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My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash, #1)

Elizabeth Strout

Start date: July 16, 2017

Finish date: July 19, 2017

Discussion: July 2017: Award Winners

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July 2017: Award Winners

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By Anita · 1 post · 27 views

last updated Jul 01, 2017 03:06AM

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 4 + stars again.
By Karin · 4 posts · 18 views

last updated Aug 07, 2017 12:41PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 11, 2023 ~☆~Autumn rated it did not like it

Everyone likes it but me!

9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2016 Karin rated it liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, adult-fiction, families, novel, women-writers, american-literature, women, contemporary-fiction, fiction, literary-fiction

Lucy Barton, during a lengthy hospital stay and a visit from her estranged mother, begins a serious reflection over her life, although the character tells the story years later. She did not have a happy childhood, but we don't really know the depth of it until things seep out a little here and there.

The writing is strong as is the voice, but I really didn't find myself looking forward to getting back to this book, nor did I particularly like it. It gets three stars because the writing is just to ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2016 Nicole D. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-york, audio, family, 2016, 2016-favorite, man-booker-longlist

https://thereadersroom.org/2016/08/09...

This is a short, lovely little book that somehow manages to pack a wallop. There was a point in this book where I just burst into tears, and I realized at that moment how deftly I was brought to that point. You be you, Lucy B. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2016 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

2 stars. I actually didn't care for it. I find that interesting, as a lot of readers I respect and normally align with, find more in this than I did. First, I would say that Elizabeth Strout is a mixed bag for me. I loved Amy and Isabelle, really liked the Burgess Boys, but despised Olive Kitteridge with a passion. This one brings my appreciation of her style for myself back into the balance of mixed bag. To start, I found the main character of course traumatized, heartbroken by her husbands ref 2 stars. I actually didn't care for it. I find that interesting, as a lot of readers I respect and normally align with, find more in this than I did. First, I would say that Elizabeth Strout is a mixed bag for me. I loved Amy and Isabelle, really liked the Burgess Boys, but despised Olive Kitteridge with a passion. This one brings my appreciation of her style for myself back into the balance of mixed bag. To start, I found the main character of course traumatized, heartbroken by her husbands refusal or inability to visit her in the hospital, leaving her alone for weeks. Which is difficult enough, but after the childhood she's been through, her loneliness and heartbreak was devastating. She became a vulnerable small child, and the presence of her mother, the overwhelming need became so great. She hung onto every word, every morsel, crumb, story, searching for something, overwhelmed that her mother was there and cared. I liked that the mother had visions. I did. Made her really interesting. But we learned nothing about how those visions drove or shaped mother or Lucy's life. That was a strand that went nowhere - undeveloped and left cold, like so many.

The main character, Lucy, seemed to be traumatized for sure, but even in the perspective of a writer years later, she didn't seem to possess a whole lot of cognition, smarts, reflectivity, or insight. It was all feeling, attachment, need based - the profile of a broken woman, but not one with complex thought. I had wondered if the fever had cognitively impaired her in some way, or if the illness had impacted her cognitively. I found listening to her a constant wondering about cognitive deficits, replaced by unmanaged affect. She seemed like a small child. I also don't care for novels that there is no growth, no transformation, no healing, no insight, and this was one of those. This one failed to shoe me any movement in her story. Her later writing was as trapped in time as the current story. Not one ounce of insight or reflectivity. it felt like it does when I listen, and I listen often to PTSD. maybe that's why folks found it haunting. She was speaking from visceral memory, but as a reader, I do not have the ability I have as a therapist, to deepen, to share, to engage, to change, to stand with. Its alienating to read that. It haunts, because its terrible. But in my work, I have the opportunity to stand with, if not explore, blend with the present, heal in some way. This one left me flat. Curious to hear if anyone else agrees.

This morning, discovered that at least 100 of my reviews didn't survive the transition to Shelfari. I am grieving the loss of my beautiful reviews, and I'm not sure there is a way to retrieve them. So if my books start popping up, its because I was trying to. Happy Day everyone. Starting today, the Tsar of Love and Techno.

Amy ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 24, 2016 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, family-relationships, family, contemporary, literature, booker-prize-nominees, american-literature, women-writers, read-in-2016, 2016-publication

We've officially started our shadow panel of 2016 Man book longlist reads. You can find our full ratings and mini-reviews on the blog:

https://thereadersroom.org/2016/08/09...

...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2017 Miriam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: yearly-challenge-2017

The book is full of thoughts that seem familiar to the reader, but also full of thoughts that are disturbing. It is hard, not being able to fully reconstruct the childhood of Lucy Barton, because while reading I really wanted to know more about it. The narrative voice tells the story in an associative, sometimes seemingly random way. But the short chapters are full of thought-provoking, heart-wrenching Happenings. Once I got past the fact, that it sometimes seems more like a series of intertwine ...more

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Nov 11, 2021 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: enoyed, learning-tool, best-ever, tried-true-authors

I need new superlatives. I need a larger vocabulary to explain and illustrate my deep affection for this author's works. I often pull out my 'book quote journal' and jot a phrase or sentence from a book that I have found particularly meaningful. With this book, I could have just transcribed every word. It spoke to me. It is not my life; it is not even remotely like my life, and yet I could identify with the acceptance and quiet yearning of Lucy's narrative of her life. Can a story be beautiful a ...more

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