Summary & Highlights of My Name Is Lucy Barton

by Summary Reads

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout - Summary & Highlights - "NOT ORIGINAL BOOK"
Lucy Barton is recovering from a seemingly simple operation, however, due to a slow recovery is forced to stay in the hospital a tad longer than previously expected. Her mother comes to visit and through conversations with her and a recollection of her past she starts to reflect on her childhood and its affects on her present life.
In "My Name is Lucy Barton" the reader gets a glimpse into the past and gains insight into the complicated relationship between a mother and her daughter. After not talking to her mother for years, she is finally reunited when her mother visits her in the hospital.
The exploration through their relationship lends unexpected vision into all other relationships in Lucy's life; her relationship with her husband, daughters, neighbors and family friends. Through this telling narrative one can gather the notion of a past's affects on their present and their telling of "their" story.
"My Name is Lucy Barton" is the thought-provoking tale of a woman discovering herself, her mother, her husband, her children, and the world around her.
Inside this SUMMARY READS Summary & Highlights of My Name Is Lucy Barton: Summary of Each Chapter Highlights BONUS: Free Report about The Tidiest and Messiest Places on Earth - http: //sixfigureteen.com/messy.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary

52 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2016

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure that I can write a clear review of this book having just finished it. I was both disappointed and enthralled at the same time. I wanted more; and yet I love the sparsity of her writing. I wish she wasn't so vague about what happened. She has an unusual relationship with her mother for sure;l and why was she in the hospital to begin with? Many many questions that may haunt me for months to come. Is that the sign of a good book? Help!!!!!

[Lucinda Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenal. It is beautiful, tragic and strange. I felt so bad for Lucy and her siblings, living with parents who never should have had children and were horrible to them. The family was looked down upon by others because they were dirty and smelled bad. I was so glad that Lucy's high school guidance counselor saved her and took her to college after buying her some decent clothes. Lucy never had to come home after that. Lucy always wanted her mother's love. It was remarkable that she could have become a loving mother to her own daughters. In my work as a psychologist, I have met people who became wonderful human beings after having horrible childhoods. The book could be somewhat autobiographical, and if it is, it's quite an amazing story. I've now read most of Strout's books and they are all fascinating to me.

[Nancy Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful portrait of mother/daughter relationships. It is pitched that way, and as events unfold, it seems to be so. But in the end, it was an expose of life. An examined life. Of her life, and at times, I felt it was of my life. And that is the way Strout's works effect me. Sometimes I feel like I actually know her characters, and in this case, although Lucy's life situations were very different from mine, I found myself identifying with her on many levels.
I will say, as the book evolved. I was saddened with the very short chapters, and at how quickly I was able to read it. But I guess that is testament to the fact that I didn't want it to end.
I love Strout's use of language, her use of words, her settings, the poetry I found in her descriptions of places I was myself familiar with. Needless to say, I loved the book.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Concept sounded interesting. It wasn't. I was bored to tears. Gave up. Didn't finish.

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

What makes a riveting novel ? For me, it is one where you look forward to reading each page, a sense of connection to the character (whether comparing, identifying, empathizing, disliking...). Can one feel empathy for a character who fils to achieve depth in her relationships?

It was a stumbling block for me, as writer, reading about Lucy, who says lines such as, "writing should never write to “protect someone”. What is it that Lucy is protecting as she provides what feels to be snapshots without substance? Can she write about poverty authentically?
This self-reflective statement leaves me unconvinced and not terribly moved: "You have to be ruthless to be a writer... the grabbing on to yourself and saying “this is me, and I will not go where I can’t bear to go, but will hurl onward through my life... ".

Set up – a mother comes to visit her daughter, and her stories give you a sense both of the people in Amgash, Illinois, flashbacks of memory and the overwhelming sadness of a mother who cannot say
“ I love you” to her daughter... cannot once ask about what her daughter values in her life.
Lucy’s life: be a writer, love her two daughters... There is not much depth to her marriage... just a passing illusion to her love of the doctor treating her. We find out about her one friend Jeremy who dies of aids... a heart-rending image of her brother who dressed up in his mother’s high heels, a bra over his teeshirt, and beads, being dragged in the streets by the father. The enforced parading of the son through the streets by the father didn’t fit with the reclusive nature of the father, nor did it help develop an understanding of the “thing” in her father, who murdered by accident two German soldiers...

I love the idea of "feelings in life having flavor" -- but I don't taste the flavor of loneliness, although I know it is there. What do you do when you feel very small in a very large universe-- and why would knowing about it matter to another ? Is the response of the soul only to deflate and say “oh” ? The description of the the statue of the man with desperation on his face, and the children at his feet, clinging, begging him, his hands pulling at his mouth is disturbing especially learning that the children are offering themselves as food for their father; he is being starved to death in prison... and the children only want one thing: to have their father’s distress disappear. They will allow him, oh, happily, happily—to eat them. “Oh” they say. This is a strange scene, and although distressing, not believable.


I enjoyed learning about the Indians... and Black Hawk who said: “How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.”

I am left looking at the Chrysler building on cover and the 3 references to this building that don't seem to develop a theme.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a childhood of poverty, trash that neighbors and schoolmates ridiculed. Lucy stayed at school to stay warm and studied. She won a scholarship and went to college. She did not stay in touch with or visit her family after marrying a German. Her Dad was in WWII and could not abide Germans and her Mother took her Father’s side. Besides the memories that never leave, this book gives insight on what it means to write.
“And she said that her job as a writer of fiction was to report on the human condition, to tell us who we are and what we think and what we do”.
“But I think I know so well the pain we children clutch to out chests, how it lasts our whole lifetime, with longings so large you can’t even weep. We hold it tight, we do, with each seizure of the beating heart: This is mine, this is mine, this is mine”.
“You will have only one story,” she had said. “You’ll write your one story many ways. Don’t ever worry about story. You have only one.”
“I have said before: It interests me how we find ways to feel superior to another person, another group of people. It happens everywhere, and all the time. Whatever we call it, I think it’s the lowest part of who we are, this need to find someone else to put down.”

