I couldn’t have read this book a year ago. It’s all about the pandemic. Enough time has passed the angst of it isn’t so acute, but I won’t forget.
This is a decent read, howeverI didn’t like any of the characters too much. Lucy is completely ungrateful and is Whiney for most of the book. My question was why did William insist she come with him?
I also wondered if anyone was faithful.
One major theme is getting through one day at a time.

I enjoyed this book more than its predecessor. Perhaps I have become more in tune with the authors writing style or the characters and their quirks are more familiar to me. The book was well written and the story’s subject matter came straight from the news and the lives we’ve been living, the pandemic. The author dealt well with the fear and isolation people have lived with along with the alliances they have been forced or pushed into forging. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the various relationships that come about through necessity.

I

The more Elizabeth Strout writes about her beloved character Lucy Barton, the more I connect to her. Lucy by the Sea is the fourth book of a series that started with My Name is Lucy Barton. Lucy is now in her sixties. In the last book, Oh! William, we found Lucy newly widowed after the death of second husband David. She starts spending more time with ex-husband William. In this latest book, William, a scientist, is concerned about the emerging virus he fears will quickly spread. Lucy agrees to leave New York City and go with him to live in a friend's house on the coast of Maine. Through the early stages of the pandemic and beyond, Lucy thinks of her past, her present, fraught with family issues and what could lie ahead for her.

Strout's books are quiet and thoughtful. They bring you into the world of its many interesting, multi-layered characters. It was so nice to visit with Lucy again. I hope I get to do it again.

Favorite line: "We are all in lockdown, all the time. We just don't know it, that's all."

Rated 4.25 stars.

At times thrilling and others emotional, LUCY BY THE SEA is a pandemic novel that will stand the test of time. Strout's way of analyzing couples in lockdown is unparalleled.

My first Elizabeth Strout book and it won't be my last. She tells the story of Lucy beginning in March of 2020 and the ensuing pandemic time period. Lucy is convinced by a friend that she should leave NYC and move temporarily to Maine, taking only a few things with her. As you can guess, life evolved to a point more than Lucy could envision.

This is my second strictly pandemic book so I was a little leery going into it, I'm still feeling a bit sensitive and too close for comfort to it all, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I fell in love with Lucy, an empty nester, divorced and then widowed woman. The way Strout writes, is just so easy on the eyes and the ears, it was almost poetic. Truly, I quite enjoyed her actual writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance e-copy of this book.

Elizabeth Strout continues her series featuring the character of Lucy Barton in Lucy By The Sea, diving into the world of COVID-19. The novel begins with Lucy having finished up a recent book tour, living in her small New York City apartment. She is contacted by her ex-husband William who expresses considerable concern around her safety as COVID begins its outbreak. She follows him to a rental home in Maine to weather out what they expect to be a short COVID wave, while concerned about their two grown children's safety. For those who did not read the previous work in this series (Oh William!), many of the highlights are noted in this novel. Was I excited to read a book about the pandemic? Not particularly, but I have grown to love the character of Lucy Barton and I enjoyed seeing the pandemic through her eyes. Her relationship with William continues to evolve, and I appreciated the complexities of the relationships she has with her daughters. As with many of Strout's books, characters from her other books make cameos. For those who enjoy Strout's other works, this is a nice addition to Lucy's story.

Thank you to Random House via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

It's so nice to visit Lucy again! Plus, I loved the mention of Olive Kitteridge!

It is during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, that William, Lucy's first husband, has whisked her away to a cabin in Maine. There they spend their days walking on the beach, getting to slowly know residents in the town, and talking about their lives and marriage. Readers also get to learn more about their daughters, their lives, and their relationships.

This book is a look at family, relationships, and the loneliness and uncertainty felt during the early days of the pandemic. Both will feel the loss of those who passed away. As they look at the past they had together, they also look to the future.

I read this book in one sitting as I did not want to put it down. I have enjoyed the previous books in the series and enjoyed being able to revisit Lucy once again. She is an interesting character who makes interesting observations. Plus, it was nice seeing her interact with her daughters.

