Elizabeth Strout, Lucy By The Sea

 

- William and Lucy were married for 20 years and had two girls Chrissy and Becka. He is a parasitologist by profession, and she is an author. 

- Covid 19 is starting to hit New York. It’s a time of extreme stress. Here’s what I did not know that morning in March: I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. Chrissy and Becka and their husbands all get Covid and recover. 

- This is a covid novel and a good one. There are many recent books and TV shows that reference the pandemic, but very few that feature it front and centre - the pressure on people's lives, the different way they react, the kindness on show, and also the ugly provincialism. Lucy and William decide to leave New York and go north to Maine to sit out the pandemic. They soon experience the animosity from many locals who don't like New Yorkers undoubtedly bringing covid to their community. 

- There’s much more to this novel than Oh William!, its lightweight predecessor, and thank god for that. In this follow up Strout's prime focus is marriage, children and the close relationships of family and friends. On show is the fragility of it all, including the wider social and political spheres. Covid is exposing it, but it was always there - the ordinary lives of older people infused with tragedy and sadness, and their wounds, memories and grief. 

- Her brother Pete dies of the virus. Her sister Vicky got it but recovered. They had come from a very sad family. It was a sadness that went so deep it was like it was a physical illness. Her daughter Chrissy loses her third pregnancy. Her sister Vicky joins a fundamentalist church and becomes an extreme right winger. ‘We don’t wear masks at church’. 

- Lucy is starting to get more aware of the social unravelling happening in her country - the George Floyd murder, the January sixth Capitol attack, the whisperings of a civil war...I could not stop feeling that life as I had known it was gone. For some reason Strout never mentions Donald Trump. 

- Towards the end of the book Lucy feels she's starting to get old and meaningless. Her kids must be sensing that too as they contact her less and less. And William is now over seventy. The have started to share the same bed and sell their apartments in New York, deciding to buy a house in Maine. This is a huge decision as their longing and love for New York remains strong. 

- The last dozen or so pages of this novel are extremely powerful, and bring it to a very satisfying conclusion. 

- There is a lot more detail in the book than I have mentioned here, and it enriches the whole experience of reading it. I have read all of Elizabeth Strout's Lucy Barton novels and found them immensely enjoyable. This is by far the best.