I keep reading Elizabeth Strout’s books, and I can’t figure out why. I find the characters either insipid or positively distasteful. Generally we read to understand ourselves better, but I never make a connection with these people.
Strout’s writing style is so pedestrian, like a Hemingway wanna-be, that it tends to carry you along against your will, but the events are so dull, I want to run screaming from the room.
This chapter of the Lucy Barton saga has an extra burden. It chronicles her experience living through the COVID pandemic, first in New York City, then in the small coastal community in Maine to which she and her once-and-future partner William flee. She recounts every detail, and gives no more weight to the fraught than the excruciatingly dull. There isn’t a reader alive who hasn’t gone through the same thing with equal response.and who doesn’t need to be reminded. I think she would have been better served putting the manuscript in a drawer for five years and giving her readers some distance.
The one item of interest I can report, if you are wondering, is that there are a few mentions of Strout’s other well-documented protagonist, Olive Kitteridge, but I wouldn’t recommend reading this book to satisfy your curiosity.

This book is a good reminder of the present days and the author does a wonderful job writing it as with all her books. Lucy a year after David her husband died, William her ex husband called telling her she and the adult children had to leave NYC immediately because of the Pandemic. He rented a house in Maine by the sea and would pick her up to save her of the disaster facing them. Lucy tells how Covid was affecting everyone's lives.

I read this compulsively in one day. The writing was very to the point which seemed to mirror Lucy's thinking, but I kept waiting for something that never came. So many of her ruminations were mine, and I related so well to her inner thoughts. There seemed to be so much foreshadowing that never really came to any big event. I loved the start, but by the end, the book seemed to do just that-end. Maybe that is life, but it does not make for a satisfying read.

This is the second Lucy book I've read. It took a bit of pushing to get to the end, but I'm glad I did. Since the setting was during the 2020 pandemic, the majority of the book is spent in Lucy's head when she's isolated. That got very tedious, and I didn't enjoy Lucy's persistent fear.
But I really enjoy Lucy's voice when she's observing other people. So at the end of the book, as the world was owning up again, I enjoyed reading her insights about her daughters.

I read this story in one day.
Why? So I could remember what the world went through, what I went through and what we are all still going through these days during Covid-19!
Elizabeth Stout absolutely nailed this novel.
It brings back so many memories during the pandemic, that I almost had to stop reading, but then I needed to recall "all the feelings"of each ordinary day, of struggling to pull myself away from the news shows all day, to stop believing all the craziness and to think about all the friends, family and strangers who never made it.
If you are up for reliving the past few years, then I encourage you to definitely engage in this book.
It is a great,well detailed, intense at times journey. I know I did!
Thank you to #NetGalley and #Random House Publishing Group for this arc of #LucybytheSea and allowing me to provide my own review.

As usual, Elizabeth Strout has captured the voice of her protagonist perfectly; Lucy Barton’s voice and the telling of her story are both pure and brilliant. The simplicity of the telling, its directness, is a large part of its power. The pairing of Lucy and her voice with the several years we have just lived through carries this novel far beyond what I expected. A wonderful book, at a perfect time. Highly recommend, for its realness and its depth and also for the sheer joy of Lucy Barton’s perspectives, again.

What a lovely, gentle, yet (as always) clear-eyed book from Elizabeth Strout. It’s simplistic to call this a pandemic novel, though the pandemic and its implications are at the heart of this work. But it sells this book short to call it a ripped-from-the-headlines work of fiction. Instead, we follow narrator Lucy, who we’ve gotten to know so well through Strout’s books, as the pandemic forces (forces?) her into close quarters with ex-husband William.

Lucy’s voice remains its own - tentative yet incisive, emotional yet reserved - but along the way, we see her come to accept this late stage in her life in a remote town in Maine. We follow the progress of her daughters and other characters from other Strout books.

In short, you know as soon as you’ve started this wonderful novel that you’re in good and capable hands. And as much as this book is very much of a piece with her other works in tone and scope, it represents a deepening of the world Strout has created over her years of work.

This is the first book I’ve read by Elizabeth Strout, so I was not familiar with Lucy or William, etc. Maybe if I had been familiar with the characters, I could’ve felt more connected to them. The author does have a lot of interesting insights into familial and other relationships. Her economical way of writing worked better for me at some points in the book than others. For example, when she wanted to get to the heart of the matter, it worked well. But when she uses that writing style when dealing with complex emotions, it makes Lucy come across as a bit emotionally stunted. Overall, an enjoyable read.

‘If I Hold You Any Closer, I’ll Be Behind You” Groucho Marx

William, Lucy’s ex-husband, would quote this joke from Groucho when Lucy, who was starved for affection, would ask William to hold her closer.

