I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

As I entered this book into Goodreads, I found out this is book #3 of the Amgash series. Which, now things are making sense. I found the writing off putting because the author kept making comments "I wrote about this in my last book." I could not figure out what they were talking about. Now, I get it.

Lucy Barton is a writer and the 1st ex-wife of William. They have remained friends through his 2nd and 3rd marriage - no particular reason, they just do. Lucy is there to support William when his 3rd wife ups and moves out and takes their daughter with her. As William is tracing his family history, he is surprised to find a family secret and asks Lucy to make the journey from NYC to Maine to look into this detail. Lucy decides sure, I will go, because why not. The book is a journey through the discovery of the secret and how these two people, who could not stay married, stay friends.

What is a marriage? Lucy and William spend time together even after they’re divorced. William still sees Lucy as his ‘person’, his comfort. When two people are married, they may not always live together, but they never really part, either. I recommend not reading this before reading My Name is Lucy Barton and Everything is Possible. Lucy’s background is to understanding her relationship with William and her children. I saw so much of myself in Lucy. Her upbringing in a small town, stuck in a small house growing up with people so different than she was who couldn’t love her. The kindness of a guidance counselor who drove her to college in a city far away. The city that took her in, where she felt more at home than anywhere else, though never quite ‘at home’ except in the company of William just before they were married. She loves her children but was unloved as a child. This story - and mine - isn't unique or special. Elizabeth Strout somehow put into words the experience and feelings of so many of us who choose to change our lives because we have no other choice. Special thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advance egalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story in Oh William! is told in the distinctive voice of Lucy Barton. The narrative is at times disjointed, repetitive, stuttering, and awkward. It is also honest, raw, and deeply relatable.

The book is an exploration of Lucy's relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt, a seventy-one-year-old scientist (parasitologist) and professor who still goes to the laboratory every day but is keenly conscious of the fact that his younger colleagues are bypassing him. In the years after Lucy learned of his philandering and left him, William remarried twice and, as the story opens, is living with his much younger third wife, Estelle, with whom he has a daughter, Bridget. William did not want more children, but he loves Bridget deeply, as he does his two older daughters with Lucy, both of whom are married. Lucy is now sixty-four years old and a published author. Her second husband, David, died recently and she is grieving. Early in the book, Lucy admits that William, her husband for twenty years, "has always been a mystery to me -- and to our girls as well." But she also reveals that "William is the only person I ever felt safe with. He is the only home I ever had" even though there were times during the marriage that she "loathed him." William is the son of a German prisoner of war who, during World War II, was transported to one of four camps in remote areas of Maine to work in the potato fields. There, he met and fell in love with William's mother, Catherine, who was, at the time, married to a potato farmer.

As Oh Wiliam! opens, William and Lucy meet occasionally in a diner for coffee. Two years ago, during one such meeting, he told her he had been experiencing night terrors. One involved his late mother, Catherine, who seemed to be with him, hovering. Some time later, Estelle gifted him a subscription to an online ancestry site. It revealed that Catherine had another child two years before William was born, fathered by her first husband, the potato farmer. William had no idea he had an older sister, Lois, and has been unable to locate a death certificate for her. Rather, he discovers that she married in 1969, and had children and grandchildren. At first, he refuses to believe it because he cannot understand why he was never told about Lois as a child. Where was she while he was growing up? And more importantly, did his mother abandon her own child? How could she do such a thing?

A few months later, William asks Lucy to come to his apartment right away. Worried about him, she agrees. When she arrives, she learns that William returned from a conference in San Francisco to find a hand-written note from Estelle announcing that she has moved out. She informs William that he is "kind of unreachable a lot. But you're a good man. You just seem faraway at times. I mean a lot of times." Lucy spends the afternoon with William and they go out to dinner, over which William acknowledges that he does have an older sister. And she must have been about a year old when his mother abandoned her. A week later, William asks Lucy to accompany him to Maine for a few days. He explains he has located Lois' address and wants to just "go look." Lucy, still mourning David and lonely, agrees because she also still cares deeply for William and wants to help him find answers about his family, especially Catherine, with whom Lucy had a complex, but loving relationship.

