Lucy by the Sea is a poignant look at life during the pandemic through Lucy Barton’s eyes, head, and heart. Set in the year following Elizabeth’s Strout’s last novel (“Oh, William!), and with the same central characters, we see a new level of thoughtfulness in Lucy, as she processes worry around isolation, aging, and family issues. Strout aficionados will recognize a few character names that pop up throughout the novel (think Bob Burgess and Olive Kitteridge), which is set primarily in Maine as Lucy escapes New York City at the behest of her ex-husband, who “wants to save her life.”

While William is William, and isn’t openly vulnerable or particularly forthcoming in general, Lucy seems to achieve a new level of acceptance for her ex’s idiosyncrasies – possibly because in lockdown he’s all she’s got, or maybe because after all these years she still actually loves William; maybe both.

Lucy also must grapple with adjusting her style of parenting her adult, married daughters, which serves as an exercise in selflessness and letting go with love. The pace of Lucy’s story can seem a bit staccato in that the author jumps from one scene to the next fairly quickly in short bursts of prose. At the same time, there is a lovely cadence to Strout’s almost stream-of-conscious, confessional storytelling that is relatable to those of us who felt befuddled and dismayed as Covid wound its way into every corner of our lives.

Much gratitude to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4970535527

I was happy to receive a copy of Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy By The Sea (thanks to Random House and NetGalley) in exchange for this honest review. I recall reading her Oh William! But couldn’t remember much about it…looking back, I realized I had never gotten around to writing a review…so it clearly wasn’t a grabber or a five star thriller-kept-me-up-all-night kind of book, but it was…fine.

And TBH that’s how I felt about Lucy by the Sea. I liked the way it so perfectly captured the early stage of the 2020 lockdown, and I could relate to many things about Lucy. As she says, “I’ve been socially distancing for sixty-six years,” and “…foreign places always frighten me. I like places that are familiar. “ But although my own situation has been stable (to the point of being boring at times), when Lucy’s New York life is uprooted by the pandemic, she feels that, “…there was always a small, but for me very real, sense of hope that maybe today would bring something different, that the pandemic would pass…”

When Lucy’s ex William takes her off to an isolated spot in Maine, where it is just the two of them for several months, they have plenty of time to deal with their complex relationship and how best to deal with their fears and struggles. Lucy says “I could not stop feeling that life as I had known it was gone, Because it was. I knew this was true.” The upside is that they have months of long, quiet days together and their deep connection really is unbreakable.
Reading it felt a bit like settling into a comfy chair in a flannel nightgown and losing oneself in a familiar story. Somehow, you don’t know quite where it’s going, but it kinda feels like it is all going to be all right. (Admittedly, this is not a feeling I have been able to capture about COVID, even after two and a half years.) Lucy comes through it in some ways because of her feeling that “…it is a gift in this life that we do not know what awaits us.” Four strong stars.

This book sent me on an interesting rollercoaster of emotions. First and foremost, this book centers around the Covid-19 pandemic. Some people might not be ready to get fully immersed back in the last couple years of awful, so just be aware of that going into it. At first I was fine, but after awhile it was soooooo heavy.

Lucy and her ex-husband, William are quarantining together in a small town in Maine. William made sure all those that were important to him got out of NYC and were taking care of themselves. But there is a definite past with Lucy and William and this book gives us an up-close look at how it all came about and where they go next. The book is written almost in a journal-type style, which was mostly fine, but sometimes distracting to me. Being in isolation together brings out past hurts as well as a deeper understanding of each other.

Ultimately this book was depressing to me. There was not a lot of bright moments in this one and I ended the book feeling worse about the world, with no hope for the future of these characters. These are not the kinds of books my heart needs right now, so that was rough on me. Overall, I probably would not recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I should preface that I love Elizabeth Strout and would probably enjoy reading her grocery list! This is the third book in the Amgash series following My Name is Lucy Barton and Oh William! (Or it’s the fourth book if Strout’s story collection Anything is Possible is included.)

This book once again reunites Lucy and her philandering ex-husband and long-time friend William. He convinces Lucy to leave Manhattan and move to a small town in coastal Maine as New York City goes into lockdown because of COVID-19. The novel focuses on Lucy’s thoughts and feelings as she adjusts to
life during a pandemic. Though isolated from the rest of her family, she maintains contact with them and tries to help them through their own struggles and crises.

