My Name is Lucy Barton
by Elizabeth Strout
Genre: Fiction - Women's Lives and Relationships
Setting: New York City, rural Illinois
Time Period: Mid-1980s, with flashbacks
Publication: Random House; Jan. 12, 2016; 208 pages
Synopsis: When a simple appendectomy results in complications, young wife and mother Lucy Barton's hospital stay stretches to nine weeks. Her husband is too busy managing work and their two young daughters to visit much, but surprisingly her estranged mother leaves her rural Illinois home to sit at Lucy's bedside in New York City for awhile.
Confined to Lucy's hospital room, the two women pass the time with seemingly random news and stories from their small town. Their contentious past hangs in the air between them, leaving what is unspoken most often carrying more weight than the words they share. When the conversation crosses their emotional barriers they briefly withdraw but cannot stay silent for long.
Within this slim novel, Strout reaches back to Lucy's troubled childhood and forward to her post-hospital life. Lucy, a published writer, draws on memories and observations of her family and friends to make sense of her past and more clearly see her present and future. The tautly written, brief chapters, some more poetry than prose, join together to form a detailed portrait of Lucy as a child, young married mother, and eventually as an independent woman.
Appeal:
Character-driven
Leisurely-paced
Lyrical
Genre Characteristics:
Female Protagonist
Focus on family (mother-daughter) relationships
Explores contemporary issues
Read-A-Likes:
The Art of Mending - Elizabeth Berg
Flawed family grappling with the past.
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
Female protagonist struggles with family memories.
Sights Unseen - Kaye Gibbons
Woman searching for mother's approval.
Maine - J. Courtney Sullivan
Three generations of women reveal family secrets.
I See You Everywhere - Julia Glass
Moving, reflective, lyrical domestic fiction.
I enjoyed reading your annotation and seeing your descriptions of Strout's writing. I recently read Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, and from my experience with those books, your descriptions are spot on. She has such a distinctive style. I was really struck by this interview she did on NPR (http://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462912164/my-ears-are-open-novelist-elizabeth-strout-finds-inspiration-in-every-day-life). I'll have to move this one up on my list!
ReplyDeleteWonderful annotation! Full points!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting story! The book that I read for this genre also used flash backs, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the story line and how little bits of knowledge are acquired about the characters this way.
ReplyDeleteReading some of the annotations this week causes me to wish that I had chosen this genre! Based on your annotation and Nicole's comments about the NPR interview with the author, I'm planning to add another to my 'to read' list! I think your comment "leaving what is unspoken most often carrying more weight than the words they share" rings so true. Good choice of read-alikes!
ReplyDeleteSounds really great. Relationships of mothers and daughters in novels are one of my favorite themes. Your annotation was really well written!
ReplyDeleteSounds really great. Relationships of mothers and daughters in novels are one of my favorite themes. Your annotation was really well written!
ReplyDelete