Lucy shares her innermost thoughts and feelings about her life and relationships. Events and mentions of various other characters stir up her memories, and she details how she and William met, fell in love, and what being married to him was like. She reveals the isolation she has always felt, in part due to her atypical childhood. She explains that she feels invisible in the world "in the deepest way," even though she knows that she truly isn't, in no small measure because she is a mother -- and she adores her daughters. Even as a successful author, she feels the weight of her own childhood bearing down upon her at times.

The road to Maine turns out to be paved with little epiphanies. Their fondness for each other is evident (they still refer to each other by the nicknames they used when married -- she is "Button" and he is "Pillie"), but they also still get on each other's nerves. He wears khaki pants that are far too short and she resents his insensitivity to her needs, while he gripes that she seems to always be hungry but never eats anything. The trip reminds her "what a hideous thing marriage was for me at times those years with William . . . Intimacy became a ghastly thing." She recalls the ways in which William, a man who has always remained emotionally detached and unavailable to the women with whom he has been involved, betrayed her during their marriage and how she responded to his duplicitous behavior, as well as the times that William acted like a spoiled and petulant child.

With Lucy at his side, William confronts the truth about his family -- his father was a member of the Hitler Youth and his mother was not who she wanted the world to think she was. In fact, it was his father's background that caused Lucy's family to reject William and refuse to attend their wedding. She examines why she "felt a little bit like things were not entirely real," beginning on the day she married William at the country club to which his mother belonged, and how the feeling persisted during the entirety of the marriage. They navigate to Catherine's childhood home, a place William has never before seen, and what they find provides new context to Catherine's habits and actions. They also find their way to the address William found for Lois, the former Miss Potato Blossom Queen. Indeed, she still lives in the cozy home, having been widowed five years ago. Will the siblings enjoy a happy meeting?

Oh William! is a meditation on marriage, family, and connectedness. Strout's seemingly effortless storytelling brings Lucy and William vividly to life and invests readers in their well-being. Because Lucy and William have two daughters, their lives are always going to be, to some extent, intertwined. The story is an argument for the proposition that love and affection linger long after intimate relationships end. Their daughters are puzzled by their parents' road trip, and one of them even asks if Lucy and William are going to get back together, but Lucy assures her that will not happen. Still, years after their divorce and marriages to other partners, Lucy's feelings about William remain conflicted and multi-layered. Through Lucy, Strout contemplates whether it is possible to ever really know another person and, if not, whether that really matters, in the long run. Is it perhaps possible to form an unbreakable connection with someone that will withstand myriad little aggravations, large betrayals, and divorce? Do forgiveness and acceptance of the fact that "we are all mythologies, mysterious" bring peace, and permit us to escape that feeling of "unreality" that Lucy experienced for so many years? Stout's unembellished consideration of those questions is engaging, poignant, and emotionally resonant.

This is a continuation of Ms. Strout's Lucy Barton books and I thin k, my favorite. Although there are constant references to the previous books, there is just enough explanation, but the hard to read stuff was left out. Lucy is older but more mellow and she is like a warm blanket that you can snuggle down with. Not much actually happens and most of it is to her ex-husband William, but listening to her tell it she is an integral part of the story. I wonder if there will be more to continue and finish Lucy's story?

“thought to myself: William is the only person I ever felt safe with. He is the only home I ever had.”

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the free review copy. Ann Bogel described Lucy Barton's voice as "wistful" and that is a spot on description of the narrative, which is also evident in the perfect title. As Lucy reflects back on her life with her husband William, their ups and downs, she takes the reader on her journey of hopes, dreams, disappointments, and successes.

This novel is perfect when you're in the mood for a quiet, reflective character study.

This poignant novel about a marriage gave me a lot to think about. It deserves a slow reading so that you can digest the sentiments expressed and absorb them to your own life. Oh William! is a wonderful novel.

Short synopsis: Lucy Barton is grieving the recent death of her husband David, and goes with her ex-husband William to unlock some family secrets.

My thoughts: I didn’t realize this was part of a series. I have heard really great things about “My Name is Lucy Barton” but I haven’t read it. I feel like this book was somewhat confusing not having known the characters previously. I may have to read the previous stories to truly understand and respect this one.

It goes through the grief process, and human condition, and the way we view the people in the world around us.

