Dec 4

Dec 4 My Name Is Lucy Barton

Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all the one between mother and daughter.

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

TL;DR Review

My Name Is Lucy Barton is everything you hope for in an Elizabeth Strout novel: warm and simple on the surface, but layered with emotion and nuance underneath.

For you if: You like character-driven books with quietly impactful prose.

Full Review

Elizabeth Strout is one of those authors on my list — I read and loved Olive Kitteridge, and I know I’ll love more of her backlist, but I just haven’t gotten there. Well, having the third book in this Amgash series (Oh William!) on this year’s Booker Prize shortlist was the kick in the pants I needed to get started! And, of course, I loved this one too.

My Name Is Lucy Barton is a slim, fun-structured novel narrated by (as you might guess) the main character, Lucy Barton. She’s looking back to the period of time when she was in the hospital recovering from surgery and her mother came to sit by her bedside. It was essentially the only interaction she had with her mother in her adult life, ever since she left her family’s cycle of extreme poverty and abuse to go to college on a scholarship and then moved to New York to become a writer.

I don’t know how Elizabeth Strout manages to write characters that feel 100% fully formed from the first sentence they speak, but it’s really amazing. And her writing is always warm and simple on the surface, but layered with emotion and nuance underneath. She’s cozy and moving at the same time. This book is no different; the depth of Lucy’s relationships not only with her mother but also her ex-husband, her children, her brother and father, and even her West Village neighbors are rich with joy, pain, and humanity. She also deftly tackles the complexities and conflicting emotions of changing class, breaking free from a familial cycle of poverty.

This is a super fast read — less than 4 hours on audio at 1x, but it’s worth it. If you loved Olive Kitteridge, you’ll love this. But it’s also different enough that I think you might love it even if Olive wasn’t your jam. I’m very much looking forward to reading more from Amgash!