Express News Service
Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! could have been called Oh Lucy! and it would have barely made a difference to the 250-word novel. It is the exclamation in the title, however, that is critical, because William isn’t thought about, or spoken to, even once, without the punctuation.
It’s as though Lucy, our narrator and William’s former wife, cannot stop worrying about him, with whom she now shares a cordial relationship.
Lucy says about their relationship: “We were married for almost 20 years before I left him and we have two daughters, and we have been friends for a long time now––how I am not sure exactly. There are many terrible stories of divorce, but except for the separation itself, ours is not one of them.”
Oh William! at its heart, is a memoir-of-sorts, an ode perhaps, to a relationship that has moved on from a partnership and evolved into a friendship, and the fondness comes through in Strout’s prose. We learn that even though some terrible things happen to William, he doesn’t make bad choices. The same can be said of Lucy.
There’s a lot of history to their camaraderie, and now that they are in their (almost) twilight years, there’s no room for animosity. Lucy knows everything there is to know about William. He, however, lives in a world of his own, where he sits with his sorrows before opening up to Lucy and their daughters, Chrissy and Becka. He has another daughter with his third wife Bridget, but she appears only in a handful of scenes.
Strout gives us a glimpse of the present state of the companionship between these exes-turned-friends when she takes us along on William’s trip from New York City, where he lives, to a small town to meet with a relative he did not know of. During his time there, he stumbles upon a vital piece of information regarding his dead mother, which pushes him to connect the dots that until now, were missing.
Lucy tags along, even though, in the larger picture, it does not seem essential. William left alone, may
have suffered a great deal on the trip on account of loneliness, which is also a running theme in the
novel, considering the ages of the protagonists. Old people, who live alone, often fall into a pit of silence in the absence of company.
There are many tears behind the jollity of Oh William! There are a couple of unhappy marriages,
a death, and even a miscarriage. But there’s nothing, except warmth in Strout’s prose; her literary language flows like a river that doesn’t hit any rocks. It doesn’t change directions.
The suddenness of the altered reality that William is thrown under upon discovering his mother’s past and the way Lucy recollects her second marriage too are sheathed in carefully curated descriptions. Lucy, in the beginning, reveals that she feels safe with William and when that sentiment evaporates later, the
reason she states is hilariously bizarre yet fitting. That Lucy doesn’t show people who have wronged her in poor light, seems a conscious call. It’s as if she’s picking the thorns with gloved hands. Strout, perhaps, doesn’t want her readers to reach for tissues.
In that vein, Oh William! can be seen as a half-sibling to Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer-winning book Less (2017). Although their tones are different, both American novels have protagonists who are unabashedly vulnerable and aren’t afraid to reassess their relationships and ties that are made and remade over the course of several decades. Reading both books gives one the sense that there’ll always be problems, but it’s up to us to not let that define the arcs of our routines.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Life Style News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