The writing is somewhat disjointed and confusing, but it could be due to me not knowing the previous books. It almost reads as a memoir or biography, the characters feel so real.

Note: I suggest reading the other books first!

I adored this; it was the right book at the right time for me. It's a reflective, often wistful narrative, voiced by Lucy Barton about her first husband William, whom she has—against all odds—remained friends with after their marriage ended many years before. I blew through this in two days because I couldn't stop listening to Lucy's thoughtful, sometimes arresting thoughts about what makes relationships succeed or fail, what it means to be a family, how one conversation can change a relationship and even a life, and how a single revelation about a person may transform our understanding of who they are.

Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors. Every book is a gem. I highly recommend this book and author.
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher. This is my honest and personal review.

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.

This is the first book I have read from this author and I really appreciated this author's ability to really define and elaborate on the human condition. I found Lucy though extraneously wordy and that she kept describing the world and the people around her, however reached no real point in a lot of her dialogues. The ending was the closest that she came to really detail her role and how she felt during her marriage to William. I am giving this author major credit for such adept knowledge at what makes people tick and what brings people together and tears them apart. Lucy was definitely a complex character, however at the end of the day, I did not see identification of her role as the wife and friend to her ex husband. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley. I would really like to read more from this author.

This is Strout's third book that considers Lucy Barton. Lucy feels both invisible and "marked" due to her difficult childhood/upbringing. Now 63 years of age, she is still learning about herself and growing as a person through her reflections on various interactions from the past and the present. Although this is the third book about Lucy, I don't think that it is important that you've read the previous books. This one focuses on Lucy and some experiences that relate to her former husband, William, with whom she shares two daughters. Although no longer married, they have continued to play a role in each other's lives and they remain quite close. The book is broken into two parts and involves some major events in William's life, as well as touching upon numerous past events and Lucy's reflections on them.

Elizabeth Strout is such an amazing writer. Even when you don't share a lot in common with her characters, you can identify with some of their experiences and seeing glimpses of feelings or thoughts that you may share with those characters. I find Strout's writing to be so insightful and I always cannot wait to read more by her.

Thanks to Random House, the author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I loved this book, the characters, everything. What a great story, but the characters were the treasures for me.

I was so happy to be back with Lucy Barton, this time getting to know her ex husband, William, and his history as well as their replationship.

Elizabeth Stewart is one of the greatest writers of our time, and keeps that title with this book. Character-driven books are my thing-there’s no big plot that happens during this book, but so much more. Lucy is just an average person. William is just an average person. But Stewart is able to dive deep into their thoughts and memories, creating vivid, multidimensional characters and providing thought provoking insights into all relationships.

If you’re looking for a page turner with a big plot twist, skip this book. If you’re looking for a fascinating deep dive into people’s lives, relationships, and the human condition, this book is for you.

Wow did I dislike this book. The writing is excellent but the content and flow just really bored me. I didn’t find any of the characters redeemable and definitely not William although certainly with the infidelity that’s the point in his case. I didn’t know when I read this that it’s actually a follow up and perhaps that was the problem from the start, maybe if I had known the characters before I would find some merit in writing about them now.

“Oh William “ is the second in a trilogy but can be read as a stand alone. I have heard a lot about Elizabeth Stout and thought I would try this one. I am glad I did and will be reading her others. I need to read My name is Lucy Barton as I am sure it will fill in the gaps that I don’t know.. The way she introduces her characters and their thoughts captures real emotions. Her loneliness is so relatable and her self discovery along with Williams is clearly descriptive of the dealings and secrets we all have in life.
Lucy is a widow but was divorced from William. They have stayed friends and William also remarried. The story tells of how we struggle through life to come to make sense of relationships and our own thoughts.
I enjoyed the book although at times I found it slow reading. I would recommend it and I will be reading both the first and third book.

Very much enjoyed--an honest look at relationships, and Elizabeth Strout's writing is great, as always.

I hesitate to give anything written by Elizabeth Strout only four stars. That being said, I certainly did enjoy this book. At times it was a bit wordy, and I probably would’ve liked a bit more plot and character development. That being said she is still one of my all-time favorite authors.

I found that the story was all over the place. The premise was not clear and the characters were never really developed.