Her latest, Oh William!, continues Strout’s captivating saga of Lucy Barton, the heroine who comes from such a modest, not to say debilitating, background to rise to the height of admired novelist and university professor. Here she engages with ex-husband William, whose own wife has left him with a half-empty apartment and a sense of devastation. They have other family news of a disturbing kind, and together they travel to Maine to make sense of it all. Through it all, we are treated to Lucy’s inner dialogue, delivered so pitch-perfectly.
The novel flows on Lucy Barton’s memories and current dilemmas, not on a substantial plot. This design—the constant flow of Lucy’s doubts and affirmations, the jumping-around in Lucy’s memories—requires other-worldly skill in my opinion. How did Strout get these thoughts and impressions in such perfect order? How did she deploy them so they come to us at such a pace, lined up in the proper sequence, to build Lucy’s consciousness and decision process? Strout’s a marvel, everybody knows that. This novel is simply further proof.
Space doesn’t allow a discussion of all the rewarding ways the author deals with the issues raised. Lucy thinks she’s invisible, but it’s proven otherwise to her over and over. William needs to be told the truth about his emotional detachment from the women in his lives, but Lucy skirts the issue, since being his ex, she feels no responsibility any more. The story concludes with an odd invitation from William to revisit another scene from their shared past, and we are left to guess why.
Oh William! proves again Strout’s mastery of this voice and this design of storytelling. Very highly recommended, as is everything I encounter of hers.
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