This book may resonate with some who felt similar things as the characters in this book during the beginning of the pandemic. The uncertainty, the anxiety, the doubt, the loneliness, the feeling of being powerless, the difficulty finding essentials such as toilet paper, the loss of loved ones, and the hope for a return to normal.

As with all of Elizabeth Stout's books, I found this to be beautifully written and hard to put down. I wanted to stay with Lucy a little longer when the book ended. This is a testament to Stout's writing and the characters she has created.

What an interesting book! It takes place during Covid, so be warned if it's too soon for you. I have been trying to figure out how to describe her writing style and I'm really not having much luck. I guess the book is written almost like a diary. There are no dates, no "dear diary", but it is written in a way that makes you almost "see" Lucy's feelings. I found the book totally riveting, but I'll admit I was hoping for more from the ending. What could the author have done differently? To be hones, possibly nothing else would have worked.

This is the story of Lucy, who's ex-husband calls one day and says he'll be there to pick up recently widowed Lucy from her beloved New York to take her to Maine to get away from the raging virus. At first she seems bewildered--why such a fuss? As time goes by, realization of the severity of the situation imprints on her mind. She has to totally change her way of thinking about it. The pandemic is laid out in front of the reader by her observations and her feelings are artfully displayed without the author actually saying these are her feelings. Very powerful.

There are also different relationships in the story, Lucy and her ex-husband, her grown children and their spouses and even Lucy and the local people in Maine. It's not all gloom and doom, but there aren't a ton of rainbows either.

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

I usually stick to my preferred genre of romance, but when I saw this one on NetGalley I was intrigued. I think that being stuck with someone you might not want to be stuck with in a lockdown is something that a lot of people can relate to unfortunately after the whole COVID lockdown situation. Getting to know Lucy, William and their family was very interesting and makes me think I might venture into different genres more often. Two thumbs up!

4 Maine stars

Elizabeth Strout has brought us back into Lucy and William’s life. I have really grown to appreciate her writing style and it feels like her characters validate my feelings about life and the world.

As the early days of COVID hit New York, William wants his whole family out of the city. As a scientist, he has some inklings of the dire days ahead. Always the caretaker of Lucy, he begs her to head to a remote town in Maine for a few weeks. Even though they are divorced, Lucy agrees to the plan.

Of course, a few weeks stretch into a much longer time and the pair must figure out how to cope with each other and the isolation. Lucy longs to see her grown daughters and is still grieving for her husband. I loved that this wasn’t just a book about the pandemic, it is about life and relationships and forgiveness.

Another thing I love about this author is how she includes some characters from her other books. This was a quick read that has depth!

Elizabeth Strout has a dazzling ability to create characters and to follow and interpret their interactions. Generations of families and how they react, toward the beginning, to the pandemic is simply interpreted but brilliantly depicted. As always, Strout's characters are believable, sometimes pitiable, and at other times we have vast empathy for them. Strout's characters always interact with a focus on human emotion, and the intricate but completely acceptable plots make it challenging to put down this book.

Not only are the characters and their interactions difficult to ignore, but Strout also uses her honed sense of humor to entertain us. Even Olive Kitteridge makes a recondite appearance or two.

As in her previous books, Strout has provided some emotional, true, and poignant relationships among her characters that keep readers involved.

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this compelling book.

Lucy Barton leaves New York City to go into lockdown in Maine with her ex-husband William during the earliest days of COVID. For several months, the two navigate the uncertainty of COVID, living together again, and trying to remain connected with their grown daughters.

For some reason, I'm always hesitant to begin an Elizabeth Strout book and then I read them and I really enjoy them. I find her writing style so easily readable. It's like reading my own journals. Being back in Lucy's head was very easy and entirely comfortable.

I found myself very quickly back in the early COVID days, remembering all the confusion and concern. If this will be triggering to you, you will want to proceed carefully, as it is the basis for the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available September 20, 2022.

This is the first book that I read by Elizabeth Strout. I was hoping for so much more after reading reviews of her previous books. The story was fine, but really just felt like she was just talking about things that happened in their lives during CoVid. I didn't feel that there was much emotion throughout and struggled to finish it. Sorry to say I won't be jumping to read another of her books.

