My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout

NOTE: This month my Library Book Group is discussing two of Elizabeth Strout's novels, My Name is Lucy Barton and The Burgess Boys.  (The guide for The Burgess Boys was posted in 2014 and updated this week.) It will be a jam-packed evening!

Characters
Family	Others
Lucy William – husband, divorced when children grown Chrissie and Becka – daughters 2nd husband Mother Dad Vicky – older sister William - older brother Aunt Harriett Uncle Roy Abel and Dottie - children	Jeremy – upstairs neighbor Sarah Payne – writer Professor – artist – Lucy had an affair with him in college Evelyn – Catwin’s Cake Shoppe – shared town’s gossip with Lucy’s mother Molla – friend Kathy Nicely – only child from hometown – left husband for teacher who never married her – lost connection with children and husband

 For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition.

1. Discuss the various characters.  Did you like them?  Were you able to relate and understand them?
2. How did Lucy’s childhood affect her as a grown up?  Do you think it was realistic that she overcame her childhood experiences – for example, as a preschooler she was routinely locked in the car trunk when there was no one to watch her. (page 58)
3. On page 112, Lucy wrote that she asked experts about what her mother could have remembered about Lucy’s childhood and they stated that they did not know what her mother remembered.  What do you think?  Could these memories be why she never contacted Lucy?  Can you understand Lucy’s childhood?
4. Could you understand Lucy’s father’s reaction to William, Lucy’s first husband, being of German descent after it was revealed that the father had killed two young German men in the war who were not soldiers?   Do you think the father should have been able to overcome that and accept William?
5. Lucy’s second husband grew up poor like she did.  Do you think that will make a difference in their marriage compared to Lucy and William?
6. Discuss the father’s two reactions to William (brother) being gay.  In one he made him walk through town wearing women’s clothes and screamed at him and in the other he held him and cried.  Given the father’s life, could he have reacted any differently? 
7. Was it realistic that Lucy’s mother did not attend or acknowledge her wedding and they barely talked after children first born, but then she showed up at hospital and never left the room for five days?  Then, when Lucy was faced with serious surgery, she abruptly left.
8. Knowing the family relationships, why did William call Lucy’s mother to come and stay with her?
9. On the second to last page, Chrissie told Lucy she hoped her two step-parents would die and Lucy and William could reunite.  Lucy thought, “I did this to my child.”  (page 190) Was this a better or worse situation than the one Lucy grew up in?
10. What did you think about Lucy’s transition to college?  What were some of the gaps in her “knowledge about popular culture?” (page 25) Was it realistic that she would be able to make this transition?
11. When Lucy was having the affair with her college professor, she ended it after he made one small comment about her family eating baked beans.  (page 28) Lucy thought, “…a tiny remark and the soul deflates and say: Oh.”  Do you think this is an insightful comment or is she overreacting?
12. At the writing workshop with Sarah Payne, one of the participants asked Sarah how long she had had PTSD after she jumped when a cat came in through an open window.  Do you think Lucy had PTSD? 
13. After reading this book, do you think you understand the characters?  Do you understand people any better?
14. On page 86 and 87, Strout writes about Lucy seeing a statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of a man and his children.  The placard said the man was starving and the children were offering themselves to their father to eat.  Lucy thought, “So that guy knew.  Meaning the sculptor. He knew.  And so did the poet who wrote what the sculpture has shown.  He knew too.”  What did they both know?
15. Lucy had a private consultation with Sarah at the workshop, and Sarah told her, “This is a story about love, you know that. This is a story of a man who has been tortured every day of his life for things he did in the war.  This is the story of a wife who stayed with him.” (page 107) Do you agree that this novel is about love?
16. At the writing workshop, Sarah told the class, “You will have only one story…You’ll write your one story many ways.  Don’t ever worry about story.  You have only one.”  (pages 145-145) Ann Patchett said the same thing at a speech in Pittsburgh, PA in October 2016.  Looking at several of Strout’s book, do you agree?  Are they all one story told differently?
17. At the workshop, Sarah said that the job of a fiction writer is to, “report on the human condition, to tell us who we are and what we think and what we do.”  (page 98) Did Elizabeth Strout fulfill this job for you in this novel?
18. Especially toward the end of the novel there were several short chapters that left a lot of white space on the pages.  Was this white space important to the reading of the book of could the pages have been condensed and thus the cost of the book?
19. What do you think the last page meant?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.