I don't necessarily know what I thought about this book. Much of it felt very real, particularly the first 3/4 of it which focused on the relationship between Lucy and her mother when her mother came to visit her while Lucy was in the hospital with an unnamed illness. I really liked how Strout portrayed the way these two women talked to each other, and how Lucy felt about her mother, and how they showed love to each other even though it didn't look like it. I didn't love the last bit where Lucy talked more about her marriage failing, etc., which just didn't feel like it was all that connected to the narrative that I really enjoyed about her mom. I wanted one cohesive story about Lucy and her mom, and I was surprised that there was more to Lucy's story that didn't go with it, because that was what the rest of the book seemed like it was about. There were several parts that were painful to listen to, like Lucy talking about her childhood, but it was inspirational how she overcame those rough beginnings without making a huge deal out of it. I thought Lucy was like, yeah, my childhood was hard, but no big deal, I'll just go to college and be awesome but still be myself and not ashamed of where I came from. She didn't seem to celebrate or run away from her impoverished background or her somewhat abusive home (it doesn't seem actually abusive, but definitely dysfunctional and neglectful in a lot of ways), and just accepted it for what it was and herself for what she was and grew to love her new life. I wouldn't say I loved this, but it was an interesting book to listen to. Plus, it was super short (only four segments on Overdrive), so that was a bonus. I don't imagine I will remember this book for very long, though.
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