What an interesting book.... Told from the authors narrative. A superb story teller who portrays life through her writing, following the life tails of writer Lucy Barton and her strange going ons that is her life. A very honest and sometimes funny look at some of the surprises life can throw at us.

A slight novel but filled with so much that lingers on in the mind long after it’s finished. The novel continues the story of Lucy Barton and with the same, unique voice and that closely observed style. Lucy’s second husband is dead and her first husband, William, is alone once again. Through Lucy we see the past converging in the present as the two become close once more, but with a caution eye to friendship and all the things they’ve shared in the past. William is struggling first with night terrors, mostly about his mother and then as if some prescient understanding was manifested, he discovers things about his mother’s past that truly shakes him. Lucy, struggling with her own grief and feelings about their past, tries at times to help him. He is her first port of call, as it seems she always was when his past rises up, just as she is discovering that in some ways he is too. Her own background and upbringing have colored her own choices and paths in life. Barton helps us to understand Lucy and William and through some incredibly wise insights, reveals truths or understandings that can help us with our own lives, about choices and how we move forward, despite the past, or what is thrown at us along the way. Remarkable, but then I always find Elizabeth Strout’s writings remarkable.

I just love Elizabeth Strout. Her novels very quietly and gently rip my heart to shreds, and Oh William!, tender, delicate and honest as it is, is no exception.

There's something about reading the Lucy Barton novels which feels the same as being in therapy. The way Lucy experiences, investigates and narrates her world and her emotional terrain feels exploratory and intimate, and sometimes it's too painful and she stops and redirects herself.

I would read a hundred Lucy Barton books.

My thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Elizabeth Strout's writing style, and Oh William was exactly what I hoped for from the next installment of Lucy Barton's story. The narrative, told in the first person by Lucy, is driven by character rather than plot. It meanders between specific detail (a tulip, a mustache) and universal experience (siblings, the indelible marks of childhood) in a way that is utterly compelling.

The novel explores how familial relationships are inextricably linked with both nostalgia and trauma. Lucy's narrative voice balances experience and naivety in a way that allows the reader to identify with her moments of introspection and respect her moments of epiphany- even when misguided.

One of the things I enjoy most about Strout is her respect for her reader. Each revelation about plot or character in the novel is understated; the reader is immersed in Lucy's world, privy to her thoughts and perspectives, but trusted to form their own opinion of people, places and events. Just as in life, no one character is hero or villain. Instead we are presented with a cast who are flawed but deeply human and with the constant capacity for change. More than anything, this is what the novel leaves with me: we do not know anybody, not even ourselves.

Elizabeth Strout returns to the story of Lucy Barton who we met in "My Name is Lucy Barton" and whose childhood story was examined in "Anything is possible." Lucy is now in her 60's living as a renowned author in New York, far away from her abusive and deprived childhood in Amgash, Illinois. She has recently buried her second husband and goes on a road trip with her first husband, William, now in his early 70's when he discovers through a gift DNA Ancestry kit that he has a half sibling and all his beliefs about his mother are thrown into disarray.

The book is written after the events have happened in a chatty style as if Lucy is writing to you or telling the story to you over lunch. She frequently interrupts the narrative to delve into the past, go out on a tangent , to say she can't talk about something just yet, or to retell something that was mentioned further back in the narrative. The Oh William! refers to what Lucy exclaims to herself when William gets it all wrong in some way whether it is in what he is wearing or how he behaves (she says it a lot). The story deals with grief, how we never really know someone else, the acceptance that comes with age, how the past really is a "foreign country," how people never really change, the left behind America, how when you are abused and deprived you never forget a kindness. It is a bit rambling and not as tightly written as the Olive books (IMHO) but if you like Elizabeth Strout books (and they can be a bit marmite) then you'll enjoy sitting down with Lucy and hearing about what been happening with her.

A beautifully written book with lots of interesting character insights. The story is narrated by Lucy Barton in a stream of consciousness style and concerns Lucy's first husband, their marriage, their children and their families. Because of the style of the narrative, it did seem to jump around a lot between the present and anecdotes from the past. I haven't read the previous Lucy Barton books and maybe if I had, I might have appreciated the characters more, but unfortunately I didn't find them very likeable. The tone of the book did feel rather depressing and sad, so overall, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I would.

