Review of OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout (New Release)

 4.5 Stars

I was excited to read the third book in the Amgash trilogy.  My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible are amongst my favourite books, and Oh William! is another masterpiece.

Lucy, now in her early sixties, is grieving the death of her second husband David.  But the book focuses more on Lucy’s relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt, with whom she still has a friendly and supportive relationship.  William is floundering after a third failed marriage and calls on Lucy to accompany him on a trip to Maine after he has uncovered a family secret.  The trip becomes a journey of self-discovery because Lucy discovers truths about herself as she gains insights into others’ behaviour and choices.  She comes to better understand her ex-husband and her marriage to him, as well as her former mother-in-law, Catherine Cole. 

This is very much a character study; it is introspective, almost meditative, not plot-driven.  What emerge are complex sketches of characters, especially Lucy and William.  A professor’s wife once described Lucy as a girl with “’absolutely no sense of her own self-worth’” and though Lucy is a successful author, she still has lingering self-doubt.  For instance, she always seems amazed when someone mentions having read her books and recognizes her.  Her insecurity also shows in her concern about how others perceive her, worrying that she might “still give off the faint smell of what [she] came from.”  About ten times, she mentions feeling invisible.  She also seems overly concerned about being misunderstood because she constantly uses the phrase “What I mean.”

After reflection, Lucy comes to understand that she is not alone in feeling “what it is like to be marked as separate from society.”  She acknowledges that though she has definitely been scarred by her difficult, impoverished childhood, she has the ability to love, something which surprised even a psychiatrist familiar with Lucy’s upbringing.  She hates when William retreats into himself and doesn’t communicate, but realizes that she too did that and so denied William “any chance of comforting me – oh, it was an unspeakably awful thing.”  She realizes too that she can be self-absorbed. 

We learn about William through Lucy’s thoughts and comments.  She describes him as being distant often:  “with his pleasant distance, his mild expressions, he was unavailable.”  At one point she mentions being so tired of “the petulant boy beneath his distinguished and pleasant demeanor.”  However, she also mentions his sense of authority and admits, “This authority was why I had fallen in love with William.”  Though her marriage to William had been for a time “a hideous thing,” she is grateful he “ushered me into the world” which she knew little about because of her childhood.  Each of us has positive and negative qualities so I loved how Lucy would describe something negative about William but then continue with “But there is this” or “Except I do need to say” and an example of something positive about him.

Oh William! is the perfect title.  Lucy utters the phrase often, though it expresses different emotions:  surprise, embarrassment, pity, exasperation.  Always, however, there is affection.  William has struggles, fears, doubts, and failings, but she does too, so “when I think Oh William!, don’t I mean Oh Lucy! too?”  William is flawed, but so is Lucy.  He, like she, has been shaped by experiences over which he had no choice.

A major theme is our inability to really know another person.  Lucy tries to understand the behaviour of her mother, father, and mother-in-law but concludes “who ever really knows the experience of another.”  Though our ability to understand ourselves and others hopefully develops as we mature, in the end, “Everybody in this whole wide world, we do not know anybody, not even ourselves!  Except a tiny, tiny bit we do.  But we are all mythologies, mysterious.  We are all mysteries . . . This may be the only thing in the world I know to be true.”

I loved the style of the book which reads like a spontaneous conversation with a friend.  I felt like I had sat down with Lucy for a catch-up chat.  The conversation touches on subjects and emotions that will strike a chord with people.  I certainly recognized myself.  The book inspires readers to consider their own relationships and to perhaps be more forgiving of themselves and others. 

This is definitely a book to read . . . and re-read.  Though it may seem simple, it has great depth that may not be fully appreciated without at least a second reading.

Note:  I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.