Beautiful story about Lucy Barton. Elegant and compact writing that perfectly conveys the story. ( )

Lucy in the Pandemic
Review of the Random House Kindle eBook, released simultaneously with the original Random House hardcover (September 20, 2022)

When I first heard about the pandemic storyline to Lucy by the Sea, I'll admit that I wasn't that keen to read it. The eerie and often terrifying early months of the COVID era were not something that I felt like re-experiencing in fiction. This is even though I've been a fan of Elizabeth Strout from My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) onwards, which was the first book of her Amgash/Lucy series.
When I saw Lucy by the Sea as the Kindle Deal of the Day for $2.99 on December 31, 2022 though, I did snap it up immediately.

See photograph at https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e4199023522fd15b7ae0ca1518a555ab5d0101ad/0_144_52...
Illustration for The Guardian's review of Lucy by the Sea. Image sourced from The Guardian, September 29, 2022.

This is very much a followup to Oh William, #3 in the Amgash series. Lucy's ex-husband William Gerhardt takes steps to rescue them from the pandemic in New York City by renting a somewhat remote house on the coastline of Maine. Although William insists that he is doing it for the altruistic reason of saving Lucy's life, there may be some more selfish reasons as well. These become clear as the novel progresses.

Moving the action to Maine also allows Strout to bring in other characters from her fictional universe. Bob Burgess (from The Burgess Boys (2013) is also a main character as he helps Lucy and William acclimatize (Jim Burgess is mentioned in passing). We also get a remote update on Olive Kitteridge (from Olive Kitteridge (2008) & Olive, Again (2019)) when Lucy befriends a worker from the senior living facility where Olive is now a resident (and still cranky as ever).

So even though I wasn't enthralled by revisiting the early COVID months, this was still a dramatic and engrossing read with Lucy's compassionate and perceptive observations of her family and new acquaintances. What felt a bit off was that writer Lucy (whom I think of as Strout's proxy) didn't do any writing or reading in the early months (she does begin a story in the latter half). Like William, I started reading everything I could get my hands on. The pandemic also started my reviewing surge in Goodreads as well (about 1000 reviews in the past 3 years), so bizarrely I am indebted to it for at least one good reason. ( )

Lucy By The Sea left me with mixed feelings. Elizabeth Strout is a master at characterisation and the story is simply written and evokes the turmoil and conflict on the lives of Lucy and her family as the Covid pandemic changes their lives. Lucy passive and confused by events allowing her exhusband William to make decisions regarding their wellbeing and those of their daughters. The line "We are only doing what we can to get through" resonated with me and probably I could see a little of myself in Lucy (unfortunately) I didn't love her, but it is a good book. ( )

Wow, another terrific Elizabeth Strout book! Really captured the pandemic. And, oh yeah, she also captures a lot of what it means to be human. ( )

The book we were to read and discuss. I’m glad I read all three, but doing so has taken up a great deal of time. Not sure I can keep this up. I enjoyed the read but hardly remember what happened already. At times, reading about the pandemic cut quite close, and it was odd to hear explanations like “they taped marks on the sidewalk for distancing”. Doesn’t everyone know that? Was that included for posterity? Anyway, odd. The ending feels like there’s another book in the works. ( )