Oh William review
Lucy Barton is back. Her second husband has died and she is living alone in NYC. Her first husband, William, is retired from teaching at NYU but still goes into his lab at the school daily. When his third wife leaves him and takes their young daughter, he contacts Lucy to commiserate with her.
William’s mother, Catherine, had been an important part of their life when William & Lucy were married. Now Catherine has been dead for some years but was still remembered by Lucy and her 2 daughters.
Before William’s third wife left him, she gave him a membership in an ancestry finder website. What William learns will be surprising to both he and Lucy.
I enjoyed this book as I had the first Lucy book, My Name is Lucy Barton and the author’s next book, Anything is Possible, in which Lucy Barton was a featured character.
I received this ARC from the publisher and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy Barton is back reflecting upon her post-divorce relationship with her first husband, William. Of the three Lucy novels, the first, which introduced the character, was my least favorite, but I may return to it now that the character has been more fully matured (both fleshed out and aged).

"Oh, William" refers to Lucy Barton's ex-husband, with whom she had a 20 + year marriage and an even longer relationship. However, we (and Lucy) learn a lot about Lucy herself and her relationship with her mother, mother-in-law, daughters....and even William's current wife, Estelle. Lucy has the advantage of being a mature woman seeing the total picture, with the wisdom gained from over 60 years of hindsight. Even though they are no longer married, William still turns to Lucy in stressful times. They each still have good relationships with their adult daughters, yet I loved that much of the conversation with these daughters was about the absent parent. It was obvious that they all still cared very much about each other. William has received some startling news about his family history, and choses to have Lucy help him sort it out. The findings reveal a history that provides a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationship. Our history is such a part of who we are.
I loved this book, as I have loved almost everything Elizabeth Strout has written. I sometimes feel like Ms Strout writes my thoughts. I find myself thinking, “Yes, that’s it!” so often while reading.
Please excuse me as I go recover from the book hangover that finishing this lovely book has left me languishing in. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this advance copy in return for an honest review.
#OhWilliam #NetGalley

I haven’t read the other books with this character and often wondered if that would have been useful. I was intrigued about Lucy’s childhood in particular. Overall though it was well written with interesting characters. It’s a slight but slice of life story that I enjoyed. Bigger fans of Strout may be more enthusiastic.

In this wonderful, delightful novel Lucy Barton reflects back on the seventy plus years of her life. After her ex-husband's third wife leaves him, Lucy accompanies William on a trip to Maine where he discovers secrets about his beloved mother that shatter his peace of mind. (And I didn't like the first Lucy Barton book)

Oh William by Elizabeth Strout

The name Lucy Barton may be familiar to you if you are an Elizabeth Strout fan. Oh William gives us a look at Lucy’s life going forward.

A stream of consciousness story of Lucy’s loves and losses, we come to see her struggles with ex-husband William. He’s a nice enough guy and father of her now-grown children. A relationship must be maintained. But how far do you take that? Truths revealed can hurt.

We also find that Lucy is still wrestling with her cold, unloving mother, and yet carries on, being a good mother to her own two daughters. We get inside Lucy’s head in this novel, maybe helping us to sort out our own relationship conflicts.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #RandomHouse for the ARC.

I choose Oh William, by Elizabeth Stout, with eager anticipation, I was excited to start and by midway through was struggling with this one, At times the story seemed to wander aimlessly through situations in Lucy's life and I found myself thinking who cares (with inner eye-rolling). I pushed on to finish and since doing so have found that I care. I find myself thinking back and now need to go back and read (reread some) of Stout's earlier books to see the background of this story and the relationships that resulted. While it seems that most agree that this is a stand-alone novel, I think it best enjoyed with a background set by Stout in earlier novels involving Lucy Barton.

4 1/2 stars! I couldn't put it down! For the cohort who will read every novel from Strout, the continuation of Lucy Barton's life in Oh William is a deeply satisfying read. Barton's first husband,, William is going through a crisis and carries Lucy along for the ride. Lucy has just lost her second husband, with whom she was well matched and deeply grieves. It's another slice of life book addressing existential themes, Lucy's inner life, family life, and small town, rural community. Fans of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead books will appreciate this reflective novel that includes characters from previous books. This is part of a 3-book series, so I suggest you start with My Name is Lucy Barton, reading them in order. There are also allusion to characters in The Burgess Boys and Oliver Kitteridge. I was lucky to receive receive an Advance Reader ebook.

Oh William!
Elizabeth Strout
Penguin Random House,
Available October 19, 2021

Elizabeth Strout's latest book, Oh William! does not disappoint. How could it? She is a master writer and storyteller. Her characters are eminently relatable in their simultaneous human frailty and strength.

To those familiar with Ms. Strout's work, Oh William! is a continuation of the story of the character Lucy Barton introduced in My Name is Lucy Barton (published January 2016). It is not necessary to have read that book or any of Ms. Strout's previous titles in order to enjoy her newest offering, however. Each work stands firmly and proudly alone.

