Feb 5

Feb 5 Oh William! (Amgash, #3)

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

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.

So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart.

At the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. “This is the way of life,” Lucy says: “the many things we do not know until it is too late.”

TL;DR Review

The third in Elizabeth Strout’s Amgash series, Oh William! is another quiet but beautiful little novel. I loved how reflective this one was, both similar to and different from the first two.

For you if: You like books about relationships, and those that get really interior with their first-person narrators.

Full Review

Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, Oh William! is the third book in Elizabeth Strout’s Amgash series. If you’ve read Elizabeth Strout before, you know what to expect with this one: a quiet novel that beautifully explores humanity by examining the motivations and relationships between lifelike characters.

Oh William! returns us into the mind and perception of the first Amgash book’s narrator, Lucy Barton. In this book, she’s a bit older; her daughters are adults, and she just lost her second (and much loved) husband. Then her first husband, William, is left by his new wife and finds out his recently deceased mother had a secret daughter before he was born. He asks her to accompany him on a trip to learn more about his half-sister, and she agrees.

I loved the opportunity to come back to a character we know and love and watch her reflect on her own life. Lucy has so much more self-awareness now, but she gains even more of it throughout the book. I also loved how Strout used the relationship between Lucy and William to explore how those we love, we love. in some way forever, even when they aren’t necessarily good for us anymore. And honestly, I think Strout’s ability to pinpoint what motivates people and how they interact is unmatched by any other writer.

I’ve heard that Lucy by the Sea is many people’s favorite Amgash book. I’m excited to read it next!