I just could not get into this book.

I felt lost & had no interest in the characters.

The blurb about it sounded interesting but in fact, to me, it was sadly dull and uninteresting.

I was unable to finish it.

For reasons I won't go into, I ended up reading this on my phone. Frankly any book is going to have a hard time in this format, but thankfully this book was the new Elizabeth Strout, Oh William- out in October; I was very thankful to get an early copy from #netgalley- and let's face it she can overcome most things with her writing.

Lucy Barton returns to narrate this novel about William, her first husband who appears in My Name is Lucy Barton and here is fleshed out as a man with a past and a present, now their children have grown up and they have not only divorced but both married again.

It's a strange thing. Generally, I do prefer a novel with a strong plot, but while there is a narrative arc here surrounding the secrets of past, Elizabeth Strout's writing really isnt plot driven but I just love it. Lucy Barton is sadly no Olive Kittridge (oh Olive! I am such a super-fan) but the narrative style and voice of this novel like many of her others is so delightful, almost musical and carries the reader along effortlessly.

There is a lot of melancholy here, as an older Lucy reflects on the past as she grieves for her second husband but there is also joy- the joy that William remembers young Lucy bringing to their lives.

Like the previous Lucy Barton books, this is a novel about family and parental love (or lack thereof) and how it shapes you, about the far-reaching effects of poverty, and overcoming your past in order to create a world for your children which was not your own.

This does stand alone, but it's very much a companion piece to My Name is Lucy Barton. It's a slim novel, and a quick read but there is so much in every page - Elizabeth Strout creates the most vivid characters and in just a few lines you feel like you know EXACTLY who they are. I feel like I want to go back to My Name is Lucy Barton now I feel I know her even better, and that is the power of the world that Strout has created.

This is another gorgeous novel from the incredible Elizabeth Strout. I have read all of her novels and this stands out as one of the very best.

This novels follows on from "My Name is Lucy Barton", and is again narrated in the first person by Lucy. It's not absolutely essential to have read the first novel as Strout reminds us of the plot points we need for this story, but some things will make more sense if you have done so. The character of Lucy is herself a novelist, and the book is written as though Lucy is writing a second memoir; she addresses the reader in a conversational tone which makes this book utterly compelling (I devoured it in a single sitting.)

The "William" of the title is Lucy's first husband, from whom she has been amicably separated for many years. They are both around seventy when this novel begins; Lucy's second husband, David, has recently died, while William is married to this third wife, a younger woman called Estelle, with whom he has a ten-year-old daughter.

At the heart of the story is a journey that William and Lucy make together to Maine after William makes a discovery about his family history, but this novel is full of reflections on the past - in particular Lucy's, William's, and William's late mother, Catherine, whom William and Lucy both loved dearly.

What makes this novel so powerful is Lucy's narrative voice, which is so full of compassion and vulnerability - she could hardly be more different from Strout's other recurring heroine, the curmudgeonly and no-nonsense Olive Kitteridge, but, like Olive, she feels entirely real and alive. Lucy's way of seeing the world is shaped by her impoverished upbringing - she is repeatedly described as having "come from nothing". Lucy's childhood is described much more fully in "My Name is Lucy Barton", but in "Oh William!", Lucy is still coming to terms with the impact this has had on her. In one heartbreaking moment, she tells us "I have always thought that if there was a big corkboard for every person who ever lived, there would be no pin for me" and that she feels "as if I do not exist." At another moment, she compares herself to another character who "seemed deeply - almost fundamentally - comfortable inside herself, the way I think a person is when they have been loved by their parents."

In spite of the loneliness and insecurity Lucy feels, however, she is also described at a crucial moment as being "filled with joy", and this novel is full of the radiant beauty of a character whose heart is full of such tenderness for the world and for other people. The titular exclamation becomes a refrain for Lucy throughout the novel, and there is something deeply moving about these cries whenever they appear on the page.

In one of Strout's previous novels, a character says that "We all love imperfectly." This is another novel which is full of brokenness and imperfections, yet in her astonishing sensitivity to these imperfections which we all share, Strout has created another work of great insight and profundity.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advance Reading Copy of this book.

