'm sure, and readers new to her world and its characters will find plenty to grab onto without having to read the previous books first. It is excellent--perhaps not just because of the emotions and thoughts Strout conveys, but because it also makes me think of how much of it is packed with these rich white people.

This was a pandemic novel I didn’t know I needed! With Elizabeth Strout being one of my favorite authors, I will pretty much read anything she writes — so of course I was ecstatic to have been approved for an early copy of her latest novel, Lucy by the Sea, which brings back one of my all time favorite Strout characters, Lucy Barton. This time around, it is the very early stages of the COVID pandemic and Lucy is whisked away to Maine by her ex-husband William, who, as a scientist, knows a thing or two about the situation going on with the virus. Lucy agrees to go with him to the isolated house by the sea for what they both think will be “only a few weeks” (one of my favorite scenes was early on in the book when Lucy is in her apartment packing her things and trying to decide what to bring for what she anticipates will be a short stay in Maine — the laptop scene was classic “Lucy and William bantering over the most mundane things” and I loved the familiarity of it!). As the weeks turn into months, the situation escalates, with Lucy and William eventually going into pandemic lockdown as things around the world become more and more dire.

Just like with the previous Lucy books, we as readers essentially live inside Lucy’s head the entire story as she narrates her day-to-day experiences (whether good or bad), observations, and feelings toward everything that happens. As Strout does brilliantly with each of her novels, she provides keen insights into the human condition through her characters’ astute observations and empathetic, heartfelt emotions that reflect the realities of our everyday lives. One difference this time though, is that many of Lucy’s experiences and sentiments hit extremely close to home, given the timeframe spanning recent events such as the pandemic lockdown, the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, the January 6th insurrection, etc. — resulting in shared feelings of anxiety, fear, unease, and a sense of feeling unmoored in a country becoming more and more divided.

I read Oh William! last year and while I did enjoy that one, I felt that focus was more on William’s story rather than Lucy herself, and in that sense, it felt a little less relatable than the first book My Name is Lucy Barton did. This new book, Lucy by the Sea, brought the focus back to Lucy, which I definitely appreciated, as it gave me the same poignant, relatable vibe that the original one did, which made me love this one just as much.

Fans of the Lucy Barton series will no doubt love this newest sequel, though it’s definitely recommended to read the previous books before this one (except Anything is Possible, which is part of the series but doesn’t focus as much on Lucy herself — I still need to read this one myself). Also, Elizabeth Strout fans who have read her other books will love the Easter eggs scattered throughout the story, especially the appearances by other characters who featured prominently in some of her other works. This added a “fun” element to the story that helped to balance out some of the “heaviness” of the subject matter for me. While I’m not sure if there will be another Lucy book after this one, I will absolutely read whatever else Strout comes out with in the future!

Received ARC from Random House via NetGalley.