Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea was a wonderful, smart, incisive look at the last two years of the pandemic, and the havoc it wreaked upon personal lives, families, and society. Strout, who also authored the Olive Kitteridge books, has a way of making storytelling through the eyes of older women somehow extremely compelling- older women not being the voice of most protagonists I can think of. I mean this in the most generous way! And as a noted deficit to society, that we do not honor those voices enough. And yet, her insight into age, and aging, bears so much truth. We are all, after all, going to end up this way- if we are lucky. And for my age cohort, aging has suddenly arrived, with the realization that we are no longer twenty-somethings; but also oddly distant, in that we still most likely identify with our twenty-something selves. I do not yet feel like Lucy Barton, in her home by the sea, but I can sense that one day, I may very well be her, and this day may arrive sooner than I think.
I also enjoy Strout’s affirmation that despite one’s years, we are all still learning, we are all still processing- never is a character so ego-centric as to demand respect or honor from some faux age-derived wisdom. For the best, none of the characters are obviously wise. Every character, even those in their 70s, are still muddling through life’s decisions with the best of us. Rather, wisdom comes from acknowledging that there is much to be learned, up to the very end.
Specifically, Lucy by the Sea will resonate with a large audience because everyone has stories, trauma (oft-overused word, but I will use it here nonetheless), and sadness surrounding the pandemic. It touched everyone, in many ways, and so despite Lucy Barton being an older and wealth(ier) white woman, I would warrant that you’ll identify with Lucy in more ways than you’ll realize. Strout’s stark portraits of intimate life inside the pandemic against the backdrop of coastal Maine are sharp. Her writing is clean, and clear- deceptively so. A wonderful read from one of my favorite authors. 5 out of 5 bocks!