William Gerhardt is the first husband of Lucy with whom she had two daughters, Chrissy and Becka. In the interim since their divorce, Lucy married and lived very happily with a cellist named David who died shortly before the time period covered in the book. William is on his third marriage to a vivacious younger woman named Estelle with whom he had a 10-year-old daughter Bridget. Lucy, her daughters and their husbands, were included in the lives of William and his most recent family, especially for holidays and other celebratory events.

Lucy walked into the Gerhardt kitchen at a party to over hear Estelle, a very fourth-rate part-time actress, ask a male guest just how bored he was. The intimacy of the vocal tone disturbed Lucy and as it would happen, for good reason. Shortly thereafter, Estelle abruptly left William - without forewarning, taking what she wanted from the apartment including their daughter Bridget and only somewhat explained herself in a letter. William called Lucy, who along with their two daughters, responded to his plight and offered what love and support they could. As they had remained civil and actually somewhat warmly cordial to each other since their divorce, it was inevitable that with Lucy's grief over the loss of David and William's hurt over the harsh exit of Estelle that they would support each other.

The growth of their friendship is a delight to behold in the remaining pages of the story. Estelle gifted William with a subscription to a website to research his ancestry and as he had loads of time after she left, he logged on and got the surprise of his life. His mother Catherine had a daughter who was one year old when she, Catherine, left her first husband, a Maine potato farmer, to run away with a German POW who had worked on the farm during WWII. Immediately upon getting the letter from Wilhelm, the POW, that he was coming back to America, Catherine fled her husband's farm, ran to the train station and to NYC to start a new life. She never mentioned the half-sister to William. The two of them, William and Lucy, take a trip to Maine to scout out the area that Catherine came from and where the half-sister, Lois, lived her entire life. It is an emotional blitzkrieg for William and Lucy both.

I found two themes in this book. As in My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author illustrates how destructive poverty is to human lives, that it is much more than lack of money but a deprivation of the lives, the very soul/spirit, of human beings, affecting their personalities, self-worth and self-image throughout their existence. They tend to pass this on to their children and the cycle is rarely broken. The other theme is that of what maturity does to us, haunting us with the knowledge that we could/should have handled some things differently in our relationships. It also gives us insights into others' behaviors and choices as well as our own and might make us forgive what others' lack of honesty did to our lives. Ms. Strout writes of these things much more eloquently than I can.

If you want a read that will hold your attention, that you can identify with (no matter what your age), I highly recommend this title. In the barren desert that American publishing has become over the past decade, I found Oh William! to be an oasis.

5 stars - Maggie Gust - 07/17/2021

Note to publisher: Also posted on Goodreads on this date - thank you very much for allowing me to read this book!

elizabeth strout has the ability to make the ordinary, a little less so with her writing. lucy barton is now in her 60’s and is reflecting on her life and the people around her with such beautiful details, you can’t help but feel along with her.

I adore Ms. Strout's work, and while my favorite of her characters will always be "Olive", I also enjoy Lucy Barton a lot, having read the prior two works about her. In "Oh William", we find Lucy later in life (late 60's) and examine her relationship with her ex-husband, William. Even though they had both married again (somewhat unsuccessfully), they always stayed in each others lives and are close... enough for Lucy to accompany William on an family visit back to where it all started... Maine. I really loved how we get a LOT of Lucy reflecting back on her life and how her traumatic childhood shaped and affected the rest of her life & relationships. This is a very character-driven story, but I expected no less. I enjoyed both the prose & characters quite a bit, and recommend it highly! Many thanks to the author, publisher & NetGalley for the ARC, which publishes on Oct. 19, 2021. Will post this review on Amazon on pub date...

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded interesting to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

I loved living inside Lucy Barton's head, and experiencing her thoughts about her former husbands (one recently dead, the other -- the William of the title -- divorced years ago but still very much in her life), her two grown daughters, her work, her childhood, her anxieties and fears. Maybe it's because I'm older now, maybe it's because Lucy is older, maybe it's because Elizabeth Strout is older -- whatever the reason, I believe this book is by far the most compelling of the three novels in which Lucy appears. The voice is restrained and poetic, and while very little actually happens, I believe it will stay with me for a long time. In fact, I want to go re-read it right now.

I am sorry to say that I couldn't get more than halfway through this book. It was wonderfully-written and quite interesting ..... but the details of their lives just went too far into the weeds, even for me. I got tired of having the story basically start over with every chapter, and even though I really wanted to see how the author tied everything together, I just couldn't come up for air long enough to keep pushing through.

Strout is a gifted writer whose characters are beautifully drawn and her poignant observations of life are dead on.

Focusing on Lucy Barton’s first husband, William, we also learn a little more about Lucy, who is now in her sixties. Fans of Strout will find some familiar characters mentioned here including the Burgess Boys.

