Lucy by the Sea

by Elizabeth Strout

My first pandemic novel. Weirdly like reading history but too short a time ago. There is something brilliant about this book, but it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what. The writing is so sparse it’s almost bald. There is no plot—more of an account of COVID through a pair of fictional eyes—and yet the story is quietly, elegantly, captivating. Ostensibly about a divorced couple forced back together in lockdown, it is really about family, relationships, male and female expectations, and personal transformation. Elizabeth Strout is a master and her characters live from one book to the next. I laughed out loud when a carer, who works in a retirement home, mentions her favourite client—Olive Kitteridge, and I had to revisit My Name is Lucy Barton and Oh William as soon as I finished reading.