I do love Elizabeth Strout's writing though I suspect that her style is a bit marmite. She does have a tendency to wander off the thread and tell anecdotes which sometimes have only a tenuous connection to the main story. I enjoy this in her work but am aware that it would irritate other readers immensely!
I am sure this could be read as a stand alone book but to really understand the characters & past events to which they refer, I suggest you read "My Name is Lucy Barton!" before tackling this one.

Lucy and William have been divorced for many years & both remarried. However they remain friends and connected through their daughters. When Lucy & William both find themselves alone in their later years, their friendship develops in a new way and they set off on a journey to discover William's past.
This book is really about the characters. William and Lucy are both very complex personalities and do have their "moments". Both of them can be thoughtful and caring but at other times they are thoughtless and self centred - much like most people! Throw into the mix their strong and independent daughters and an strange genealogical discovery and you have an interesting read.

I very much enjoyed this book. I enjoy the way the characters interact and their thoughts about the past and present. There isn't a great plot as such, more a light thread on which to hang the great personalities. However, it works well for me!

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

The literary genius Elizabeth Strout is back with another installment of Lucy Barton's life and times. She shows here once again what that Pulitzer Prize was so well deserved. She is a master storyteller, peering deep into our cores and extracting just enough to show what makes the human mind and body tick. This story is no exception. Here she delves deep into the emotions, loves and insecurities of Lucy Barton, who suffered so much as a child but who fought and succeeded in achieving much of what she wanted, despite the obstacles she faced. William is the father of Lucy's two adult children, and her first husband. She has passed her 60th birthday in this book and has recently become a widow having lost her second husband. Her relationship with her first husband William was also a friendly one however and in this story we hear her thoughts on her life, her loves, her daughters, her successes and her mistakes. It really is a wonderful piece reflecting just another ordinary life.

This book was an absolute treat to read. I loved the gentle, perceptive voice of Lucy telling her story. It made me think of sitting on a park bench with a close friend, listening to her tell a fascinating story and not wanting the day to end. I read and read and was sorry to finish. I felt invested in all the characters, and in their hopes and dreams, particularly Lucy’s. I can’t wait for the next novel by Elizabeth Strout. Her books are exquisitely written. Highly, highly recommended.

As per, I always look forward to a new Elizabeth Strout book. I love so many things about her writing, from the continuation of characters, likeable and otherwise, through to the pared-back prose - which seems seamless and simple but is actually very sophisticated. She tells it like it is - and why not? This is what makes Strout's writing unique and lifelike, something we can all identify with.

In 'Oh William!' we spend time with Lucy Barton again, the successful novelist from 'My Name is Lucy Barton' and also, from 'Anything is Possible'. In 'My Name...' Lucy is in a New York hospital when she receives a visit from her estranged, Illinois-based mother, someone she doesn't have a great relationship with; in 'Anything...' we learn more about the backstory. And in this new novel, 'Oh William!', time has moved forward considerably. Lucy is older; her second husband, David, has recently died; Becka and Chrissie, her daughters, are grown up; and William, her first husband, is also alone - Estelle, his second wife, has left him and he is seemingly distraught.

It all sounds quite the complicated domestic set-up - and it is, like many aspects of life. In 'Oh William!' Lucy and William travel from New York to Maine to try and track down a half-sister, Lois, that William has found out about - and to learn more about his relationship with Lucy. The focus in on Lucy, as a well-known novelist, so I guess this book is a little bit meta in that respect. But oftentimes taciturn William is key, too. He is struggling - his work isn't respected, Estelle has gone, it turns out that Lois doesn't want to meet him, something that probably has a greater impact on him that he would let on.

'Oh William!' is beautifully written, from his dismissive attitude towards Lucy when she complains about being hungry ('then go eat!') through to the ins and outs of the way he has treated his wives - and the ways Becka and Chrissie think that their parents are getting back together.

Any new Elizabeth Strout is welcome. I do, actually, still have 'Amy and Isabelle' and 'Abide with Me' to read, Strout's first two novels. When they're read, the joy remains - and I, for one, am champing at the bit for the next one.

This is a poignant novel by Elizabeth Strout. I had not read the two previous "Lucy Barton" books, but I didn't feel as though I'd missed anything crucial in the characters' backstories, thanks to the author's very brief references to their past when it was relevant. I do not think that this would be repetitive for those who had read the previous books.