For those readers who have not read Ms. Strout’s previous books regarding Lucy Barton, this is the most recent one added to the series. William and Lucy are divorced but have two daughters, Crissy and Becka. Lucy is a published writer who has attained a significant following. William is a scientist with past wives and other children.

She lives in an apartment in New York, but William whisks her away to a desolate house in Maine at the onset of the Pandemic and Covid lockdown. William is trying to save Lucy’s life by removing her from New York. Strout introduces us to the beginning denial and disbelief of the pandemic. It becomes a timely book depicting their isolation in a tiny house. They become accustomed to living in Maine, even though the townspeople are not fond of New Yorkers.

This isolated setting provides too much time for Lucy to think of her past, her imaginary good mother and the overwhelming love she has for her daughters. I enjoyed reading the book, but I expected more insight from Lucy, Instead, she worries about aging and possible memory loss and thinning hair. Lucy seems void of desperation and anger now. However, the dialogue between Lucy and William as their relationship renews, in forced isolation, is fascinating and every word has meaning.

Strout alludes to Olive Kitteredge when a newly found friend quotes Olive who is living in a type of assisted-living facility. I wish Strout had included more of Olive.

I recommend the book. The beginning is better than the middle and the end is better than the beginning.

My gratitude to Net Galley and Random House for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This fourth novel in the Lucy Barton series is as much a delight to read as the first three were! Once again, Elizabeth Strout delivers a beautifully written, character-driven introspective. And, once again, Strout emphasizes the importance of family, friends and second chances in a thought-provoking and insightful way — his time, however, against a backdrop of changing seasons while the world as we know it has sort of come to a standstill because of the Covid pandemic. Reading this latest in the series is like finding out what your old friends have been up to, friends you haven’t seen in a while but have thought about often. (In fact, even Olive Kitteridge makes an “appearance” a few times!) All in all, this is a stunning piece of American literature and a great read.

Picking up where oh William ended, Lucy and William are back! This time, they are in New York City and a pandemic is about to hit the city. William, scientist that he is, is eager to get Lucy and himself out of the city. Not understanding the urgency and severity of the impending coronavirus, Lucy thinks this is all a fuss - In the very Lucy way we know her to behave. They drive to Maine to wait out the spreading virus.

Reading about the early days of the pandemic shockingly took me back to that place. Covid is still here, but the way we’ve adapted to it makes it seem like a thing of the past. This truly takes you back to those scary weeks turned to months of the unknown. As William and Lucy quarantine together, Lucy again reflects on her life experiences, her children and her life with and without William.

As always, not a lot of plot here, but this author can make the mundane readable and relatable. And (hell yes!!), Olive is still alive and makes a couple of cameos from assisting living.
Thanks NetGalley for the arc of this book. It comes out in September, and all the Lucy fans will be happy!

I remember loving I am Lucy Barton 5 years ago and though I didn’t pick up Oh William!, I felt the need to request this one on Netgalley. I was thrilled to get approved.

I flew through this book as we watched Lucy and William quarantine together, as well as, go through the beginning of the pandemic together. I find Strout’s writing to be easy to read, but each word and thought has meaning!

Really enjoyed!

Lucy by the Sea is the story of one woman's pandemic experience. Lucy, a resident of New York City where the pandemic has just hit, is whisked away by her ex-husband William to a small town on the coast of Maine. There, they ride out the pandemic. Her family is in nearby Connecticut. They visit and talk and try to live life as normally as possible with masks, distancing, and technology. She makes friends, writes, and shares the emotional upheaval of a country isolated and sick. I found this story just ok. I was compelled to keep reading it though as it was interesting to see the two years thru another's eyes, in another place. The author tries to make this apolitical but her feelings about the country and the President in power at the time are quite evident. I was a bit put off by that and the feeling of superiority that is exuded by someone who has no money worries or understanding of how and why the country is divided. It is an interesting read for those who have the same inclination I did, just to see what someone else experienced. The plot for me was non-existent, the characters rather mundane. Nonetheless, it is a compelling story of what will become a part of our nation's history. Thanks to #LucybytheSea#NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Elizabeth Strout changed my life as a reader, and more importantly, as a writer. If you read my review of Strout’s Oh William, you know that I was introduced to Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge by my local librarian. While reading Strout’s masterpiece of thirteen interwoven short stories, I finally (FINALLY) came up with a plan for my own novel, an idea I came up with a long time ago but couldn’t figure out the structure I wanted to deploy. Now, I carry Strout’s stories and words around with me, a kind of mental inspiration board designed by my own personal muse, as I work on my novel.

Since reading Olive Kitteridge and its sequel Olive, Again, I have been reading my way through Strout’s back list, including I Am Lucy Barton, the first in Strout’s Amgash series, which includes Anything is Possible (Amgash #2), Oh William mentioned above (Amgash #3) and now, Lucy by the Sea (Amgash #4), Strout’s latest novel, to be released on September 20, 2022.

