My Name is Lucy Barton

Lucy grew up in rural Amgash, Illinois. She recalls how her family’s poverty set them apart from the other townspeople and how, from a young age, she knew “that we were different” (20). Lucy and her siblings would often go hungry and suffer abuse from their mother. She describes the isolation her family endured and questions how children learn how to navigate life. As an adult, Lucy struggles with her memories of her childhood.

Lucy’s mother talks to Lucy about her wealthy friend Kathie Nicely and complains about Kathie’s selfishness. She attributes Kathie’s selfishness to her being an only child. Lucy takes offense to this remark as her husband is an only child. Kathie fell in love with her daughter’s teacher and left her husband. Shortly after, she was abandoned by this man and shunned socially. Her husband refused to take her back. Lucy grows emotional thinking about Kathie.

Lucy recalls her childhood living in her uncle’s garage and inside his home. To escape the cold in the winter, Lucy would stay longer at school to complete her homework and read. Her love of reading inspires Lucy to become a writer. She keeps her dreams of writing a secret. Lucy’s extra time at school and devotion to reading leads her to earn perfect grades and a full scholarship to a college outside of Chicago.

She loves her new life in college and dreads returning home to Amgash. She begins a relationship with a professor. The relationship ends after he makes a disparaging remark about her humble upbringing. Lucy’s upbringing makes it difficult for her to connect with her classmates. When she meets William, she feels like “he really did understand something in me” (36). William’s father was “the son of German prisoner of war who was sent to work the potato fields of Maine” (36). His mother was the wife of a farmer who left her first husband. William’s father died when William was 14 years old. Lucy and William travel to Amgash to share their plans to get married and move to New York. Her father greets William coldly. Lucy’s mother explains to her that her father killed two German boys during his time serving in World War II and that William reminds her father of his guilt. She and William marry and have two daughters. She does not see her family until her mother arrives to help her in the hospital.

In her hospital room, Lucy asks her mother why she thinks Kathie’s lover left her. Her mother says that Kathie’s lover told her he was gay. The two women share a laugh. Lucy is overjoyed to be reunited with her mother.

Lucy describes her life in New York. She lives in a small apartment in the West Village with her husband, two children, and their dog and has a crush on an older French neighbor named Jeremy, a psychoanalyst. One of her daughters tells Jeremy that Lucy has had a story published in a small literary magazine. He calls her an artist and instructs Lucy “to be ruthless” (49). Lucy recalls a moment with Jeremy on their front steps as she remarks on two gay men walking past them. The men are sick with AIDS. Lucy notes that she is jealous of their community. Jeremy recognizes the loneliness in Lucy.

In the future, Lucy reflects on an incidental meeting with a writer named Sarah Payne in a clothing store. Drawn to Sarah, Lucy strikes up a conversation with her. Lucy reveals that the contents of this book are from her own novel that she was inspired to write after meeting Sarah. Upon returning home, Lucy discovers that she has read Sarah’s books. She feels connected to Sarah and the subject of her books about life in rural New Hampshire.

Strout returns the story to Lucy’s hospital room and her reunion with her mother. Lucy worries that her mother is not sleeping. Her mother assures her that she naps, a habit she formed in childhood when she did not feel safe sleeping at night. She does not tell Lucy why she did not feel safe, but she does tell Lucy about her family. Lucy asks her mother about her mother’s cousin Harriet and her son Abel who would spend summers with their family. Her mother makes fun of Lucy’s fear of snakes. She falls asleep listening to her mother talk. Lucy informs her mother that she has had multiple stories published in literary magazines. Her mother does not respond. The doctor interrupts them and comments on how Lucy’s scar is healing nicely.

As a child, Lucy’s parents locked her in a truck while they went to work and her siblings attended school. She recalls the terror she felt. The sounds of crying children trigger this terror in her as an adult. She remembers fantasizing about living a different life until her father would come and let her out.

Lucy’s doctor had come to check on her the previous evening. She states that she loves her doctor.

Lucy’s only other friend is a Swedish woman named Molla. Lucy likes how open Molla is with talking about her past. Molla talks about movies often, but Lucy has no knowledge about popular culture.

Lucy asks her mother why she came to see her. Her mother apologizes for how poor they were as children. She reveals that she worries about Lucy’s middle-aged brother, who reads children’s books about life on the prairie, and Lucy’s sister, who is always angry. Her mother praises Lucy for not caring about what other people think, a trait she attributes to Lucy’s success. Her mother denies knowing about the truck where Lucy had been locked. Lucy unveils that her fear of snakes developed after being trapped in the truck with a brown snake one day.

In sixth grade, Lucy’s new social studies teacher Mr. Hardy defends her against some popular girls who make fun of her. She proclaims her love for him. Mr. Hardy teaches Lucy about the mistreatment of American Indians. He leaves at the end of the year. Lucy thinks he left to serve in the Vietnam War.

Lucy wonders why her brother enjoys reading about life on the prairie. Her daughter Chrissie loves these books as well. She gifts her daughter one of her favorite books from childhood. Chrissie hates this book.

As she observes her mother’s growing fatigue and discomfort, Lucy worries about her mother leaving. In the middle of the night, a nurse informs Lucy that she needs a CAT scan. She discovers her mother waiting for her after her scan.

Lucy’s CAT scan results are normal. After a nurse offers her a gossip magazine to read, Lucy reflects on her and her mother’s hesitation to accept the magazine out of fear of judgment. Lucy and her mother struggle to communicate, which leads Lucy to reflect on her recurring reliance on the kindness of strangers throughout her life. As her mother naps, a distraught Lucy goes to the nurses’ desk to call her family.

Lucy describes a sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that has always stood out to her. It depicts a desperate man with his children clinging to him. The context of this sculpture is that the man is being starved in prison and that his children have offered themselves to him as nourishment. On one of her trips to see the sculpture, a guard informs Lucy that it has been moved.

Lucy’s mother recognizes an actress in the gossip magazine as the daughter of one of Lucy’s father’s friends. Lucy feels resentment when her mother mentions her father and calls the actress beautiful.