Oh William! By Elizabeth Stout introduces us to Lucy Barton, from My Name is Lucy Barton, again. In this story, Lucy "...recounts her complex, tender relationship with William, her first husband--and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidant. Recalling their college years, through the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a decades-long partnership."

Though Lucy and William are divorced, they share two adult daughters and remain friendly and close with one another. This story is mostly Lucy reminiscing about her life, her struggles and successes though she is hard on herself. I did not know that this was the third book in a series--I hadn't read the previous two but I don't think you really need to unless you want more backstory on Lucy. With that said, I think if I had read the previous books, I would have been more connected to these characters. Regardless, it was a good story that I enjoyed.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing, for an e-ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

This is a surprisingly complex book about relationships, long term marriages, longer term friendships written in a thoughtful and engaging style. I have not read the first two books and I still very much enjoyed this particular part of Lucy Barton's introspection as she enters her 60's. The style, stream of consciousness as Lucy moves through her day and reflects on the many events big or little that they remind her of, gives the reader the feeling of dropping in on an old friend. Sometimes you laugh with Lucy and her reminiscence and sometimes you cry, just as in life.

I just finished Oh William!, the third novel in Elizabeth Strout's " Lucy Barton series". When I was asked to do a review, I had not realized there was a book after My Name is Lucy Barton., I went back and read that one first( titled Anything is Possible) before reading this current novel. (I read the first one 2 years ago) I think though you still could read just this one if you had not read the priors because Strout does excellent recaps throughout the story and you will not feel lost. Her current story is about Lucy Barton and her first husband and how they remained connected even after their divorce. and still lean on another another as they are getting older even after remarriages to other people.. I was really absorbed by their story and history. Story was delivered well and easy to follow.. Thank you #RandomHouse and #Netgallley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. #OhWilliam #ElizabethStrout

I really love Elizabeth Strout's writing style, even though it's so unconventional, and wouldn't enchant any college English professors :)
Oh William is a sweet, sweet book about a continuing relationship between a woman and her ex-husband. Such a gorgeous read about all of the complexities of relationships and how even with people we feel we know intimately, we can never really know anyone. I definitely recommend this one for those who have already dipped into the Lucy Barton books, but, as previous reviews mention, it's a worthwhile standalone as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The continued saga of Lucy Barton and her detailed psychological reflections make for entertaining reading. I specifically enjoyed going back and reviewing the other books to help deepen my understanding of the author's descriptive narration. Still, the book reads as a stand-alone easily. The plot and the character development work effectively and make for a solid story and reading experience. Contrary to my usual reading style, I found myself reading this story a bit more slowly and almost savoring the experience. In the end, "Oh William!" is definitely a worthwhile choice.

I believe if I had read the first in this series I would have enjoyed this book more. Still, I found it charming and sweet.

3 for neutral. Didn’t realize this is in a series, and is not the first book. Will be getting prior books and will update once I’m able to read all. Was confused on aspects, when trying to read and don’t think it’s fair to rate since it could he better when read in order,

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.

I didn't realize this was the third in a series when I picked it up. However, I never felt confused because Lucy gives us enough backstory to keep me up to speed.

The tone is very chatty with Lucy telling us about her life and the complexities of her relationship with her ex-husband. I felt like she is trying to puzzle out the relationship and how she ended up where she is in life. She frequently tells us what she's thinking and how she views the world. It is probably the narrowest view I've ever seen in a novel because almost everything is from Lucy's thoughts. A few conversations are included, but they are still from her POV.

I might be jaded because I kept wondering how she could continue to have a friendship with William after all his affairs. Her view of her late mother-in-law was interesting - I felt like Lucy was off-base and Catherine (the MIL) wasn't as "nice" as she seemed. I also felt like William was dismissive of Lucy too often for her to still feel like he was a rock in her life. Her husband, David, sounded like a much better man - he appreciated Lucy, unlike others.

Lucy is a little naive from growing up in poverty and has felt lost and invisible for her entire life. But we also know she was abused as a child and has the symptoms of PTSD - making her a complex character. I love her relationship with her daughters and how she broke out of the cycle of not showing affection for family. Toward the 3/4 mark, I felt like Lucy was coming to understand herself better. I'm still not sure why she decides to allow a friendship with William.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it!

Oh William! Oh Elizabeth Strout! What a thought provoking, no more like a feeling provoking, look, not just at how well we know each other, but how well we know ourselves. How indelibly our roots and upbringing are entwined with our being and feeling about ourselves. So, too, how those roots plant themselves around our relationships; siblings, spouses, children, even remarkably around those with whom we have more casual relationships, with the thought that we know ourselves and each other completely. Wrong?

