I’ve had a great week visiting old friends and playing tennis in the Virginia/D.C./Maryland area, but I’ve been “on the Go” quite a bit so I haven’t read much of anything this week (other than restaurant menus, LOL) but I look forward to diving more into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Americanah” on the plane ride home. That’s a book I picked for my book club, so I hope it’s a good one to discuss with others.
Meanwhile last week I finished two slim but interesting novels. The first being Elizabeth Strout’s latest book “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” which like her first novel “Amy and Isabelle” involves a mother-daughter relationship. Strout seemingly loves this dynamic and is awesome at exploring its ties. Over the years, I’ve read all of her novels except her 2006 one “Abide With Me,” which must have slipped past me, though I’m sure I should rectify that.
Her latest one is a melancholy novel narrated by a thirty-something wife, mother, and writer named Lucy, who after an operation spends nine or so weeks in the hospital in the mid-1980s recovering from an infection she gets post-surgery. While there, she is visited for five days by her estranged mother who she hasn’t been in touch with much in many years but still loves dearly. In trying to reconnect, Lucy is flooded with memories from her lonely childhood, growing up in poverty with her parents, sister, and brother outside a small farming town in Illinois, and from her married life since then in New York City.
It’s a book in some ways that feels more like observations or reflections than a full story. You may keep waiting for the story to begin when in fact these memories of her life and interactions with her mother from her hospital bed are what make up the book. Many writers probably couldn’t pull it off, but with Strout there’s various layers going on that drew me in — notably the subtleties of the mother-daughter reconciliation; the fact that Lucy in her married life has risen above her upbringing but is still marked by it; and by how the advice she receives from an author while attending a writer’s workshop pertains to her life.
These things and the fact that Strout is a writer that often hits upon heart and bone when exploring family ties and class — is what makes me pick up her books each time. There’s a truth in her writing. Maybe in some slight ways she’s a bit like author Anne Tyler that way but also different too. Strout’s character Lucy is surely a ways apart from her character Olive Kitteridge, yet both are no strangers to loneliness and sadness. This book though has a different arc and scope than that one — narrower but with a few layers that kept me going.
My second book last week was Nicola Yoon’s very popular 2015 young adult novel “Everything, Everything,” which I listened to as an audiobook. I don’t pick up many YA novels — perhaps my last one was John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” or Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy, but I can see why this one engaged so many readers.
I might be one of the last bloggers to get to Yoon’s book — as it was checked out at the library for months — but for those who haven’t heard the novel is about a whip-smart 18-year-old biracial girl named Madeline who has an immunodeficiency condition and can’t leave her sealed, air-filtered house where she lives with her physician mom and a full-time nurse. But then a boy, Olly, moves in next door and she falls for him (mainly over the internet and through her windowpane) and begins to want to risk her health to be with him in the outside world.
I was pretty entertained by the start of the book. Madeline is a bright and avid book reader, and the story creatively includes in its telling some of her small books reviews, quotes, emails, and instant messages with Olly. Her narration too is pretty upbeat for someone stuck inside house-bound for so many years whose heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing are constantly monitored. Though you can’t help but feel sorry for her since she’s alone a lot without much interaction except for a couple tutors, her nurse, and playing games with her mom at night. That is until she meets Olly, whose world is complicated too because of an abusive father.
As their friendship grows you begin to wonder: what will happen, and if Madeline and Olly will take a risk outside their worlds. The story seems to be building along just fine, but then a major twist happens toward the end, which I didn’t think worked and felt pretty creepy to me. It was like Ick. The twist bummed me and the story never really recovered for me after that, which is too bad. I did like the metaphor or moral of the story which I took away to be that: living an overly protected life can often be worse than the risks, and that it’s better to risk heartbreak then be trapped inside your house by fear. I appreciated that part of story, but just not the twist it used in getting there.
What about you have you read “My Name Is Lucy Barton” or “Everything, Everything” and if so what did you think?
I’ve been reading good things about Lucy Barton. I think it’s picking up momentum in the blogosphere. From your review I take it is well deserved.
