Lucy by the Sea, Lessons and The Soul of Kindness

 

Very nearly a year ago I wrote a review of Elizabeth Strout's "Oh, William". This included the following:

"It is then that William takes centre stage as he invites Lucy on a road trip to trace some of his roots. Lucy's second husband has died, and she is still on reasonable terms with William as they travel around some deprived rural areas of closed down America. When Lucy talks about her marriage (to David), it is so revealing that it seems as if we are intruding in something so personal. But the story is never less than enthralling and the spare prose from this wonderful writer grips our attention. There is something unusual for me to pick on a character after reading about her a good few years ago, and in this case a real treat. I started off with Laura Linney in my head, having seen her as Lucy on stage, but that soon passed, and Strout's real Lucy took over. I will have to wait until next year to read "Lucy by the Sea"."

And so here we are in the pandemic, and William persuades Lucy to leave her apartment in New York and stay with him in a house perched on a cliff outside Crosby in Maine. Safe as houses. And it did take a lot of persuasion as Lucy has no idea how series is the situation in America. When William uses a rubber glove to hold the nozzle of the petrol pump, Lucy thinks he is totally over-reacting. However, it is Bob Burgess who has found then this house (yes, that Bob Burgess from "The Burgess Boys").

Lucy does not like the house but can put up with it for a couple of weeks. Ha ha. There is quite a lot about living in the pandemic. I didn't know that there was a problem there with the absence of toilet paper in the shops. We still have a roll of that blue decorators paper from that time. And I now know that a nightstand is actually a bedside table. Lucy has some nice (socially distanced) walks with Bob. But it's Lucy's relationship with her ex husband that is at the heart of the story, their living together in a difficult time.

There is one point in the book, among many remembering her mother, that Lucy talks about visiting her in hospital. Straight out of "My Name is Lucy Barton" and the play with Laura Linney as Lucy. Not to mention the author's Olive Kitteridge popping up now and again, and even Isabelle from "Amy and Isabelle". Gradually the vaccine allows more socialising, and Lucy is able to see her two daughters Chrissy and Becca. A late conversation with the former is the best part of the book. Lucy is now older, she must be in her late sixties? But she is still that mixture of being difficult and sensitively loving. Told superbly by one of my favourite writers.

The life story of Roland Baines whose wife Alissa leaves him literally holding the baby. So a male single parent. But as the story tracks backwards and forwards, we arrive at his boarding school when he is eleven. Here his eye test reveals a need for glasses and a revelation in vision. I was just the same. Soon we are into the crux of the story and his piano lessons with Miss Cornell. Their relationship haunts Roland for the rest of his life. A school trip to the American airbase at Lakenheath reminded me of when we went to play basketball there on a full size court.

Alongside the story of Roland's life we are treated to reams of current affairs and the authors own views. Most of these I tried to skip as they were so boring. Of course he gets to see The Rolling Stones at the Ricky-Ticky Club in Guildford and Bob Dylan at Earls Court. So awfully obvious as was when he is at the opening of the Berlin Wall and is carried through in the crowd. However, all those parts about his family and later relationships are superb as we run through the years. But in his mind, Alissa and Miss Cornell are never far away, and how this is resolved is the subject of two brilliant set pieces.

Not my favourite of the eight Elizabeth Taylor novels I have read. Although some say it is one of her best. But the first paragraph is so funny, it's a shame nothing else quite lived up to it. Why does everyone treat Flora with reverence. Just because she is tall and beautiful and just wants the best for everyone doesn't mean she should be put on a pedestal. Her husband, her family, in-laws and friends are all the same. Thank heavens for her friend Meg who, for once, sees through the perfection.

However, here are still all the trademark Taylor witticisms, if sparsely spread. "To be said to take after anyone is usually derogatory to both parties". And talking about a writer "he had all kinds of little tricks for helping him to start work. For instance leaving off in mid sentence the day before". And later "Moneys to be used up, not left behind one".

In the introduction we are told about "three marvelous novels (of hers) of the 1960's. "In Summer Season" (I rated four stars), "The Wedding Group" (four stars again) and "The Soul of Kindness". I preferred the first two.