I’ve just finished reading Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, and as with her other novels, I enjoyed its calm pace and window into the domestic lives of its characters. Strout’s “Lucy” series is not for readers who prefer more action-driven novels. Lucy is a protagonist who readers watch doing very domestic, simple things, and then thinking about them. She reflects on conversations, walks by the sea, long drives around Maine, phone conversations – or lack thereof – with her daughters. Lucy is a writer, so as I writer, I enjoyed reading how she imagines who might live in the run-down hovels they pass on a long drive, and then she creates those people in her mind, and writes stories about them. I like to do that too. And she take pleasure in simple things, notices the words people say and how they say them. She is not one to dwell on materials possessions or drama; she would rather have simple furnishings that she loves. But Lucy herself is anything but simple.
