Dec.2021: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

 As mentioned in our previous post, we originally chose "Oh William!" then realized it had precursors (books that preceded it). So, we went back and read My Name is Lucy Barton. 

This book has 1st person narration, Lucy Barton is speaking about her ex-husband William, who is also the father of her 2 daughters (now grown). 

L and I give this book 3 stars. Perhaps 2 and half. And here's why. There's no plot. There's really no story. It's as though we're reading Lucy's diary. This happened, then that happened. and oh yeah, this thing happened several years ago...and now I just learned this (or William learned this) or whatever.

Strout's writing style is repetitive. And we get it. Her repetition of certain words is meant to come off as conversational. It works until it doesn't. Here's an example: "I mean that David's body was always a tremendous comfort to me. David was a tremendous comfort to me. God, was that man a comfort to me."

If you are thinking that the repetition that I just typed above is an anomaly in this book, you'd be wrong. These types of repetitions are throughout the book. Here's another: "I am only saying: I wondered who William was. I have wondered this before. Many times I have wondered this."

Also, if the words, "I mean to say" or "what I'm saying" were deleted from this book, it seems that the book's page count would be cut by about a dozen pages. Just think. PAGES of "I mean to say"... 

Having said this, L and I both read the book to completion. With other books, we've stopped if the book was beyond the pale. We agreed that its redeeming qualities are as follows:

 - Lucy Barton is in the same age group as L and I. This drew us to the book to begin with. And we do learn a thing or two from Lucy in that regard.

 - Lucy Barton came from an impoverished background, as did L and I. Lucy grew up feeling ostracized because of it. She felt like she was "other." 

 - There is also some history that we didn't know about before reading this book, such as that there were German POW camps (lots of them) here in the U.S. during WW2. WHO KNEW?  Since there's some German background in our family (more on L's side than mine), this bit of history is downright fascinating. And...whilst noodling around with Dr. Google, I discovered a map that shows many camps where German Americans were housed during WW2. Again, WHO KNEW/KNOWS THIS?? We've heard of Japanese Americans who were rounded up and imprisoned. Turns out, German American men, women and children were also kept in camps. 

And so, for the depth of feeling that Strout brings to the page with regard to an impoverished (and abusive) childhood, as well as frequent turns of phrases that redeem themselves, we gave this book 3 stars rather than 2. (Again, probably 2 and half).