My Name Is Lucy Barton

I had loved Elizabeth Strout's Olive series but I couldn't connect with this one. Maybe it's because I read it while traveling and read it in quite a disjointed manner. But there is one passage that I remember well. Lucy was dreading that her mother would leave soon and she calls it "dreading-in-advance", something that she did when she had to see the dentist in her childhood. But she recognised that "you are wasting time by suffering twice" but it is very difficult to will your mind to do so. How true this is, and demonstrates again what an excellent observer of human nature that Strout is.

An astonishing literary achievement. Two things stand out about "My Name is Lucy Barton". The first is its narrative frame, which is complex and effective enough to be mentioned in the same paragraph as, say, the little yarn that Marlowe tells about his trip up the Congo. "Lucy Barton" is a story about the book's title character becoming a writer, the novel itself being both a story about a writer's literary development and its final product. This is, in most ways, a profoundly unmagical book, but -- as Lucy faces the most painful elements of her past and attempts to come to grips with their essential meanings -- we see her write herself into existence as surely as an García Marquez character ever did. The fact that this these themes show more are dealt with using brief, pitch-perfect, and often deceptively simple sentences only makes what Strout's done here more impressive: Lucy Barton seems to emerge not from this novel's language but from its very structure. Perhaps most impressively, while both the novel and its main character develop, Strout's own authorial voice is almost completely obscured. It might be said that the author molds another, fictional author who then writes a book for her, an act of high-level literary ventriloquism that is breathtaking to behold. I suppose that Strout could have taken the easy way out by making her protagonist blandly admirable, making this a book about little more than overcoming hardship, the sort of literature-as-therapy thing that crowds the New Releases shelf these days. But it's clear, though, that Lucy is still scarred by her excruciatingly difficult past, which includes episodes of extreme poverty, abuse, self-doubt, interpolated with the kind of everyday disappointments and sad realizations even those with comfortable lives experience. Strout balances these elements perfectly, showing how both seemingly insignificant social slights and major life tragedies can stay with us for years. You could say that "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is a book about healing, but it's also about one woman's desperate battle to will herself into existence, which is a much less elegant affair. Lucy doesn't flinch at the ugly stuff here, and nether, to its credit, does this novel.

Strout's second achievement here is the title character herself. When the book ends, Lucy isn't without doubts and regrets, and I'm not even sure that every reader will find her particularly likable, but it's hard to deny that she is, well, mature. She's also -- and I consider this high praise indeed -- as gorgeously imperfect and wholly unforgettable a character as, say, Peggy Cort, who we meet in Elizabeth McCracken's "The Giant's House" or the title character of Mary Gaitskill's "Veronica". I'm not the kind of reader who tends to enjoy characters in and of themselves, but while Strout's account of how Lucy's personality and her literary voice emerge is easy to admire, there's also something about Lucy herself -- her resilience, her clear-sightedness, her honesty -- that gives this book the sort of emotional heft that a mere creative exercise would lack. There is real feeling and beauty here. To put it another way, this is, in other words, a great novel. Highly recommended. show less

A preface I suspect one story ruined Olive Kitteridge for me. I won a copy of the book as an LT Early Reviewer in 2008, not knowing anything about the author or even whether or not the book was just junk. It's been a while, but I recall the stories were soft and subtle, so subtle that I would miss key points. There are 13 loosely connected stories. The one I didn't like is titled A Different Road, where Olive gets caught up in a brutal violent event. Strout doesn't change tone for this story. Like the others, the prose is soft and subtle, and that bothered me. I felt it read false. I've avoided Strout since, and felt surprised by how successful she has been. (I was much gentler in my 2008 review than I am in my lingering limited memory. show more https://www.librarything.com/review/24291745 )

48. My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
published: 2016
format: 189-page Kindle ebook
acquired: October 2 read: Oct 2-6 time reading: 3:01, 1.0 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: Contemporary Fiction theme: Booker 2022
locations: New York City, rural Illinois
about the author: born in Maine, 1956.

I read this because Oh William! is on the Booker 2022 longlist (and shortlist), and is part of the Lucy Barton quartet. My Name is Lucy Barton is the first. I plan to read at least the first 3.

Most of this book takes place with Lucy telling us about her prolonged time in a New York a hospital bed, the Chrysler Building out the window, talking to her mother about nothing. While talking about nothing they also talk bitterly and lovingly about everything difficult in their lives, past and present. Poverty, marital strife, and PTSDM come up, along with their hopelessly strained relationship, without ever being directly addressed in their talk. It's cathartic and bitter. I loved it, and loved Lucy.

I was so worried I would not like this that I started with a free amazon sample, allowing myself to jettison it. But this is a much bolder work than the other I read by Strout, [Olive Kitteridge]. An artist of subtlety, she didn't stick to that here. She puts that in, and then tells the reader exactly what she's doing, undoes it. She even brings in a literary workshop experience to tell us exactly what she's doing. I loved all that.

For what it's worth, Lucy is a child of Anne Tyler's Pearl Tull, the narrator of Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. She has nearly the same voice: direct, blunt, narrow focused, dealing with the need to be kind to her needy children and family while also dealing straight on with life. Lucy is more tender, but I couldn't help hearing them both while reading. I like them both.