It is a quick, engaging book, although I’m not sure it even went anywhere. I liked it, however, didn’t find it an equal of the Olive Kitteridge books or even the earlier Lucy Bartons.

This book can be enjoyed on its own, but it may be more meaningful if one has read My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible.

This book is narrated by Lucy Barton, who is in her sixties, recently widowed from her second husband, and still dear friends with her first. She divorced William, with whom she has had two daughters. She and the girls are close. They live in New York City.

Lucy relates the events of her current-day life, with many flashbacks to the earlier days of her marriage to William. Her style is stream-of-consciousness, with some anecdotes ending abruptly and others going into great detail. It’s for the reader to decide what each of them mean, and in this, I grew impatient. I was reading carefully and thoughtfully, but at times, I saw no meaning or connection from the flashback to Lucy in the present.

But most of the flashbacks or vignettes were more meaningful, as when she speaks of feeling invisible, alone, or lost. Her therapist tells her flat-out, early in the book, that she has PTSD from her horrific childhood, but we don’t get any details, only hints. Which were ominous.

Nevertheless, Lucy has achieved over her lifetime the great accomplishment of being able to love others, a miracle, given her childhood (apparently). And on top of that, she is empathetic. Almost too much. Codependent might be another word. As the story unfolds, she breaks the gravitational hold William has on her. Not completely, but somewhat. And this is the result of growth. She is maturing and learning about herself and why she clung to him.

The beauty of this book is in Strout’s empathetic portrayal of the complex humans who populate it, in particular William’s deceased mother who was an influential person in Lucy’s life. However, as Lucy and William explore Caroline’s roots, she turns out to be someone very different from what they both thought, which impacts them. My impression was that it hurt William but helped Lucy evolve. The point of this was to demonstrate Caroline's determination to be in control of her life, as we all do, but that the end product bore little relation to the original version of this complicated woman.

The theme to this novel seemed to be that we shouldn't be too quick to judge, that everyone struggles in their own way. No matter how it looks from the outside, most of us all are just doing the best we can with what we’ve been dealt. And to keep trying. You’re not alone. This was beautiful.

Unfortunately, the character arc is too subtle, the narrative style was a little annoying, and the overall story wasn’t compelling to me. I regret this, as Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Random House via Netgalley in exchange for my review. Elizabeth Strout is such a terrific writer. I picked up this book and had to double check that it wasn't a memoir. Elizbeth just has such a fabulous way of writing her characters so that the reader feels as though though the plot events are happening to them! When I started the book, (still thinking it was a memoir!) I thought I would stop reading as I don't typically enjoy memoir, but I could not stop reading! The pages just flew by. It is really a terrific story, but when you start it, block off some time because you will not be able to stop reading Oh William!

Oh William, Lucy said to herself so many times in this book. Sometimes out of concern, sometimes in dismay and others with affection. Elizabeth Strout writes of Lucy Barton and he ex-husband William as they venture on a road trip to possibly meet his recently discovered relative. This is not a story driven by an external plot, but rather an internal narrative of self discovery and acceptance. Lucy has recently been widowed and William's wife has taken their child and left him. These two hurt and lonely people have always had a bond even if the marriage did not last. On this trip they come to understand much about the other as well as themselves. Their childhood wounds re-opened in the hopes that it will heal with a smaller scar. The story flows naturally from Ms. Strout. It is easy to read and to imagine these characters speaking and acting in just this manner. We see the flaws, the courage, the new found confidence and heartbreak of life as they travel the roads. I enjoyed my time with Lucy and Willam. My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Oh Reader!!
I read this book straight through, caught up in the most intricate weaving together of the family histories that Lucy Barton narrates: what is it we remember and tell ourselves we understand?
Lucy has become a well-known novelist, recently widowed, unmoored after the death of her second husband, feeling a grief that reaches back into her two-decade marriage with her first husband, William, and which encompasses her close connection with their two daughters.
The narrative of Oh William! reads like a novel within a novel, as Lucy begins to search for and unravel the stories of their childhoods, who the generations before them were, and how they became who they are. We see them struggle, we feel their consternation and frustration, lingering fears of the past, facing truths of the present, and what is to follow. What will they choose to do? What would we choose to do?
As Lucy says, “We just do”.

This story is like listening to a friend describing their lives. Although, Lucy who is actually talking about her ex-husband (William) life, a lot of what she talks about makes her realize who she is too. It also seems no matter what has come between William and Lucy, she almost always tries to help him. When Lucy talks about her upbringing she shows why she attach her self to William but also why she left him and her upbringing made her more sympatric about her mother-in-laws situation, but it made her realized that in the end she no longer needed anyone to define her anymore.
I found the storytelling comforting and normal. You know when you have a conversation and you start with one topic and move to another and eventually come back to the original topic that's how the story develops and evolves and ends and it made me feel satisfied about the story but also its ending. I wish there was more.
This is the second book I have read by Elizabeth Strout and both made me happy that I read them.

I want to thank Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for this amazing story.