![]() ![]() The opening chapter concerns Tommy Guptill, who had once owned a dairy farm that burned to the ground, possibly as a result of arson. It is a novel told in a series of interconnected stories, each featuring a tale of small-town life that illuminates a more profound truth. Set in and around Barton’s home town of Amgash, Illinois, this is a shimmering masterpiece of a book. Strout shows compassion for her characters, but never sentimentalityĪnything Is Possible is not exactly a sequel, but it does feature Lucy Barton as one of the characters. My Name Is Lucy Barton was rightly longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker prize. Strout is the opposite of a literary show-off: her writing has no ego and the sentences she creates are to serve the characters, rather than the author. It was a devastating story, quietly told by a writer with a casually worn mastery of structure. Much of the novel consisted of oblique conversations between Lucy and her estranged mother, interspersed with fragments of memory that were eventually stitched together to give a fuller impression of an upbringing punctuated by abuse and impoverishment. It was set over five days, within four walls, and came in at 200 pages. ![]() My Name Is Lucy Barton told the story of a hospitalised novelist coming to terms with her deprived childhood. ![]()
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