Name: Oh William!
Rating: 4.145 (50 reviews)
ISBN: 9781638081289

Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. "William," she confesses, "has always been a mystery to me." Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.

Oh William!

"Strout's iconic heroine Lucy Barton recounts her complex, tender relationship with William, her first husband -- and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante."--

A Novel

Jeannette Ordas

Oh, how delightful! What a strange thing to say about a book that deals with generational trauma, but it really is wonderfully charming. I didn't know that this was part of a series, but it's easy to jump right in. A nice quick read too.

Megan McMorran

Here Strout writes in what might seem an overly familiar style, as if she’s writing a letter to her best friend, about her exasperating (Oh William!) ex-husband.  Instead of annoying or trite, it’s refreshing and indirectly, brilliantly insightful about the narrator and her ex-husband, and comes off as a welcome development of her character (this is the third in a trilogy about Lucy Barton). Through her chatty discourse, she reveals much about love and unexpected human strengths and deficits and how one can become the other, and we are often—always?—the last to catch on. 

Kourtney

I received an email from the publisher of Oh William! with a blurb that said "because you loved Taylor Jenkins Reid..." - I didn't have to read any more after that. I absolutely loved TJR! I fell in love with Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and enjoyed the ride of Malibu Rising. Couple that with reading how the author of Oh William, Elizabeth Strout, won a Pulitzer Prize for her writing, and I really wanted to give this one a try. 

Oh William is book 3 of a series about Lucy Barton's life. It does read well as a stand alone. Book 1 was made into a Broadway show that starred Laura Linney. I had to see what this was all about!

As a fan of women's fiction, there is a certain pace that I have become accustomed to. Stories can move quickly, and sometimes there are twists and turns you never saw coming. Characters come alive and I look for books that make me want to continue turning the pages. This story's pace was very different from that.

The action in this story is very passive. I did not feel like I was there in the thick of it, but rather I was sitting in a rocking chair on a porch, listening to my grandmother tell stories of her life. Some places Lucy would say "I won't talk about that" and then later she would reminding us that she didn't want to talk about it but in order to make sense of the current story, we had to have a bit of extra information. Having come off of a story that was fast moving and a little bit of a spicy romance, this was an interesting change of pace. 

Strout can weave together a nice story, but you have to be in the right frame of mind for it. I would not call this a quick read or an exciting read, but it was nice to step outside of my story comfort zone and read something new. 

Thank you to the publishers for providing an advanced copy for review via #netgalley

Nikki Cannon

erika s

Sarah Erle

Allison Ball

Liz Prinz

Maisie MacDonald

Kait Long

Denyse 

James Haliburton

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership. Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know about those closest to us; and the way people live and love, against all odds. At the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the mystery of existence. 'This is the way of life,' Lucy says. 'The many things we do not know until it is too late.' 'Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favourite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement' Ann Patchett 'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel 'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith 'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell 'A majestic book. I do not know any other writer who can portray life in this way' Rachel Joyce 'One of America's finest writers' Sunday Times 'An absolute delight of a book' Claire Fuller 'A wonderful book' Emma Healey

Oh William!

Reviews

Highlights