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout is the 4th book in the Amgash series. The story is about Lucy Barton, her ex-husband William and their two daughters, and their significant others. It is how Lucy's ex gets her out of New York City during the pandemic lockdown of 2020.

William has found a place in Maine that he feels that they can go to to get away and stay safe from Covid. Lucy is an author and she can pretty much work from anywhere. It only starts out to be a few weeks but we all know that that is not what happens. We still have the virus going on in 2022.

Lucy and William have a past that is complicated, a contentious divorce, he had cheated on her and she retaliates by having an affair also. She really worries about her girls, one having numerous miscarriages and how it affects her marriage, and the other daughter in an unhappy marriage contemplates an affair.

Lucy and William like to walk so that is what Lucy does on a regular basis, usually along with newfound friend Bob Burgess. We learn a bit about Bob's past also (it is referenced in The Burgess Boys) They become fast friends. This is a story also about dysfunctional families, Lucy's own in particular.

As time goes by, memories resurface that have Lucy and William questioning their relationship. Do they still love each other, even though after their divorce they both had marriages, Lucy's happy while William's not so much. Through long afternoons of thought, they come to conclusions that seem right for them. Getting back together. Is it just because they are lonely or the pandemic?

This story was written with great thought to the lockdown, mostly in New York, and how it affected the population. A passionate and thoughtful story that resonates long after the book ends. I think it is because we are actually living in a world with Covid. How we all deal with it is imperative to the story.

I really enjoyed it, read it in a couple of sittings. 5 Stars all the way!

A wise, wistful and insightul novel continuing the story of Lucy Barton.

In this novel, Lucy and her ex-husband William, leave NYC at the beginning of the pandemic to distance on the coast of Maine. Leaving behind their two daughters, as well as Williams from another marriage, the two settle into a rented house in a small town of Maine. Although divorced, they have remained friends although living together presents some challenges. Slowy, they get to know each other better as well as make friends in the town.

The novel explores the themes of marriage, motherhood, isolation and politics during a climate of fear and uncertainty. The writing is concise and to the point with the ability to make the reader feel strongly without it being overdone. Another novel by Strout with characters from previous novels, it is well able to stand alone.

Elizabeth Strout has done it again. Lucy Barton is my friend and I could read her words forever. Her view of the pandemic made me rethink my own experience. I was not in a cabin in Maine by the sea but I was blessed to be in a home big enough. I set this book down several times to think about how others survived the lockdown and how it affected families, singles, or growing families. I would have liked a little more of Lucy's thoughts about some of the issues that were mentioned more in passing but I appreciate the time spent on friendships and relationships.

Lucy Barton and her former husband, William, isolate themselves in a Maine cottage as Covid-19 sweeps across the world. All William wants is to save Lucy's life and those of his daughters.

Lucy, ever emotionally distant, is slow to understand the seriousness of the virus that took hold in early 2020, killing millions and sowing discord between "maskers" and "anti-maskers." William's impotence in the face of the virus is echoed in a personal medical revelation.

In the midst of the pandemic chaos, of course, is the police murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed.

Other authors have touched upon Covid-19 in books written during or immediately after the pandemic began. This is the first that I've read that focuses so heavily on the experience. In hindsight, Lucy's naive belief that the virus isn't serious seems foolhardy. However, I can barely recall the early days in which no one knew much about Covid-19, and people were just starting to die.

This review was shared on Goodreads and on Facebook groups Books & Brews and Blanket Forts too; Sixties Plus Reading Room; 52 Books; and Girls Who Love Books.

5★
“I walked around and around the house. I did not know where to put my mind.”

March 2020, Maine, USA
Lucy is by the sea in a big, older house that her ex-husband William has rented to whisk her away to escape the ravages of the coronavirus in New York City. I use the overworked phrase “whisk her away” because that is what it feels like.

He tells her to pack a bag, they are to leave immediately, and then he sweeps her out of her apartment, her home for the last many years that she shared with her adored late husband, David.