Because of its conversational tone and rambling narrative, reading the book is like meeting with a friend
and listening as she chats away, jumping from topic to topic: “Before I tell you about . . . let me say that
. . .” Since I have encountered Lucy in previous books, I felt like I were revisiting with an old friend.

Lucy captures perfectly life during the pandemic. Initially there is a sense of disbelief. Then as the
nature of the pandemic is understood, various emotions emerge: loneliness, sadness, uncertainty,
anxiety, and grief: “The sadness that rose and fell in me was like the tides.” Readers will certainly be
able to relate to Lucy’s feelings. I loved her description of feeling “as though each day was like a huge
stretch of ice I had to walk over . . . and I had to make it through each day without knowing when it
would stop, and it seemed it would not stop, and so I felt a great uneasiness.” I even found myself
chuckling at the small annoyances that plague us when we’re in forced isolation with another person:
Lucy hates William’s slurping when he eats, and he hates to see her floss her teeth. She describes
episodes of brain fog, “Covid mind” William calls it. For many people, the various traumas of the
pandemic served to amplify traumas of the past, and Lucy relives childhood traumas and the death of
her second husband. She also finds herself in situations that teach her about herself; for instance, her
failure to act in one situation has her admitting, “And I learned something that day. About myself and
people, and their self-interest.”

Despite her own weariness and sadness, Lucy does realize that things could be worse: “I thought of all
the people – old people and young people – who had lived out the pandemic in rooms . . . Alone.” She
does manage to find comfort in new friendships and in the beauty that surrounds her: “What a thing
the physical world is!” Perhaps Lucy’s friend expresses best a way to live: “’It’s our duty to bear the
burden . . . with as much grace as we can.’”

What I really appreciated is Lucy’s trying to understand people who are not like her and hold opposite
views. She mentions that a problem is that “Everyone thinks like themselves” so she makes a point of
considering things from others’ points of view. She and William discuss Trump supporters. William says,
“’They’re angry. Their lives have been hard.’” And Lucy makes friends with one of them and concludes,
“And what if I had continued to feel that my entire life, what if all the jobs I had taken in my life were
not enough to really make a living, what if I felt looked down upon all the time by the wealthier people
in this country . . . 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.” She even writes a story that “is sympathetic toward a white cop who liked the
old president and who does an act of violence and gets away with it” and she admits about her
protagonist, “I loved him.” It seems that Lucy tries to love everyone though she struggles with loving
herself.
Lucy knows that people are different: “We are born with a certain nature, I think. And then the world
takes its swings at us” and “some people are luckier than others.” But everyone suffers and experiences
sadness, pain, and fear: “money makes no difference in these kinds of things.” She realizes she may
have more in common with people than she wants to admit: for instance, she draws away from people
like Charlene and her sister Vicky who have “a faint odor of loneliness . . . because I had always been
afraid of giving off that odor myself.” She repeats that “Everyone needs to feel important.” She also
realizes that though “We are alone in these things that we suffer,” everyone is “only doing what we can
to get through.” In essence, “We are all in lockdown, all the time. We just don’t know it, that’s all. But
we do the best we can. Most of us are just trying to get through.”

I loved the many characteristics of Strout’s style: a truly introspective protagonist, the references to
characters from other books, and the short sentences which reveal a complex understanding of
relationships and the human condition. Readers should be warned, however, that this may be a painful
read since it serves as a reminder of pandemic experiences. Some people may prefer more distance
from a not-yet-over pandemic. I myself would take any opportunity to live in Lucy’s head for a while.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

You could call this domestic literature, and also pandemic literature. We follow Lucy Barton, whom we have met previously in the author’s other books, as her ex-husband whisks her off to the coast of Maine from New York City to avoid the pandemic. They have a complicated relationship. She is recently widowed from her second husband, and he is recently divorced from his third wife. They have two daughters together, who are in the midst of various life crises.

By calling this domestic fiction, I mean that it centers around family emotions and the smaller events of life, rather than wars, homelessness, etc. It is a great portrayal of all we went through during the pandemic, accurately describing how nobody knew at first how the virus spread, how long lockdown would last, how many people would die, etc. I had already forgotten a lot of this.

