This was good! I basically read this as Elizabeth Strout's lockdown novel. It's nice to see so many familiar characters but I think I am maybe ready for Elizabeth Strout to try something different...? Actually, who cares, if this is working for her and she wants to keep pumping out Lucy books for the rest of her life, that's fine with me! Nice stark sentences and a good recap of 2020/21. I can definitely see Obama reading this book in order to tap into the vibe of what the U.S. is going through (a very specific group of the U.S., anyway). Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

<i>Grief is a private thing. God, it is a private thing.

"He thought you were just an older white woman writing about older white women."

"My whole childhood was a lockdown. I never saw anyone or went anywhere.

"My Arms Emory story is sympathetic toward a white cop who liked the old president and who does an act of violence and gets away with it. Maybe I shouldn't publish it right now."</i>

"So there was that kind of thing that happened. There were these times, is what I am saying, where the people I met were interesting. And their stories interwove!"

This is Elizabeth Strout’s ninth book (all of which take place in the same fictional world) after: her 1998 debut “Amy and Isabelle”; her second novel “Abide With Me” (2006); her first interlinked short-story collection about the eponymous “Oliver Kitteridge” (2008) which won the Pulitzer Prize she later followed up with “Olive, Again” (2019); “The Burgess Boys” (2013); her Booker longlisted “My Name is Lucy Barton” (2016) which introduced perhaps her most popular and successful character (a successful but insecure novelist from an extremely hard and poor upbringing) which was then followed up in the “Amgash” series by the interlinked short stories “Anything Is Possible” (2017), and the novel “Oh William” (2021) about Lucy’s first husband.

This book is ostensibly the fourth in the Amgash series and a pretty direct sequel to “Oh, William” but is (as the opening quote to my review shows) best seen as having two other key aspects.

The first aspects is an explicit attempt to engage with “these times” – this is very explicitly a COVID/lockdown novel (albeit I would say with mixed success) and to a lesser extent a nuanced (and for me more successful) attempt to engage with other National events during lockdown.

Starting with COVID - the ostensible plot of the novel is that William who, using his scientific background realises early on the threat of “the virus” (even if like most scientists he largely misunderstands the modes of transmission) insists on taking Lucy away from New York to Maine in March 2020, where the two of them then live, re-explore their relationship and worry about the marriages as well as the safety of their two grown up daughters while navigating the reality of lockdown.

Lucy’s own insecurity alongside her novelistic drive to try to understand and empathise not just with other but with herself and her past, is given greater space during lockdown and the novel conveys really well the sense of uncertainty and reflection that lockdown bought to many people

The actual treatment of COVID (or as the book insists on calling it “the virus”) I found less successful. Firstly, William manages to capture a rather annoying mix of complete COVID paranoia with extreme privilege – he for example goes completely mad when his daughter’s in-laws say they are moving back from Florida which will contaminate his asthmatic son-in-law, while at the same time happily moving to a handy spare home in Maine (and even switching number plates to hide that he has come from out-of-state). Now Strout is entitled to write unlikeable or arrogant characters but I think more damningly from a novelistic viewpoint the book suffers from what I call the Literary Fecundity Fallacy – in the same way that characters in novels traditionally fall pregnant every time they have unplanned sex, every character in the novel who takes the slightest risk with COVID tests positive within a week, often ends up in hospital and frequently dies.

Moving on to the wider political aspects – Lucy watches (or in many cases is unable to watch – her guilty willingness to turn away from unpleasant situations is key theme) the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests and then the Capitol Riots and while at one stage horrified at what she sees/can’t watch is also able to remember how she was made to feel at times in her childhood and the resentment it produced in her and at least have some empathy with what might drive them (in a way which is refreshing in a literary fiction culture that seems to take pleasure in demonising Trump or Brexit supporters) – even if she ultimately feels drawn to correctly condemn their excesses.

"I had felt my childhood humiliation so deeply again. And what if I had continued to feel that my entire life, what if all the jobs I had taken in my life were not enough to really make a living, what if I felt looked down upon all the time by the wealthier people in this country, who made fun of my religion and my guns. I did not have religion and I did not have guns, but I suddenly felt that I saw what these people were feeling; they were like my sister, Vicky, and I understood them. They had been made to feel poorly about themselves, they were looked at with disdain, and they could no longer stand it. I sat for a long time on the couch in the dark; there was a half moon that shone over the ocean. And then I thought, No, those were Nazis and racists at the Capitol. And so my understanding—my imagining of the breaking of the windows—stopped there."