She and William, once married for twenty years, have two adult daughters whom William has already told of his plans. He advised them and their husbands to do the same, get out of the city.

“ ‘And don’t tell your mother yet, but please do this. I will deal with her.’ And so they hadn’t told me. Which is interesting because I feel that I am close to our girls, I would have said closer to them than William is.”

Lucy agrees to go. In the first few pages she says:

“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.”

She has said previously that William is the one who introduced her to the world (from her extremely poor background), and he has always made her feel safe. This is how she opens the book.

“Like many others, I did not see it coming.

But William is a scientist, and he saw it coming; he saw it sooner than I did, is what I mean.”

She had also accompanied him on a trip to Maine to follow up an ancestry search William had done about his mother, whom Lucy knew.

Lucy’s own horrific childhood was the subject of My Name Is Lucy Barton, with more family stories in Anything Is Possible. The story of the trip to Maine is told in Oh William!

You don’t need to have read these, but this will be more meaningful if you do. William is still bossy and irritating, while Lucy stays outwardly calm. Outwardly.

“Sometimes I would have to leave the house in the dark and walk down by the water, swearing out loud.”

When she feels overwhelmed, as I imagine we all have, she appeals in her mind to her ‘mother’, not her real, abusive, late mother.

“ ‘Mom,’ I cried inside myself to the nice mother I had made up, ‘Mom, I can’t do this’! And the nice mother I had made up said, You are really doing so well, honey. ‘But, Mom, I hate this!’ And she said, I know, honey. Just hang in there and it will end.

But it did not seem like it would end.”

[Note – Strout uses italics, but I added the single quotation marks around Lucy’s own internal speech because not all reviews recognise html formatting. Remarks from Lucy’s invented mother are not italicised in the original.]

Lucy notes the growing division in America, the masked and the unmasked, the protests and the police. This suggestion of civil war worries her. Waiting in the car in Maine while William is in a shop, she looks at the police cruiser parked next to them.

“I watched him so carefully.

So carefully I watched him.

I wondered, What is it like to be a policeman, especially now, these days? What is it like to be you?
. . .
In a way that is not uncommon for me as a writer, I sort of began to feel what it was like to be inside his skin. It sounds very strange, but it is almost as though I could feel my molecules go into him and his come into me.”

Lucy is speaking about molecules, of course, but it could just as well be Strout, I think, who so deftly puts us into Lucy’s mind. Seeing the Capitol riots on TV, Lucy remembers being humiliated and bullied in her childhood because she was dirty and smelly. She wonders, if this had continued all her life, what might have become of her?

“I suddenly felt that I saw what these people were feeling; they were like my sister, Vicky, and I understood them. They had been made to feel poorly about themselves, they were looked at with disdain, and they could no longer stand it.”

It’s no wonder that Lucy is an acclaimed writer. She understands people better than most and has genuine concern for them.

“Who knows why people are different? We are born with a certain nature, I think. And then the world takes its swings at us.”

Thanks to Pulitzer Prize-winner, Elizabeth Strout, we see how Lucy deals with the swings. I should add that it was nice to see Bob Burgess (from The Burgess Boys become good friends with Lucy and William. Other characters from other books get a mention, too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the preview copy from which I have quoted, so quotations may have changed.

Lucy Barton is back in a fourth book and it didn't disappoint. This time the Covid-19 pandemic is front and center and actually gives the book more of a plot than the previous books. Once again there are enough reminders in the book for readers who have forgotten things about Lucy's life since the last book (or for those who haven't read a Lucy Barton book.) Of the books that I have read that take place during the pandemic, this is by far the best of them.

Although I enjoy Elizebeth Strouts work, I had a hard time with this book. The isolation she described during he pandemic really hit home and gave me an uneasy feeling. I was alone through the pandemic and also worried about my family and how to cope by myself. Lucy and her ex husband go off to Maine and isolate in hopes of avoiding sickness. Their past is studied and brought to light as the days go by.. Lucy is worried about her children and the effects it will have on the family. The story line was great and the emotions were presented realistically. The book is a continuation of her previous book “ Oh William” but can be read as a stand alone. This truly is an emotional ride.