On the face of it, "Oh William" is about Lucy's relationship with her 69 year-old ex-husband and their two grown-up daughters over about 18 months in the near-past, and the thoughts she has as she remembers events and people in her life. But there is more to the book than that; it is about, for example, the discovery of how one's perception may be incorrect, and what it means to have lived a life based on certainties that turn out to have been false because the full facts had been withheld or hidden.

The author's description of the rural poverty, economic hardship, and way of life towards the Canadian border in Maine has added a lot to my understanding of the current US political situation.

With many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review.

“Grief is such a—oh, it is such a solitary thing; this is the terror of it, I think. It is like sliding down the outside of a really long glass building while nobody sees you.”

A short novel that holds a lot. I have been a big fan of Elizabeth Strout's writing for a long time and so was excited when my request to read this novel was approved. Strout has a way of writing that draws the reader in and makes them feel like they are engaging in a private conversation with the characters.

Oh Elizabeth!

What a deceptively simple story, as is always the case with Elizabeth Strout. Where ‘Anything is Possible’ reveals more of Lucy’s troubled relationships with her siblings, and ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’ her even more complicated relationship with her mother, ‘Oh William!’ gives us the backstory to her first marriage.

And what a backstory it is. We know about Lucy’s familial shame, the bleak poverty she has escaped, the bullying (“Your family stinks.”), but also the occasional kindness she encountered along the way. However, it turns out that William’s family, too, has a skeleton in the closet.

What I love about the author’s narrative form is that, as in the two ‘Olive’ books, the ecosystem of characters and stories she builds up and the cross-references that intertwine, going backwards and forwards in time. It’s a wonderfully engaging, gossipy way to build up a more complex picture of the characters. Even the Burgess boys from another novel get a mention.

I felt reading this novel as if Lucy was there in front of me, telling me about William. ‘Picture him….Don’t I mean?….Why does this touch me?...But there is this…” Hesitancy and diffidence pull us in as both Lucy and the reader try to understand her marriage(s).

It’s a testament to this latest novel that on turning the final page, I went straight back to the previous two Lucy Barton novels and reread them.

I hope I can look forward to a novel that charts her relationship with her two daughters!

I will happily post this on Amazon as soon as reviewing opens.

I loved the style and tone of this book. Elizabeth Strout has a clever skill of creating believable characters and of hooking reader. I found it sad, emotive and uplifting.

I absolutely loved this novel! I haven’t read Lucy Barton but I didn’t feel it was necessary, the gaps are all filled in well. However, having fallen in love with these characters I will now definitely go back and catch up! I didn’t personally think it was as good as the Olive novels but it’s very much in Strout’s style and she builds a world so well. Highly recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

5★
“Grief is such a—oh, it is such a solitary thing; this is the terror of it, I think. It is like sliding down the outside of a really long glass building while nobody sees you.”

I loved this, which is no surprise since I’ve enjoyed Strout’s writing since I first read it. I’ve never been particularly fond of Lucy Barton herself.

She grew up in extreme poverty, was called smelly at school, and her home life was violent, due to her father’s post-traumatic stress after his World War 2 experiences in Germany. They lived an isolated life outside of town.

She’s just buried her second husband, David, who was raised as a Hasidic Jew, so he was another kind of outsider, and they understood each other as nobody else could.

“My husband’s name was David Abramson and he was—oh, how can I tell you what he was? He was him! We were—we really were—kind of made for each other, except that seems a terrifically trite thing to say but— Oh, I cannot say any more right now.”

This is like leafing through letters from a friend. Lucy frequently interrupts herself, saying she must add one more thing. Or sometimes she says she can’t talk about it right now. Some of it is new news, some of it is catching you up on what she might not have told you in the past, or reminding you of what she did tell you, because you’re old friends.

By that, I mean that she’s referring to ‘her’ first book, My Name Is Lucy Barton, and the short stories that ‘she’ wrote about her hometown of Amgash, Anything Is Possible. You do not need to have read those books to enjoy this one. She brings you up to speed with anything important.

Lucy is sixty-three now, a well-known author whose books are sold all over the world. She has travelled everywhere, but she has never really lost her feeling of awkwardness, of not belonging, of being invisible.

“I have always thought that if there was a big corkboard and on that board was a pin for every person who ever lived, there would be no pin for me.

