#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the tender relationship between mother and daughter in this extraordinary novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys.Soon to be a Broadway play starring Laura Linney produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and London Theatre Company • LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF … LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • The New York Times Book Review • NPR • BookPage • LibraryReads • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.
Praise for My Name Is Lucy Barton
“A quiet, sublimely merciful contemporary novel about love, yearning, and resilience in a family damaged beyond words.”—The Boston Globe
“It is Lucy’s gentle honesty, complex relationship with her husband, and nuanced response to her mother’s shortcomings that make this novel so subtly powerful.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“A short novel about love, particularly the complicated love between mothers and daughters, but also simpler, more sudden bonds . . . It evokes these connections in a style so spare, so pure and so profound the book almost seems to be a kind of scripture or sutra, if a very down-to-earth and unpretentious one.”—Newsday
“Spectacular . . . Smart and cagey in every way. It is both a book of withholdings and a book of great openness and wisdom. . . . [Strout] is in supreme and magnificent command of this novel at all times.”—Lily King, The Washington Post
“An aching, illuminating look at mother-daughter devotion.”—People
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Sometimes you just need your mom, and that’s exactly who Lucy needed when she was in the hospital recuperating from what was supposed to be minor surgery. I think she always needed her mom, but it just didn’t work out that her mom was always there for her.
Lucy and her siblings had a hard life growing up, and I suppose they knew their parents loved them, and I suppose maybe they did love them, in their own way.
This was such a different book, a book about a hard life and, although it got easier, the difficult life was not forgotten.
It’s a good read.
A quick and easy read that nonetheless grabs your heart and holds it throughout. Strout explores familial deprivation, spiritual and economic, in unexpected and jarring ways. She shows clearly, that our experiences as children shape us abidingly and that despite the foibles and mischiefs of our family members we can never wholly get over the love we have with them.
The main character – Lucy Barton – is in the hospital recovering from a minor surgery. She has had some complications, so instead of being there for 1 week, she ends up being there for nine. It is the 1980s, and she has two small children at home and a husband. Her husband is so busy that he calls Lucy’s mother to come and stay with her for a few days while she is in the hospital. He feels Lucy needs her company. Lucy hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother in many years, but her mother does agree to come. They talk about Lucy’s childhood hometown and the people who lived there. Lucy had a very rough and poor upbringing, and doesn’t have fond memories of her childhood. But she hopes this visit with her mom reconnects them.
After 5 days of being with Lucy, her mom announces that she needs to go home and leaves. Lucy doesn’t see her again for years, and at that time, it is only to say goodbye.
I had forgotten who Elizabeth Strout was, and I should have looked her up and then skipped this book. I am sure I am in the minority, but I did not like her last book – Olive Kitteridge. It wasn’t that it was a terrible book – but it was confusing and hard to read. So no surprise – this book was the same. IT really went….nowhere. It jumped all over the place. We never really found out WHY Lucy didn’t speak to her parents for all those years. Apparently a big “Thing” happened when she was a child, but Lucy never says what. I had a hard time staying focused on the book and kept saying “what?” and “where is this going?”.
Eh – skip it. Unless you are a big Elizabeth Strout fan. Maybe you will find something in this novel that I didn’t.
Not up to snuff of one of my favorite authors.
Deeply felt story of relationships and love
Compelling.
Yawned of a read. Too monotonous and dreary.
I love the subtlety of this book. A remarkable tale of the lingering aspects of family dysfunction and what one may be capable of forgiving given time, distance and perspective.
I read biographical material on Elizabeth Strout to see if I could find the source for her bottomless angst about families and family relationships. She appears to have had a normal childhood…anyway, I love MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON and OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Ms. Strout’s use of language is magnificent…she makes me feel that I am in the story, listening to her characters and feeling their pain.
I’m not sure if I’m ready for another book by this author; I have a normal family, my childhood was wonderful and my parents loved me…but she still makes me feel her pain, even if I don’t understand it.