Lucy Barton, like most of us, came to this realization later in her life. On a trip with her ex-husband to learn about his family, she finds this commonality in their lives, really all our lives, “we do not know anybody, not even ourselves”, “we are all mysteries”.

This book, written in more of a journal manner, was a quick, but searching work. Lucy and William still connected and together after divorce was a unique way of exploring how little we all know about ourselves and each other.

Thank you NetGalley for this wonderful read and the chance to offer my review.

Oh, I think this is my favorite of Elizabeth Strout except maybe Amy and Isabelle — which was such a treat as I didn’t have expectations. I just finished it tonight, and am sure it will stay with me for a long time, in a good way. So subtle and true.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Michael Hoak at Random House, and Elizabeth Strout for an ARC of this book!**

When Laura Linney inspires you to write the book...you WRITE THE BOOK.

Encouraged by Linney's character study of Lucy Barton for a play, Elizabeth Strout used this idea as a springboard to explore Lucy Barton (first fittingly introduced in My Name Is Lucy Barton) and her marriage to her previous husband William and all that transpired between them over the course of their own relationships, as well as their other marriages. When William approaches Lucy for a favor, the two embark on a quick journey to uncover family secrets and Lucy takes the reader through various glimpses of her past, present, and future with William and their children...with plenty of wistful "Oh, Williams" thrown in throughout. Has she made the right decisions over time to remain true to her ever-changing relationship with William, her previous husbands...or even herself?

As a Strout newbie who hasn't read either of the previous Barton books, I was a bit apprehensive about diving into what is essentially the third installment of this series. However, Strout's writing pulled me in pretty quickly, and Lucy is a character who is a fabulous storyteller---much like the grandmother who can launch from tale to tale without meandering or getting off course. I got a sense of her quickly and her complex feelings for and about William ebbed and flowed, keeping me on my toes.

This book reads like a play in and of itself, and I could almost see the spotlight coming up on Lucy as she addressed the audience from a barstool, moving from vignette to vignette in her life. Where background would certainly be helpful and enhance the reading experience in this case, this book can function as a stand-alone if it catches you just right, and it did work for me. Some sort of emotional connection to Lucy and/or William is pretty much essential for this to happen though, so those with an established bond with Lucy and her life will probably glean even more from this read than I did.

Oh William! gave me pause to reflect on marriage, family, and the trajectory life can take when that delicate balance is disrupted or even thrown off-kilter entirely. Moving and thought-provoking, Oh William! has absolutely inspired me to get to know Lucy Barton better--and to hope that one day we get to see what the next chapter of her story looks like...maybe even on the stage (with none other than the fabulous Laura Linney, I hope!)

4 stars

I did not realize this was a part of a trilogy, so I wish that I had known that before I read this so it made more sense or I was possibly able to connect with the characters better. I found William to be a bit of a boring character and Lucy was a bit hard to follow for me. Not sure if this book was for me, but it was well written and I would definitely read another book by Elizabeth Stout.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review!,
This is my first Elizabeth Strout novel, believe it or not. The publisher description does a good job of describing the books so I will not try to repeat it.
This is going to be on the best seller list. It’s a darling story of familiar characters Lucy Barton and her ex husband William. The story is warm hearted and develops well. The couple stays a close friends even after divorce which is rare indeed. You don’t read Strout for fast paced or daring novels, but warm, touching, character driven plots. Now I want t read more Strout. My patrons will enjoy this!

4.5 stars. This is the third novel in the Lucy Barton series (after My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible), and once again, Elizabeth Stout delivers an introspective, character-driven saga that is beautifully written. Lucy is now in her early 60s and although divorced from her first husband William, he remains her dearest friend as she helps him sort out and deal with his background and family connections. Once again, as in her previous novels, Stout gives Lucy such a unique voice, one that display’s Lucy’s astute observations about the world and people around her, her sharp intuition, and her complete knowledge and understanding of William and all that he has gone and is going through.

This novel is an acute example of literature at its best and is a delight and an inspiration to read.