I enjoyed the honesty of the author in portraying human failings, and also the human ability to forgive, adapt, move into something new. I liked the insight that the second year of widowhood can be more difficult than the first. It was good spending time with the main character, Lucy, and watching her evolve in very good ways as the pandemic isolation wore on, and she discovered new things about herself.

I couldn’t put this book down, but also realize that I probably won’t remember much about it for very long. That’s okay though. The careful, thoughtful voice of the narrator inspired me to write.

It was a joy to enter once again into Lucy Barton's consciousness as she recounts events in her life from the beginning of the pandemic into its second year. Many others have written about her history (as recounted in My Name is Lucy Barton and the more recent Oh William!) so I won't rehash that, though I would like to go back and re-read the first as my memory is hazy about all that was revealed.

Some reviewers have commented that they took a pass on this book because they couldn't stand to read a story set during the fairly recent pandemic. I, on the contrary, enjoyed feeling that some of my own disbelief and alarm was experienced by another, albeit fictional, person. Of course, just like Lucy, I wasn't in the midst of the horror in New York but rather beheld it on the news, with similar emotions depicted here.

I love how, as readers, we are allowed into Lucy's inner thoughts and musings as she confronts being older and works through her feelings about different relationships (with William, again, and her daughters, as well as others.) And, as an avid reader of this marvelous, inimitable writer, I welcomed the bits about some of the characters in her previous novels and stories.

I am looking forward to a future novel where readers find out how life has evolved for Lucy Barton but meanwhile am very satisfied and content to have accompanied her on this interesting and unparalleled journey.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of the book. It will be published soon - on September 20, 2022.

I have to say, I wasn’t expecting this! From the summary I just thought it was more pandemic fiction, the pandemic being the setting for a turbulent marriage to break down or heal. That is not what this is. I didn’t know until after I got it that it was part of a series so I can’t say whether that adds context to this but I got by fine on my own.

This has a really interesting writing style. It’s as if you are reading a diary. It’s really tender and thoughtful. It really all starts as Covid is starting and she leaves NYC with her ex-husband. Lucy is a writer, William is a scientist. They have kids they also urge to leave the city. They meet some friends there that they socialize with, keeping a safe distance. They all feel like people you could know, or maybe your grandma’s friends. I thought it was impressive how much I felt for the characters with such little info. This author is good!

And from there it’s pretty much just a handful of lives playing out during all of this. The big news events are all brought up. Sometimes it was a little more opinionated than I would have liked but it was always caring so it wasn’t upsetting. I just wasn’t expecting it.

This really brings a lot of memories back, and that can be good and bad. I didn’t so much like remembering when we sprayed Lysol on our groceries as I liked hearing her observations on things, the big and the silly. Lucy is just so random! I highlighted so much in this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review! I definitely would like to join Lucy through more things.

Who wants to read another book about the pandemic?! It’s too soon for me because my experience with the pandemic was not like others. Once I began to read this book I realized that this isn’t a book about the pandemic…it is about love and friendship Amdahl the things that friends do to help you survive! Very heartwarming story!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 4th book in the "Lucy" series that I've had the opportunity to read as an ARC.

This book focuses on Lucy and William during the pandemic and how they survive and thrive.

A great addition to the series and would recommend to anyone that has read the other books.

This book seemed more non-fiction than fiction as it was like all our lives during covid. Hit a little close as I am currently sick with covid. It was a quick read and kept me busy.

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

When Lucy Barton, along with the rest of the world, learns the news about the pandemic, her ex-husband William convinces her to leave their separate apartments in New York City and head to the coast of Maine, where the pandemic hasn’t hit quite as hard as it has in the city. It isn’t the first trip they’ve made there together in the years since their divorce, and there is a quiet companionship they’ve established in those years as those years have mellowed their ancient grievances. Lucy is still grieving the loss of her last husband, whose death was relatively recent and appreciates the companionship William offers.

There is a sense of comfort in their new living arrangement that continues to grow the longer they stay essentially hidden away in this relatively small abode they are renting. The locals aren’t friendly at first, which only seems to assist in their turning more toward each other than away from each other, as the world seems to be falling apart a little more every day as news keeps them aware of the mounting loss due to COVID, as well as other news, including the news relating to the killing of George Floyd, and the insurrection on January 6th. Their now adult daughters' lives seem fraught with troubles and complications which adds to their stress, but also bonds them in their desire to offer comfort, as well.