The second aspect is an attempt, even more explicitly than in her previous books to interweave her all of her previous books together. Characters from literally all of her previous books appear and incidents (often the key incidents) from them are recounted and remembered. Most explicitly Bob Burgess from the 2013 novel plays an absolutely key role in the novel – allowing William and Lucy to stay in a seaside Maine house that he manages for a client and forming an unexpectedly deep friendship with Lucy.

The infamous Olive makes a walk on appearance as Lucy forms a relationship with a woman Charlene she meets when the both volunteer at a food pantry (I think that is a food bank) – Charlene cleaning in the care home where Olive lives together with Isabelle from Strout’s debut (as explained in “The Friend” from “”Olive Again”). Less obviously though Katherine – Tyler Caskey’s daughter from “Abide With Me” appears as a friend of Bob’s and she and Bob suddenly realise a huge childhood link between them – a link which having not read either book I am not sure was already known (and like so much of this novel the recounting here function as something of a Wiki guide to Strout’s oeuvre) or whether it has been cleverly inserted here.

Charlene is a Trump-voting, anti-vaxxer and brings us back to the idea of Lucy understanding something of what drives those different to her, something which comes to her even more sharply when she spots a white policeman and writes a short story imagining his life “This is the question that has made me a writer; always that deep desire to know what it feels like to be a different person. And I could not stop feeling a fascination for this man, who seemed to be in his fifties, with a decent face and strong-looking arms. In a way that is not uncommon for me as a writer, I sort of began to feel what it was like to be inside his skin. It sounds very strange, but it is almost as though I could feel my molecules go into him and his come into me.” and later ………….

"That night I said to William, who was reading a book, “My Arms Emory story is sympathetic toward a white cop who liked the old president and who does an act of violence and gets away with it. Maybe I shouldn’t publish it right now.” William looked up and said, “Well, it might help people understand each other. Just publish it, Lucy.” I was quiet for a long time. Then I said, “I used to tell my students to write against the grain. Meaning: Try to go outside your comfort level, because that’s where interesting things will happen on the page.” William kept reading his book. He said, “Just put the story out there.” But I knew I could not trust myself—or other people. But mostly I could not trust myself: to know what to do these days."

I am glad Elizabeth Strout has more trust in her readers and herself – for this overall, and despite my behavioural and fecundity reservations, is an excellent addition to an increasingly impressive canon and one which ultimately in addition to all of the above is a moving exploration of being a mother of adult children who you see making the same mistakes you made (something which largely drives the plot and thoughts in the second half of this enjoyable novel).

An engaging human interest tale about loneliness, love, and friendship played out on the coast of Maine. Set during the recent (current) pandemic and time of socio-political turbulence in the US, it might jar some readers whose emotional scars haven’t yet healed. However, I feel that the story’s central theme is tenacity in the face of adversity, which is a strong takeaway message. I hadn’t read other works in the series, but this didn’t detract from the story, which works well as a standalone.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Elizabeth Strout novel and I’m not sure if I was meant to read the rest of the Lucy Barton series beforehand but I felt that this story stood perfectly well on its own. The writing is beautiful – simple, heartfelt and honest. It is much more character driven than plot driven – not much of consequence happens, but it never felt like it dragged. And while it is essentially a story about the pandemic, it came at it from a different angle to anything I’ve read before. It was much more of a reflective story, and I found it really interesting living the pandemic experience from Lucy’s perspective. I think I would have appreciated reading the other books in the series as there seems to be a lot of backstory between Lucy and William, and Lucy’s impoverished childhood, so perhaps with this context I would have felt a greater connection to the characters. Despite this I think Strout is an incredible writer.

Lucy by the Sea is all about one womens' experiences during the first US covid lockdown, It is also about complex family relationships and difficult emotions such as grief. To be honest I found the writing style a bit dry and I don't want to re-visit those times. This is a book that many people will really enjoy and relate to especially if you are from the US, but it really wasn't for me

First of all, I will say this: I am not an Elizabeth Strout aficionado. In fact, the only books of hers that I have read are the now 4 books about Lucy Barton. This fourth book in that “sort of series” is pretty much a straight sequel to the preceding “Oh, William”. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend reading this new book without some awareness of the three books that come before it: I think it might work standalone but reading it that way would miss out on all the backstory that has grown up through the other books and the experience would be poorer for that.

