Lucy by the Sea - Elizabeth Strout

 

Part of me dreaded a spate of covid-19/lockdown novels although I understand the need to express the tangle of emotion that the situation provokes in so many of us. But having just finished this novel of Elizabeth Strout’s I feel it just might be the definitive pandemic novel. It’s so astute and perceptive to the needs of the individual and the many that I felt completely blown away by it. It’s a Lucy Barton novel. I’ve read them all now and I love them. Olive Kitteridge puts in an appearance too which further endeared the novel to me! But I think it would have worked as a pandemic novel whoever the characters may have been, the fact that it is Lucy Barton just adds to the richness because for the first time the reader has a shared experience with the characters in the novel.  We can examine put own feelings and reaction to lockdown and compare them with Lucy’s and William’s. It’s a strange thing but it brings us closer to the character.

In Oh William we learnt of Lucy’s marriage and divorce from William but we also saw the strength of their friendship. This is further explored in Lucy by the Sea as she and William enter lockdown together in a Maine beach house. Strout uses the lockdown situation to explore relationships and examine them in close proximity but she also ensures that there is no falling out of touch with the wider world - events like the riots in the Capitol and the murder of George Floyd are referenced. Ongoing situations from the previous book are developed and a satisfying sense of continuity prevails.

Strout’s  style, as ever, delights. The almost confidential, conversational easy flowing narrative belies the earnest and sober states that are being written about. And we can see that Lucy has existed in a kind of lockdown all her life, but her utterance at the conclusion of the book was so profoundly true in its simplicity and clarity that it fair took my breath away!

‘We are all in lockdown, all the time.We just don’t know it, that’s all.’

Lucy is older now, not as old as me yet! But I will be sad when there are no more Lucy Barton novels. I’ve come to view her as an acquaintance of sorts whose intrinsic vulnerability and self doubt I can relate to and so much comfort and reassurance is derived from such characters.