Lucy is such a wonderfully portrayed character with flaws that we can all relate to, and Strout’s writing, especially on the thoughts of these characters which feel so raw, real and relatable add both compassion and a sense of reality to this story. We have all endured much grief these last few years, we have all yearned for this to be over, most of us have known someone deeply affected by this pandemic. The solitude has impacted many, and we all have longed for a return to ‘normal’ life, which made this story even more relatable. The heartfelt yearning for a return to a normal life, as well as a strong sense of loss that comes with isolation. Still, there is a growth in these people as time passes, a strength that comes as they all come to terms with how lucky they are to have found the resilience to cope with, if not embrace, how our lives, and life itself, is constantly changing.



Pub Date: 20 Sept 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Random House

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Net Galley for providing a copy of Lucy by the Sea

As both an active and passive participant in her own life Lucy Barton tries at every corner to make sense of the pandemic world she now lives in and chooses to share with ex-husband William. Their relationship will grow into something that neither may have been prepared for. How much would have been different had their been no pandemic?

At Williams's strong suggestion, Lucy agrees to move with him from New York City to an available house in Maine. From the relative safety of Maine, they watch the television nightly in horror as victims of the virus in New York City are laid to rest in a kind of mass gravesite. Lucy will lose a close friend to Covid-19. She and William worry constantly in a kind of unreality about their own two daughters who must make living adjustments of their own.

Lucy will also carry on and make the best of the situation, including developing some new friendships in Maine. When each of her daughters share problems in their own marriages, Lucy will find the strength from her experiences to discuss things frankly with them. She will also develop a new strengthening of her relationship with William.

Lucy Barton cannot remove the horrors of the pandemic, but she can and does demonstrate the will to carry on through adversity as she makes small but meaningful discoveries about this new normal.

Readers will also get an earful from Olive Kitteridge !

Elizabeth Strout is a new-to-me author. This story takes place during the pandemic. Lucy’s ex-husband whisks her away from NYC to Maine to save her from the virus. I liked that as the story went on, Lucy was a little more open-minded and discovered some things about herself that she hadn’t previously realized. There are a lot of family issues going on between Lucy, her ex, her two daughters, and their families.

This story was hard for me to get into. In the beginning, Lucy hated everything and wasn’t a very likeable person. Also, she is a writer so I would have thought that the lockdown wouldn’t have been so hard on someone who should be used to seclusion when writing.

And just when you think things are finally going good for Lucy, while on a visit to NYC one of her daughters makes a comment that things might not be as they seem.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kittredge so I went into this with high expectations. I have not read any of her previous books with Lucy as a narrator, though, so the voice was jarring. Sadly, I could not connect with the story. I think each of us has their own experience of living through the pandemic and we will each feel differently toward its portrayal. Personally I was out of work for months and then was unable to return to my business for another full year. Lucy's situation is vastly different and it reflects a lot of people with privilege to leave the cities as if to "ride out the storm." William, her ex husband, has money so that is never an issue.

Of course the book is about more than just the pandemic (family,relationships, etc.), but my initial disconnect with Lucy turned me off from having much sympathy with her.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout is the fourth book in her popular Amgash series. This can be read as a standalone but is so much better if you read the previous books in the series. Lucy by the Sea is a fascinating look into a divorced couple and their experience with the COVID pandemic and lockdown.

Lucy Barton is still grieving her husband, David’s death almost a year ago. Her ex-husband William calls her and tells her he wants to take her out of the city, to Maine, in order to avoid the new virus that is just starting to spread in New York City. Lucy is skeptical but eventually agrees to go with William to a small town on the coast of Maine for the duration of the virus.

This is my second book by Elizabeth Strout and I enjoyed this much more than Oh William, and I think it’s because I was already familiar with the characters and her very unique writing style. Elizabeth Strout’s writing style is very different than anything else I’ve read before, and it’s a style you will either love for its simplicity or dislike entirely.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book, considering the subject matter. The pandemic is a world event that affected all of us very much, and I will never forget the way the world changed. Although it’s not something I want to re-live, I did like the way this book explored the way the virus affected these characters. With Elizabeth Strout’s very frank way of writing, I saw the pandemic through the eyes of these characters and I enjoyed the way Lucy looks at the world.