This new book is the story of what happens to Lucy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The set up for the novel is that William, Lucy’s ex-husband, realises very quickly that the “the virus” could be catastrophic and he bullies Lucy into leaving New York for Maine where he believes they can ride out the pandemic.

I need to say this: initially reading this book unsettled me because I was plunged again into a world where it was dangerous to touch people or get at all close to them, a world where you washed your hands and your clothes when you came back from the shops. What unsettled me most was realising that the disease is more prevalent now but that that lifestyle already feels a bit distant (although I should comment that I am still being a lot more careful than most people around me and, potentially, reaping the benefit of that by still being COVID-free).

The COVID elements of the book are very good at capturing the strangeness of those months of lockdowns and isolation.

But the book isn’t all about COVID. There are two other streams in the story. In one, we track Lucy’s relationship with William as they both hide away in a house in Maine. This part of the story incorporates their children who have their own share of experience of COVID, relationship issues, family problems etc.. In the other part of the story, we pull away from Lucy’s family to see a wider picture of non-COVID news affecting America through the pandemic. Here, the book engages with, for example, the murder of George Floyd and the Capitol riots.

I should say this: Lucy Barton is a novelist and talks several times about how important it is for her to see things as other people see them. This, for me, is a characteristic of Strout’s writing through all these books: Lucy writes, ”This is the question that has made me a writer; always that deep desire to know what it feels like to be a different person.” And Strout has a way of taking us into a person’s character, an ability to show the good and the bad without judgement.

I will finish by saying this: this is my favourite of the four Lucy Barton books I have now read. There is something about Strout’s writing that means I feel completely relaxed as I read and that’s sometimes a very welcome feeling from a novel, to feel that you are in safe hands.

It feels incredibly familiar being with Lucy and William again.
As if old friends sat down and just started chatting.
Living every horrible moment of the early days of the pandemic and beyond.
It was great to get to see other sides of the family, and hoe they dealt with things, and other minor characters popping in to flesh out the story to more than just this family.
I don't think there will ever be enough Lucy Barton books, or for that matter Olive Kitteridge ones

I enjoyed the first Lucy Barton book and really enjoyed the second, but the third was really boring. It was about her dull ex husband William and I gave up long before the end. Unfortunately this fourth Lucy Barton book is still more tedious rubbish concerning William only this time there's a COVID backdrop. Wunnerful. Like Oh, William, I abandoned this one long before the end. Strout's a fine writer but her Lucy Barton books need to move away from this obsession with the ever-dreary character of William to be even somewhat compelling again.

Lucy Barton is back! Lucy by the Sea is a wonderful exploration of how the much-loved character, Lucy, fares during the first Covid lockdown in the US - specifically New York City and Maine. It poignantly explores difficult family relationships, grief, worry but also, love and what is needed in life to make someone feel happy. It is fascinating to read a familiar fictional character deal with the issues many of us were dealing with during the Covid pandemic. Because the character is reappearing in new novels, it feels as if we (the readers) are growing up together with Lucy.

Highly recommend for all fans of Elizabeth Strout and those looking to explore how the Covid pandemic is beginning to be reflected in novels.

PS. How exciting to get a side-ways peek of the indomitable Olive Kitteridge in the pages of Lucy By the Sea!

What an absolute treat, Lucy Barton returns with her ex husband William. I haven't been able to deal with novels set in lockdown however in Elizabeth Strout's safe hands I've returned and travelled through lockdown with Lucy and William. Thank goodness Lucy has William, his science background ensures that Lucy doesn't end up on a European tour in the middle of the pandemic, instead William 'saves' Lucy and his daughters, he gets them out of New York to safety, Lucy is whisked away to Maine with William and experiences the tragedy of the pandemic, the BLM campaigns and the January 6th attack on the capitol. However, we experience it through Lucy's eyes, her thoughts and her conversations with the people she connects with. Strout is the master of seemingly simple prose and fiction and yet there is so much bubbling beneath the surface, the writing has such a light touch and yet difficult subjects are dealt with throughout the book. What strikes me about Strout is that she understands what it is to be human, I often wonder how much of Lucy is Elizabeth. If you love fiction just read Elizabeth Strout.