Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

“We do not know anybody, not even ourselves...We are all mysteries...this may be the only thing in the world I know to be true.”

Elizabeth Strout got taken off my list of authors after really strongly disliking Olive Kitteridge. This predated my book review days by many years, but I never got on the Lucy Barton train because of Olive.

So what changed my mind? The Booker Long List of course. And the fact that I stumbled across an audio copy at the library, so I had absolutely nothing to lose, not even a Libro credit!

And I'm happy to say that a girl can change her mind. Now I do see that Oh William only has 3.9 stars on Goodreads, if you put any value in that, which I honestly don't. But I did read through some reviews before diving in and there are still a lot of readers who do not like this book. And for the same reason I didn't like Olive - curmudgeonly characters and far too depressing. And yet, this time it didn't bother me as much so clearly I am a bit of a different reader than I was in 2008.

What I liked. The audio is stellar - if you can get past the number of times you have to actually hear Lucy say Oh William! But that aside, Strout's prose is so accessible and casual in nature that you really feel as though you're talking with an old friend. And just as you're casually reading, she floors you with a life affirming epiphany and it's one of those "grab the highlighter" moments. She cuts to the quick.

This is a painful book - so reflective and full of regrets, and yet there is redemption at the end that feels authentic and viable. At its heart, this is a story about the baggage we drag behind us, the people we choose to share that baggage with and how life comes full circle much more quickly than we'd ever have dreamed.

This is a character study! So if you're looking for plot, walk away. But Lucy won me over (I despised William, but so be it) and all in all, I was smitten with this very touching and raw novel.