This author is one of my favorites. When I get to the end of one of her novels, I try to slow myself down because I just love her writing so much. She writes with spare, beautiful prose that is deeply affecting.
The story starts in March of 2020, and Lucy flees New York city with her ex-husband William for Maine in an effort to escape the covid pandemic. Through Lucy's eyes we travel through this tumultuous time. Loved ones get sick or die and our country becomes hugely unsettled due to the George Floyd killing. Riots happen, the election happens, and January 6th happens. The country seems to become more and more divided.
Like everybody in the world at this time, Lucy experiences fear and disquiet. We also get taken back in time to glimpses of Lucy's terribly lonely childhood, her siblings in Illinois, and her two marriages. But there are glimmers of hope and beauty: Lucy makes friends in Maine - some of whom are recognizable as characters from Strout's other novels. Lucy and William find love again with each other at this late stage in their lives. And their adult daughters go through periods of struggle and healing with their relationships.
Throughout this novel Strout packs a punch with her observations such as when Lucy is ruminating over why people can be so different from one another: "We are born with a certain nature, I think. And then the world takes a swing at us." Or when someone special to Lucy dies, she has this thought: "Grief is a solitary matter". The reader is often aware of Lucy's entire life being affected by her upbringing and while Lucy came out of it being successful in life, her sister and brother came out differently. Lucy thinks to herself, "the question of why some people are luckier than others - I have no answer for this".
I have read every one of Elizabeth Strout's books and I would also recommend every one of them! Her characters are so vivid that I feel like I know them, and I continue to think about them as if they are real even after I'm done with the book - that's talent!
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