I feel invisible, is what I mean. But I mean it in the deepest way. It is very hard to explain. And I cannot explain it except to say—oh, I don’t know what to say! Truly, it is as if I do not exist, I guess is the closest thing I can say. I mean I do not exist in the world. It could be as simple as the fact that we had no mirrors in our house when I was growing up except for a very small one high above the bathroom sink. I really do not know what I mean, except to say that on some very fundamental level, I feel invisible in the world.”

She mourns David but keeps on keeping on, largely because she is still strongly connected to the two daughters she had with William, her first husband. The girls are adults, close to each other, and they shop and lunch with their mother. William lives with his third wife and their ten-year-old daughter.

The exes have settled into a kind of fond, companionable relationship, so much so that it’s easy to think they will end up together again – happily ever after! Then the prickliness between them becomes scratchy again, and it's thank goodness she’s out of there!

Very early in the book she tells us about Joanne. She frequently drops these kinds of bombshells.

“About a year after our marriage ended, William married a woman he had had an affair with for six years.”

But they'd raised two daughters during the twenty years they were married, so there is a lot of family history between them, much of it happy. There are many nostalgic reminiscences about family celebrations, and ‘Remember Whens’.

She’s writing ‘today’, telling us anecdotes and truths as they occur to her. She moves through her life story in a linear order, but of course when she is reminded of her childhood or young married life, she stops to talk about it. She is more sophisticated and worldly, and is embarrassed sometimes by William - his clothes or his manner - which is when she thinks “Oh, William!” with fondness.

William has asked her to go with him to research his mother’s family history in Maine, because he’s discovered some shocking news, and he needs Lucy with him. They will fly together then rent a car and stay in towns along the way. It is trite to say it’s a journey of discovery, but of course, it is.

Lucy does not write as if she’s a literary author; she writes conversationally, almost embarrassed to say how foolish she was, how inexperienced, how awkward, how invisible. She is emotional and raw and very insightful – now.

She thinks it’s only in retrospect that she has some idea of what was going on. I'm inclined to think she was easy for someone (William) to measure himself against and be sure he'd come out ahead.

When William’s mother, Catherine, who features largely in the book, took them on family holidays to fancy resorts, Lucy said people lounging around the pool knew how to relax and order drinks.

“. . . how did they all know what to do? I feel invisible—as I have said—and yet in that situation I had the strangest sensation of both being invisible and yet having a spotlight on my head that said: This young woman knows nothing.”

That is something like the quotation I opened with, where she wrote about grief being like sliding down a glass building (obviously visible) but nobody sees you.

There is a time when they are driving that William reminisces about something odd he’d seen Lucy do during their marriage and how he’d laughed at her. Telling her now, he laughs again.

“I looked out the window of my side of the car, and my face became very warm.
‘You’re a strange one, Lucy,’ he said after a moment.
And that was that.”

She remembers that David loved her, admired her, was thankful they had met.

“And then he would say—every morning he said this— ‘Lucy B, Lucy B, how did we meet?
I thank God we are we.’

Never in a thousand years would he have laughed at me.
Never. For anything.”

It’s a journal, it’s a road trip, it’s a family history, it’s an exploration of one woman’s invisible life except it isn’t invisible. She’s the crucial hub for her family and her extended family. I wish Lucy would just keep adding to her letters or journal or reminiscences so I could check in with her from time to time. I do like her as a character now.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for a preview copy. This is due to be published in October. I sure hope she is working on another one - either Elizabeth Strout or Lucy Barton, that is. :)

Elizabeth Strout’s immersive, piercing stories and novels place ordinary lives under her microscope. I missed reading the first two novels concerning the life of Lucy Barton, New York author with a terrible past. “Oh William!” tells of her first husband, William, a bafflingly distant but distinctive man who, when this novel opens, has aged and seen his wife walk out, and the two former soulmates embark on a joint journey of memories and stunning family revelations. The author weaves a masterful dense tale, the human insights are profound, and an intimate, lyrical style knits it all together tightly. The storyline cannot be described as momentous, and a sense of domestic ordinariness drags some of the chapters down, but I was moved to near tears a couple of times, and came away from a fast read thoroughly wrung out. Oh William! is a minor key triumph, one that will send me backward to read the other two series’ books.