Strout’s latest novel, which is set during the coronavirus pandemic, will NOT be for everyone. Some of us are still too raw and wounded by the isolation, death, and economic fallout of COVID to cozy up on the couch with a cup of tea, a warm blanket, and a 300-page novel about the stress and anxiety we have all been through since March of 2020. Add to that the election of November, 2020, the BLM protests, and the subsequent political upheaval of January 6, 2021, and honestly, this book should have a few trigger warnings on the cover: miscarriage, divorce, adultery, isolation, riots, loneliness, aging, and yes, death.

Yet, I loved this book. At times, I felt like Elizabeth Strout had rented space in my head for her pandemic writing room. If you read books 1-4 of the Amgash series you know that Lucy had a terrible childhood, and that is an understatement. She is STILL carrying that baggage around, even when she packs her small purple rolling suitcase to leave NYC as the pandemic cranks up and her scientist ex-husband William insists she go to Maine with him to ride out the attack of the coronavirus. He occasionally has to remind her that he is trying to save her life.

Once in Maine, she is a duck out of water, seemingly calm above the water but paddling furiously below it. She longs for the hustle and bustle of the city, even as she takes her daily walks along the rocky coastline of Crosby, Maine, even as she admires the beauty and majesty of the ocean. She doesn’t talk about whether she is reading much, or even writing much, unlike Strout, who managed to write this book during the same international pandemic her main character was living through. Instead of using her writing to help move her through her anxiety over the pandemic, her relationship with her ex-husband William, her grown daughters and their own marriage issues, she suffers sleepless nights, her only consolation to her angst is her near constant conversations with “the nice mother I had made up,” as opposed to her dark thoughts of her “real mother, not the nice one I made.” How sad is that?

I had what I think most would call a “normal childhood,” and I loved my mother dearly. She struggled with showing her emotions but I am sure she loved me dearly, too, but I too have my baggage, and some nights I am restless, unpacking and repacking the effects of Hurricane Katrina on my family, as well as a few personal demons that periodically visit me. Lucy at one point says, “Everyone needs to feel important.” This is yet another example of where Strout creates a character with elements that really resonate with me. As a veteran teacher with retirement on the horizon, I fear that once I am not a teacher, in my middle school language arts classroom, shaping readers and guiding young writers, will I still feel important?

As the world went on lock down, many felt listless, wandering from room to room in sweats, watching CNN on repeat, learning how to Zoom, trying to work from home. If Lucy by the Sea wanders around a bit, like all of us during lock down, I’m okay with that. If Lucy rehashes all the pains and pangs of her life, and Strout rehashes bits and bobs of other story lines, I’m okay with that. As a relatively new–but avid–fan of Strout’s, I’m okay with it all, as long as she keeps writing.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced e-book.)

Elizabeth Strout is back with Lucy and her family and she is in top form. A touching chronicle of Lucy and her maturing interactions with her family and new friends. Additionally, Strout evokes the beginning of and the lingering of covid's effect on our lives. A must for any book club.

Lucy lives in New York when she begins hearing stories of a virus that is rapidly spreading. When her ex-husband wants her to go to Maine with him to wait out the pandemic, she goes. During this time, she spends a lot of time reflecting on her life, the lives of her adult children, and the decisions she and her ex made. This book was interesting, but seemed to drag at times.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC*

I so enjoyed being back in Lucy’s world again, even though this novel takes place in the early days of the pandemic. If you’re not yet ready to relive those days (through Lucy’s eyes) then this may not be the book for you. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to read about those early pandemic days myself, but I found this book hard to put down and as always, I loved Lucy’s honest voice and observations about the world, especially during difficult times.

This is my first read by Elizabeth Strout and started this book not knowing it was part of a series.

This basically tells the story of Lucy, a New Yorker, who agrees to go live with her ex-husband in lockdown during the pandemy in Maine. She tells her family story and mostly explains how she feels during the lockdown, mostly feelings of isolation and loss.

I don’t think I was ready to go through that part of the pandemy just yet and relive all the despair that came with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a complimentary e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy Barton in Maine during the Pandemic and she’s with William again. Nothing could be better! Lucy and William are both great characters and reading about them is like visiting old friends. We also heard a bit about old characters like Olive Kitteridge. I have loved everything I’ve read that Elizabeth Strout has written and this is another winner.

Elizabeth Strout has written about Lucy before so reading this is like reconnecting with an old friend. Starting with the beginning of the pandemic, Strout’s spare writing style manages to convey the anxiety and uncertainty so many of us felt and still do. Though Lucy By The Sea makes references to characters from previous books, it is t necessary to have read them. Even so, I’d recommend reading all of Strout’s works - this was a quick read, but gave me plenty to think about. .