The story in the novel deals with Lucy Barton's life. The setting is Amgash, Ill., and later Manhattan. Lucy Barton, with a childhood of difficult surroundings and detached cold adults around her, grows up to become a writer. When hospitalized, she looks back at her childhood and tries to see into the reality of it by talking to her aloof and unapproachable mother who visits her for five days during her long stay in the hospital.

Yet, the strength of the novel is not in what happens but in the meaning of what happens and in the display of Lucy Barton's loneliness, while child or adult.

Lucy herself and all the other characters are not vilified in the story; what's more, they are portrayed as individuals who are dealt blows by fate and who cannot break through the walls between them.

The strength of the novel is in its lack of melodrama. Without falling into overt sentimentalism, the author very successfully shows all the emotions and the nuances of them through imagery and well-written scenes.

the disturbing yet literary quality and the character portrayal.

is Elizabeth Strout whose book of short stories Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize.

it has a certain depth and a disturbing power to it that only a few authors are able to create.

This is a short book, almost a novella, and the reading of it doesn't take much time; however, I needed to stop periodically and think about the main character and those who surrounded her.

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Created Mar 09, 2016 at 5:42pm • Submit your own review...