I had a difficult time deciding how to write this review. This book is well-written: that’s almost a given, considering the author. Elizabeth Strout has a rare and now finely-honed talent at describing ordinary people doing ordinary things in such a way that the reader understands and identifies with even the most unlikeable characters, and cringe-worthy circumstances. I haven’t read the previous ‘Lucy Barton’ novel and didn’t need to. I found this book deeply affecting, but am not entirely glad that I’ve read it. I once again feel like I’m not quite old enough—and definitely not East Coast enough—to identify with the characters or setting. I’m still a California girl at heart, and this book left me with exactly the impression that we’ve always had of the East Coast: it’s a sad, grey place full of sad, grey people who live dreary, depressed lives. If part of me wants to read this book again to learn how the author managed to capture me so thoroughly, drawing me along even though I couldn't identify with the characters and nothing really happened; an equal part of me doesn’t want to: because the story left me feeling isolated and alone and depressed; A grey, hopeless feeling that still descends now, weeks later, when I think about it again. Because that is the underlying current here, the real story being told: no one really understands anyone. We are all stumbling blindly about. All alone.

With every revelation over the their weekend, with every twist, every turn, Lucy sees and understands William, and her own life, differently, through a new lens. Despite their many years together, and the many years they’ve known each other since. She sits beside him in the car, like sitting, trapped, behind the sci-fi mechanical phoropter in the optometrist’s chair. Every time a new piece of glass clicks into place, her view shifts. A new and different string of letters jumps into focus, and the line she was just reading—the life she was just leading—disappears. What Lucy has been squinting at for all these years, what she assumed, what she was sure she knew for sure—and what she’s based her entire life on—changes.
Again. And again. And again…

Lucy—each of us—never really sees the whole picture. Never could. Never can. We never really know the whole of who another person is, the all of the circumstances that shaped their lives, the cause and the extent of the blind spots that dictate what they can and cannot see, can and cannot do, can and cannot be. No matter how long we’ve known them. And Lucy and William have known one another for a very long time.

According to Ms. Strout, we don’t actually, ever, know the all of anybody.
Not even ourselves.

4.0 stars

I received a complimentary Kindle book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to Elizabeth Strout, Random House, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

First off, I have read several books by this author. Her writing style is so interesting! She writes the way that we think and lets us into the characters' minds so much.

However, this book was a bit of a downer and not what I needed during the pandemic. It really took me a while to get into this novel. It was a book that LIKED, but not loved.

Recommend - I suggest that you at least read the FIRST book in this trilogy before starting this book!

I had not read any previous books by Elizabeth Strout and was unfamiliar with these characters that had been featured in prior books. That being said, Ms. Strout was able to portray the complex relationship between Lucy and William. In life relationships are not simple and have many layers that Ms. Strout was able to peel apart.

Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Oh William!’ is a poignant exploration of relationships, trauma, love, and grief, but was too narratively stream-of-consciousness for my taste.

This is the first novel of Strout’s that I’ve read, so I was unfamiliar with her character, Lucy Barton, and had no prior context to said character. I don’t know if reading prior works featuring Lucy would have endeared me to this story more, or if I still would have been put off by the experimental and oft times meandering prose of the book.

It’s written in first person, memoir style. Meta in the sense that Strout is writing as Lucy, who is also a writer. And with that, I expected Lucy’s writing to be more… literary? Or perhaps more structured? I admire the risk that Strout has taken in this novel; it just didn’t land for me.

Where this book shines is in the moments where you feel immersed in the emotions and minds of the characters. This comes in degrees, sometimes with a particularly poignant or revelatory phrase, or a particularly affective flashback. It’s supremely evident in these moments why Strout is such a celebrated writer. I did want to know what happened to these characters, and I was left a little wanting, frankly. But just because the structure wasn’t my personal cup of tea doesn’t mean that it’s not an interesting exercise in craft by an incredibly adept writer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the kind of book I have been waiting for. I have certainly heard of this author and book but haven't had the opportunity to read the first two books in this series. I plan to pick those up soon.

Elizabeth Strout struck a chord with her ability to write so perfectly about human interactions. The characters are so easy to relate to and you can connect even if they are going through things you haven't.

A well written and thought out story, I highly recommend diving into this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Once again, Elizabeth Strout sucks me in! Her characters resonate with me, and I find that I just can't stop reading. I did read the two earlier books in the Lucy Barton series, but it was quite some time ago, and the fact that I didn't have strong, recent memories of them did not in any way hamper my enjoyment of this book. So, while the earlier two books are well worth reading, it isn't necessary to have read them to enjoy this one.

Just as she does in her other books, Strout keys in thoughtfully and empathetically to human nature, and to the people she writes about. They aren't perfect, by a long shot, but they're interesting and ultimately decent, despite their flaws. This is a book to make you contemplate people and their relationships, and I enjoyed it very much.

Definitely a good read!