[b:Lucy by the Sea|60657583|Lucy by the Sea (Amgash, #4)|Elizabeth Strout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650574627l/60657583._SY75_.jpg|95604434] appeared on my library holds and I wasn't sure I wanted to read a quiet domestic novel taking place in 2020, but it turned out ideal for the seasonal bustle. Lucy's empathy for others is perfect holiday spirit with even references to [b:Olive Kitteridge|1736739|Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)|Elizabeth Strout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430655l/1736739._SY75_.jpg|3263906]who is still going strong in the Maple Tree Apartments. Of course, it is a COVID novel which might put some off but it was a relief to be looking back to the distancing and outside dinners rather than amidst the pre-vax quarantines.

"I wondered, What is it like to be a policeman, especially now, these days? What is it like to be you?
I need to say: this is the question that has made me a writer; always that deep desire to know what it feels like to be a different person."
Lucy's curiosity moves the book along and makes her a believable narrator. Fourth in the series, I missed a couple of the books but that did not hamper my enjoyment of this well crafted story. ( )

Since reading this book, I've talked about it many times. It is small in scope, taking place during the pandemic and playing with the passage of time in a way I deeply enjoyed. I have been craving books that deal with the communal and global experience of Covid-19, and this book dealt with the loneliness and forms of new intimacy created during isolation.

SPOILERS:
There were two moments that most astonished me with how well they were crafted.

The first was when Lucy's brother died after contracting Covid-19 at her conservative and religious sister's Thanksgiving celebration. The struggle of getting her sister to understand how bad Covid-19 was (while remaining isolated from much of the knowledge herself) depicted without being heavy-handed the deep rifts in our country as they most often express themselves.

The second was when Lucy met with her daughters for the third time after they all went into isolation. Dealing with the mechanics of the end of quarantine and revisiting New York City, so different from how she remembered it, she is confronted by how her decision to reunite with her daughter's father has bothered them. While Lucy moved in with him at the start of the pandemic, everyone understood it to be about safety and convenience. Once her daughters learned she'd resumed a romantic and sexual relationship with their dad, they worried he had manipulated her by arranging the situation. Lucy doesn't engage with this as they hoped, ultimately admitting that she doesn't know if that's true or not but that she's happy with her life.

That moment deeply underscored the realities of living an often unextraordinary life in extraordinary circumstances. The book as a whole allowed for the contradictions many people left behind when we could resume business as usual and leave behind our new normal. ( )

The 4th book about Lucy Barton, and this one is set during the Covid pandemic. Reading it at this distance - 4 years seems a long time but its still pretty fresh in the memory - made me feel a little peculiar, so many small details are captured about the early days of the pandemic that I've blanked out of my memory. The fear, panic, strange behaviour. This book also sees Lucy and William deepen their relationship and try to do their best by their family during these difficult times. Its very thoughtful and straightforward. I really love how Elizabeth Strout writes. ( )

Lucy Barton returns in this fourth edition to the Amgash series, Lucy reflects on the virus which resulted in a pandemic. She thinks about how this unexpected event was scary and created a lot of uncertainty. People were wearing masks and needing to maintain “social distancing” from others. It was such a reminder of the Flu Epidemic in 1918. Although William is her ex-husband, he has always remained her closest friend. He takes her to a house on the Maine coast to help alleviate her worries. Everyone needed to “lock down” where they were to avoid transmission or vulnerability to the virus. All this together time provides a unique opportunity to reminisce on the past both good and bad such as their kids and infidelities. They discussed people in their lives over the years and how far they have come from meager beginnings. Together they conclude how their lives have changed over the years and their shared memories sustain their continued connection. ( )

No real plot here – just a couple of years in the life of an older writer/mom (Lucy) who relocates from New York City to the coast of Maine during the pandemic and, while there, works through the process of grieving for her recently deceased husband, reconciling with an ex-husband, redefining herself as a mother, refocusing her priorities, and reflecting on the extent to which our lives are controlled by free will vs. predetermination. The tale spans the scary first days of the pandemic through the George Floyd riots and the Capital insurrection, wrapping up just as vaccines are becoming widely available.

The various subplots are united by one common theme: Everyone needs to feel like they matter. Wives need to feel heard by their husbands, lovers need to feel valued by their inamoratas, parents need to feel needed by their children, scholars need to feel appreciated for their expertise, writers need to feel worthy by their readers, all the disenfranchised folks of the world - blacks, MAGAs, poor people, etc. - need to feel heard by … someone. Otherwise, the world fills with angry, lonely, betrayed people. Just so you don’t miss the point Strout’s trying to make, almost every episode concludes with someone uttering some version of “I understand.”

This was my first book by Strout, so it’s hard for me to say how much context I missed out on because I hadn’t read the author’s My Name is Lucy Barton or Olive Kitteridge, both of which are extensively referenced here. Also impossible for me to know whether the narrative voice she adopts here – childlike, and naïve – is specific to Lucy or a Strout signature. Admit that it was hard to regard protagonist Barton as a prestigious novelist given her unsophisticated language (for example, referring to a speaker a “the lecturing man”), grammar, and prose. Am guessing Stroud’s intent is to invite us into the tale by lowering any bars that more sophisticated prose might erect – everyday language for an everyday tale about everyday themes, like loneliness, regret, grief, and love. Mostly worked for me: I found this to be graceful and unconventional, though perhaps not something I’ll remember a year from now. ( )