About the other book, it doesn’t ring true. If the girl lived in a bubble, how did she meet her neighbor? Or the bubble was virtual?
Hi Carmen: I need to clarify that sentence to make it less confusing. Basically the girl has a condition like the Boy in the Bubble but is contained in her own house that has special air filters; she doesn’t have to be in a plastic bubble per se but can’t go outside her house. She sees the boy next door and begins a friendship with him over the internet and thru the window etc.
As for the Lucy Barton book, it’s a pretty internal book so there isn’t much action but full of reflecting back on one’s upbringing & youth.
Thanks for clarifying that. Now it makes sense. I guess I was overthinking it. Now doubt the internet has made communication easier even with neighbors.
My book club is reading Americanah for June. I hope it works well for you! I’m pretty confident that our book club, which specializes in books on race in America, will get a lot to discuss from it.
Yeah so far I’m only at the beginning of Americanah but I’m hoping it’ll be a good discussion book on race. We can compare notes on it, Joy. Thanks.
I fin that however much I intend to, I usually do not do a lot of reading when traveling.
Americanah looks to be very interesting book. I look forward to your commentary on it
Thanks Brian. Yeah I think I’ll enjoy Americanah. Traveling can be a bit disruptive to one’s reading!
Both books are on my TBR list. I had high expectations for Everything Everything, but I’ll temper that a little so I won’t be disappointed because from what I gather from what you say, the ending may not be up to the rest of the book.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Suzanne. Yeah I had high expectations too for Everything Everything, and it worked mostly but it might good to temper what happens in it. See what you think!
I have been eyeing My Name is Lucy Barton for a while now…I might as well give in and buy it!
Everything, Everything also intrigues me, and you are not the last blogger to read it, since I haven’t read it either…lol. When I think of a life inside, not going out at all, I sometimes realize that I can go for days like that. Seriously. I love my “interior world,” but I wouldn’t like being forced to stay indoors.
Thanks for sharing…and enjoy your week. Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
Yeah Laurel — a life indoors would be rough on me and I can imagine for a teenager too. The Lucy Barton book is a bit different.
I have read neither of those books, but I have a copy of Americanah sitting on my shelves to be read. I love, love, loved Half of a Yellow Sun
Yeah I’m enjoying Americanah so far. It seems very readable. Will let you know!
Mother-daughter stories just are not my thing, but I have heard such wonderful things about this one.
Safe travels!
Thanks Michelle. Yeah Lucy Barton is sort of a bleak book in ways, but it was interesting enough to keep me going.
I’ve been intrigued by the cover of Everything, Everything since it started showing up around the blogosphere. I think most of the reviews have been mixed though and I don’t think you’re the first blogger who has mentioned not liking the twist, so I’m not sure I’ll actually let the cover lure me in 🙂
Thanks Katie: It is an entertaining YA novel for the most part — but I just didn’t like the twist toward the end. Some might disagree. It’s a pretty popular book!
Lucy Barton is definitely on my list–I like Strout but haven’t read much by her. I do think the premise is interesting and challenging, as you point out.
I confess, I haven’t heard of Everything Everything –I think endings are pretty tricky for most authors. I have loved many a book, only to have a weird ending undermine the whole experience for me.
Thanks Jane. Yeah the Barton book is a bit different & challenging, and speaking of Everything, Everything: it’s weird when an ending can change one’s mind on a book. It feels like a loss. I don’t have that happen often.
Hi Susan, thank you for sharing your thoughts. And perhaps, I will be the last one on the planet to read ‘Everything Everything’. 🙂 I am just developing a palate for YA, and I would love to try this.
I haven’t read any of Strout’s books. Do you think it’s a good idea to start with this?
Hi thanks for stopping by Deepika. Yeah I’d be interested in your thoughts on Everything, Everything. I’m not a very seasoned YA reader so more thoughts on it — the better. As for Elizabeth Strout, you might try out her novel “Amy and Isabelle” first or “Olive Kitteridge.” They might be a bit more readable than this one. Enjoy.