Yet, it sometimes feels rudderless. I admire the style of it and I acknowledge that the story was deliberately designed and assembled as it was, even though that was the piece that kept me from connecting with it the way others have.
Every day in New York we pass dozens, maybe hundreds or more, people, and who can know the emotional quality of their souls and how they got there. It's all in the conversations, the dialog, the exchange of thoughts and ideas.....and even in those moments when words, themselves, are not even necessary. And yet I felt detached and vaguely annoyed by her! There’s no doubt that Elizabeth Strout is a great author, she really doesn’t waste a word. In the end it felt overworked and clichéd, and kind of made me want to shake Lucy (or more accurately, Strout) and say "how about throwing in a compound sentence now and again!" This is the trademark of Elizabeth Strout's work, these somewhat interconnected stories. Oh, I was happy’—simple joy.” —Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review “Deeply affecting.” —The Guardian When Lucy says, with a satisfaction that’s bigger than happiness, that “all life amazes me,” we feel exactly what she means.‘Lucy Barton’ Review: Laura Linney Finds Her Perfect MatchLaura Linney as a New York writer recalling her past in “My Name Is Lucy Barton” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.Video projections and changes in lighting transform the hospital-room set into scenes from Lucy Barton’s Illinois childhood.
Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations I read and enjoyed Olive Kittredge and The Burgess Boys, so was quite excited about a new novel from this talented author. “We were equally friendless and equally scorned,” she says of herself and her sister Vicky, “and we eyed each other with the same suspicion with which we eyed the rest of the world.” With regard to her brother and sister, Lucy appears to suffer something akin to survivor’s guilt; she questions what she terms her own “ruthlessness”. In a visit byA quiet but moving reverie by a resilient woman on various timepoints in her life, revealing the distorted lens by which she views life around her and the troubling experiences of her past. In As she recovers from surgery complications, a shocked Lucy receives a five day visit from her estranged mother who can As she recovers from surgery complications, a shocked Lucy receives a five day visit from her estranged mother who can Interesting and touching read narrated in the form of multiple short stories as with Welcome back. For such a short novel, it's dense with story, thoughts and emotions. With enough distance, a picture does emerge. There really isn't a story here. And using the artfully shaded directness she has shown both on film As a storyteller, Strout’s Lucy is almost apologetic in her humility. My Name Is Lucy Barton covers a life story, poverty, abuse, art, marriage, the AIDs epidemic and subsequent fear, and a difficult relationship between a mother and daughter, all in less than two hundred pages. I was in tears at one point as Lucy desperately tries in vain to reach out to her mother for love, kindness or affection…something that her mother is sadly incapable of giving.An apparently simple tale of a woman's life from early hardship to later success, yet nothing about it is actually simple.
The simple and quiet books are starting to become a favourite of mine.The ways in which we show our love can be vastly different. She says she had never heard of such a thing happening before When I first started reading this I had the feeling that it was going to be a remarkable story. It is after all written by Elizabeth Strout. “My Name Is Lucy Barton” is smart and cagey in every way.