I can't tell you who will like or not like this novel by Strout. But I'm really looking forward to the second book in this trilogy - [Anything is Possible], which maybe is apt expression of how readers might expect to respond to this. show less

This is a gem of a little novel. I read it in one sitting on a winter’s afternoon, drawn into the life of Lucy Barton. Lucy looks back, ostensibly telling the story of her nine-week stay in hospital and an unexpected visit by her mother, when in fact she tells the story of her life. Mothers and daughters, no two relationships are alike and no woman can make assumptions about another’s experience as either mother or daughter. Stranded in her hospital bed, Lucy remembers her childhood and tries to make sense of it.
Economically [208 pages] and beautifully written, this is the first of Strout’s novels I have read. I have of course heard of ‘Olive Kitteridge’ but did not realize it is a Pulitzer winner, and so have the treat show more awaiting me. Strout writes about the everday, the ordinary, the normal [and not-so-normal] and sees the truth behind what is and isn’t said.
Lucy is a kind of everywoman. Through her Strout examines the mother-daughter relationship with an acute eye which will make you examine your own relationships. Lucy tells the story of her hospital visit and her mother’s appearance with the benefit of hindsight, looking back at her childhood, her daughters and female friendships. Sometimes she is baffled, other times she joins the dots and makes acute observations while her mother remembers their life in extreme poverty. There are hints to things in the past which are never confirmed, this is a book as much about what is not said as about what is. In revisiting her childhood, trying, and mostly failing, to get her mother to talk about it, Lucy learns that although your upbringing shapes who you are, that shaping continues throughout your life.
I thought about this book for days afterwards.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

A spare, melancholy book about the tension between feeling the impulse to precisely observe people and events and the elusive nature of memory; about how much you can feel for those whose lives briefly intersect with yours and whom you never see again, and the terrible push-pull between family members who find one another mutually incomprehensible. My Name is Lucy Barton is about bonds and isolation, explored as the eponymous narrator recounts both a lengthy stint she endured in hospital in New York in the '80s, and her impoverished and abusive childhood in '60s rural Illinois. Elizabeth Strout is very good at showing/not-showing the elisions, the sidlings up to and away from the painful things. As I read I found myself admiring show more Strout's restraint as a writer. However, although I liked the novel and the unresolved nature of the ending clearly signposts the further books that are to come in this series, I don't find myself pulled to continue reading about Lucy and her family—in a strange way, I think My Name is Lucy Barton told me everything I need to know about them. show less

Love this novel.

Beautifully stark, real and raw, and brief descriptions of poverty, neglect, emotional need, fear, loneliness and love. Its painful to read the damage hurtful people inflict on those viewed as poor, or perceived as other. And how alone we truly each are.

Lucy's sensitivity and introspection allows her to recognize other human beings who have experienced shame, loneliness or degradation without needing to know their specific stories. She also deeply respects and loves those who have protected her like a teacher who reprimanded classmates who were mocking Lucy, as well as the doctor who provided more than just excellent treatment when she was seriously ill.

Her deprived childhood lead to her strong sensitivity opened her show more up to recognizing, seeing and feeling beauty in people, art and literature. And made her capable of becoming successful at writing, and independent. And know when it was time to leave her marriage.

This book strikes my heart, my soul and reminds me of the strength of words. A masterpiece. show less

What I want to say about "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is:
Read it and read it soon. It's full of truth. It will make you cry. It will make you feel less alone. It will give you courage. It will fill your imagination as you read it and echo in your memory long afterwards.

At one point in the book Lucy says, "I know a true sentence when I hear one." Well, this seems to me to be a book full of true sentences. I kept interrupting myself as I read to make a note of another true thing. Then I realised that the only way to do justice to their truth was to read the book.

It's a short book, he hardcover version is less than 200 pages long, but it felt longer, not because it drages but because I was intensely engaged by every page. Not a word is show more wasted,

"My Name Is Lucy Barton" is about "A poor girl from Amgash who loved her momma." It's not a plot driven book or even a character driven book. It's a book in which Lucy, talking to us directly and frankly shares her thoughts, emotions and memories about how she and her mother were together.

In a few hours of listening I felt that I knew who Lucy Barton was, at least as well as anyone can know such a thing.

Lucy's honesty, what she describes as "the ruthlessness of holding on to myself" filled me with admiration. I know I am not that honest with myself and I know that I shy away from writing quite as honestly as she does.

Lucy understands that it is hard to be truthful. Our memories tend to become the stories we persuage ourselves to believe. The truth they hold is not always entirely factual and may change over time. At one point she says:

"My life has changed so much that I look back on those early years and say, 'It can't have been that bad.' and perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps."

Later she recalls what she thought about a conversation and then says:

"Maybe I didn't think that. Maybe I just think that now, when I write this."

She spend some time reflecting on the question

"How do children come to know about the world. How do you learn it's not polite to ask people why they don't have children?"

She knows that she has

"Vast pieces of knowledge missing from childhood that cannot be replaced."

Lucy has always been lonely, she has always been different. She has spent large part of her life not wanting to be different any more.

Lucy embraced books because reading made her feel less alone. Then one day she read a book that made her want to write a book and the course of her life changed. She finally had something that was hers.

As she tells us her story, Lucy has already had novels published yet she says of herself;

"I know nothing of the lives of others. So much of life is speculation."

This is a book about love. It is not romantic or sentimental. It is an honest account of how complicated and painful and necessary love is. Lucy Barton knows that

"We all love imperfectly."

but she does not see that not as a weakness but an unaviodable truth.

I've never read Elizabeth Strout before but I'm now eager to read anything else that she's written. show less