9780241508176 Oh William Strout

“Oh William!” Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout is a very talented writer, who can seemingly say, in less than 240 pages, what some writers might take twice as long to recount. Once again the author is entertaining us with a further segment of the life of Lucy Barton and of her ex-husband William. NB currently only available as a hardback.

This third outing of Lucy is very much focused on William, their life when together, their two daughters, who feature regularly, and their relationship after divorce. How he, in later life, with another marriage floundering discovers that he has a sister, Lois, apparently left behind by his mother when she ran off to join William’s father an ex-German P.o.W. We learn a lot about William’s early life, and of Catherine’s, his mother and her background, and why she abandoned her first family.

The fulcrum of the story is William’s journey back to his mother’s home town to trace his half-sister, and the author’s descriptions of the local folk, and surroundings in rural Maine are very telling. Lucy recently widowed, grieving and lonely, agrees to help William, and accompanies him on his journey. The trip is described in detail not only the Maine locality but their own relationship, hence the subtlty of the title.

There is no need to have read “My name is Lucy Barton” or “Anything is Possible” to enjoy this book, but if you decide to read this uninitiated without the pleasures of the two earlier outings of Lucy, I reckon you will be wanting to acquire them and catch up on the rest of her life story. One of my books of 2021.