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Strout's writing and characters never fail to impress and move me. Would have given this 5 stars but I thought it was a novel. It was more of a novella and I wasn't expecting it to be so short. I wanted more and was a bit disappointed.

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I was looking forward to reading a book that was supposed to give some insights into the character's relationships with her own mother, husband, daughter, etc., I didn't come up with anything! Too vague.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could have been a story about so many of us. The characters were real, people I know. Even when I wasn't reading I was thinking about Lucy and her Mother.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started my rating with one star, which I give any book I finish, but added a second because the endorsements on the jacket of the book I read were spot on.

I had to stop there, because a third star would have meant the prose was excellent*, and a fourth would have meant I didn't want the book to end, and a fifth star meant it couldn't have been any better, I'd recommend it to friends, I might re-read it, I'd be thinking and talking about it for a long time.

*It did follow two Steinbeck novels and The Great Gatsby, all three with disturbing plots but incredible prose. Tough acts to follow.

[David Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is good, (3 1/2 stars, if it were allowed), but for me it's not a patch on Strout's related book of nine interlinked stories, 'Anything is Possible', in which we get a finely imagined mosaic of the lives of those left behind in Lucy Barton's dusty native town of Amgash, Illinois. There is one absolutely outstanding scene in the novel, though - when Lucy recalls having to turn away from a New York Pride parade, haunted by the vision of her brother Pete as a distraught teenager being marched humiliatingly through the town in high-heels and bra by their outraged father.

[Elizabeth Driscoll Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy's voice is so relatable, her return to childhood and remembering and also rethinking her past sets us up tp really care about what happens to her. There is an absence of self reflection combined with excellent reflection upon the world around her in Lucy that comes back in all Elizabeth Strouts follwoing novels that feature her.

[April L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the book tapped into ‘Lucy’s’ mind, I was left with many questions. Many of her memories suggested violence and neglect, one was left with only suppositions. So as much as I loved ‘Olive Kitteridge,’ I found myself hanging from a limb without conclusions of Lucy.

[Peter B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally got around to Lucy after struggling with William. Be sure to read this one before you go to Oh William Now it all makes some degree of sense.
Loved Lucy and Strout’s delightfully simple telling.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much left unsaid. I didn't want it to end. Maybe there will be a follow up.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book - somehow came to us after having read oh Henry and Lucy by the sea. So sweet.

[Kasiaott Otterbein · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very disappointing Strout book. Made myself finish it though it did not enthrall me like her others.

[John]

Woman in hospital talks to mother. Exposition happens.

[Lianne]

I very much admired Elizabeth Strout's novel "Olive Kittridge," so was drawn to this title since it's been on the best seller list the last few weeks. Once again, the author delivers a powerful story in a deceptively simple concentrated package of less than 200 pages. The novel is set in New York City, most of the scenes in a hospital where Lucy Barton is in bed struggling with a serious long term infection in the shadow of the Chrysler building visible through her window. Her husband has called her mother to come and be with her while he looks after their two children. Lucy's relationship with her mother is strained, especially because so much can't be said about their family life and how extreme poverty affected them both. While her mother sleeps sitting in a chair by her bedside they are able to be more honest with each other than they ever have been. Her mother gradually from a deep reserve, shares details about events and people from their home town. Lucy's gratitude for these shreds from her mother is heartfelt, and she must live satisfied with whatever her mother can communicate, even if it is so emotionally limited and constrained. As in her other titles, Elizabeth Strout succeeds in conveying the complexity of life with minimal words, expressing the nature of Yankee emotional reserve in a convincing tour de force.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elisabeth Strout is a gifted writer for sure, but the space between the words and feelings was just too overwhelming for me to fill in. Just as Lucy didn't really want to uncover the buried events in her life, I didn't want to either. A painful book to read which focuses upon Lucy's feelings of longing to be loved, to belong, to have, and to just BE - to be accepted with the ease that middle class people in her world were accepted. I don't know what experience the author has had with poverty and despair, but she writes as if she knows it well.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book ,wonderfully written. So much left unsaid. Not a typical mother / daughter relationship but so interesting. We never really find out the 'secrets' that went on in Lucy's home , but figure it was something of a sexual nature. Another book that shows how scarred we can be from our childhood experiences.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful book about Mother/daughter relationship or lack of relationship. Written in simple strong language, short "chapters", and comparisons with other people in her life and how they affected her with what seems her quest for emotional closeness to others.

[Patricia Zimmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

very short story...more of a novella than a book. the story was good and well written I was just disappointed to see that it was less than two hundred pages many of which were half white space. Not a good entertainment value when you consider the price.

[Vickie Marton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I loved Lucy Barton. Although she has enjoyed some success she is also wounded from her childhood, and those wounds run deep. The have affected her throughout her life, but she has survived and in some ways thrived, wounded. I think so many of us can relate to Lucy Barton.

[Nancy Jacobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a book written in the first person in a very long time. This book is beautiful. The mother-daughter relationships are truly from the heart. The thoughts that Lucy shares are so realistic and believable. Elizabeth Stout is a sensitive author.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book received excellent reviews, and I appreciate the good writing, I must admit that I did not enjoy the story very much. Lucy's childhood was terrible and I could not relate to her relationship with her mother.

[Judy Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it to be depressing!

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as her previous books.

[Pamela Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every word. For anyone who has ever had a mother, read it.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quick read and it was awesome. The style of writing is very personal and it is just so insightful. Very worth reading....