I highly recommend Lucy by the Sea to anyone who enjoys fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lucy by the Sea. I've always loved Elizabeth Strout, so I started this novel without knowing anything about the content (except that I'd be spending more time with Lucy Barton). Therefore, I didn't realize this novel would cover pandemic times, but reading about 2020 & 2021 through a character's eyes was actually comforting, in a way. It validated and reflected my own thoughts and experiences, while also giving me insight into others' lives during that time. It didn't feel like it was too soon. 

Strout's Lucy Barton novels are so straightforward - they read like a series of diary entries - but the writer Lucy Barton, like Strout, is so perceptive about others and herself that I'm fully engaged in the characters' lives. This was a quick read for me, and it made me want to go back and reread some of her previous novels, since some of her earlier characters reappear. I highly recommend this series, but you could also jump into this novel without having read the previous ones. I almost don't know why I love these books so much, but I do!

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book.

Elizabeth Stroud’s books are like a visit from an old friend. I wasn’t sure about this one because it is a pandemic book, but it was really good. It’s sad, emotional, and uplifting all at the same time.

At the start of the Pandemic, Lucy’s expect husband William takes her from her home in Ny to a house on the coast of Main to wait out the virus. Her adult children decide to stay in NY and go through some challenges with their marriages. Lucy adjusts to her new normal while trying to be there for her children.
Thank you @netgalley for my ARC.

I enjoyed this book but felt a little too close to the pandemic experience to be ready to revisit it. It hasn't quite sunk in that this will remain with us as part of our life narrative.
I did enjoy Strout's spare, straightforward writing, as always.
William was not as well drawn in this book as in the past but fans will enjoy catching up with Lucy.

I just love Elizatbeth Strout's ability to draw me into the very real and present Lucy mindset. I love how she faces her evolving identity over several books, and her ever changing relationship with her ex husband William, with wisdom, grace, and resilience. Though again largely internal to Lucy's inner life, the book is also filled with the wonderful secondary characters that add to the character focused narrative, the people who have stayed, the new faces who come into your life, and the little moments and reflections that make up our daily lives and make us who we are.

Some readers feel they aren't ready for a book that is set in the pandemic, I get that, but I am someone who feels there is value in starting to process the past two years and to have that experience put into words before we forget how it felt. Strout captures that early what is happening confusion without dredging up intense feelings and she does not linger on anxiety outside of what I think many felt: do I get to go back to (my place, where I was), how do I handle seeing family but not hugging them/protecting them when this is unknown? In the midst of this time we have Lucy still processing her grief about her husband's death, William processing what he has learned about his mother and his family, and their adult daughters navigating their own adult lives and relationships; life was still happening during the pandemic and this story captures how life felt both on hold and yet creeping forward at the same time. The uncertainty of the context added to the sense of transition that each character was experiencing and I found that effective.

I valued the placement of the book in the pandemic as it mirrored the growing feeling that many in later midlife feel: moving towards something unknown and away from what is known; uncertainty and unease but also acceptance. What strikes me most is that Ms. Strout's "Lucy books" is that the author capture real time feelings and experiences that many adults experience, such as the pandemic as well as grief and loss and changing relationships and feelings that creep in as one reflects on life both past and future... The books capture that feeling that life is unfolding around you and you can't stop it but you can embrace it, you can keep understanding yourself, and you can still find new or different ways of enjoying relationships that have shaped your adult life.

Lucy by the Sea is a treasure, a quick character study that will stay with me for a long time.

If like me you found yourself during the pandemic thinking about some of your favorite fictional characters and how they would experience the pandemic, this book is for you!
In another installment of the Amgash series, we find Lucy Barton living through our very recent past beginning with the start of the pandemic and covering the many social and political events of these times.
I throughly enjoyed revisiting Lucy, William and their family as they navigate the pandemic. I find something so relatable in their daily lives and enjoy reading Lucy’s perspective on the world around us. I highly recommend curling up and revisiting Lucy as her story continues.

I received this advanced book copy for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for allowing me to provide this review.