Lucy by the Sea is the latest in Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy Barton novels. As usual, it references all the others, including her books that are not about Lucy. It is also a Covid chronicle.
The beginning recaps a bit of her previous novel, Oh, William! Lucy is still grieving the death of her second husband, David, when her first husband, William, calls to tell her the virus is coming and he’s taking her away from New York City. Lucy is oddly oblivious to what’s happening and only packs for a few days. William has to take her laptop himself.
Lucy finds them in a house in Maine all by itself at the end of a point above the sea. Bob Burgess (of The Burgess Boys) has arranged this home for them. William has also talked their daughters, Chrissy and Becka, into leaving Brooklyn for Connecticut.
From this distance, William and Lucy experience all of the dislocating effects of the pandemic—the worry about others, the isolation, the shock of hearing about friends’ deaths, the yearning for contact. Lucy is as always naïve but wise, full of anxiety and affection. She finds she cannot write.
I always love the Lucy books, which have a deepness to them that lies beneath an almost childlike storytelling style, but this one seems even more lovely.
What? Me Read? 
The Burgess Boys is the only Elizabeth Strout book I’ve read and I didn’t like it much, so haven’t read any of her others. Maybe I should try the first Lucy book one day.
Oh, I liked that one. My first book was Olive Kitteridge.
Oh… I didn’t know about the connection to The Burgess Boys… I haven’t read that. I wasn’t much of a fan of Olive, but I love these Lucy books, and yes, this was the best of them if you ask me.
I liked My Name Is Lucy Barton a lot, too.