Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (From Goodreads):

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author traces the enduring bond between a divorced couple in a poignant novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life.

Through her careful words and reverberating silences (The New York Times), Elizabeth Strout has long captured readers' hearts with her spare, exquisite insights on family, relationships, and loss. And never has her perfect attunement to the human condition (Hilary Mantel) been so evident as in these pages, as Strout's iconic heroine Lucy Barton, of My Name Is Lucy Barton, recounts her complex, tender relationship with William, her first husband--and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidant. Recalling their college years, through the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a decades-long partnership.

A masterful exploration of human empathy, Oh William! captures the joy and pain of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that rearrange everything we think we know about those closest to us; and the way people live and love, despite the variety of obstacles we face in doing so. And at the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. This is the way of life, Lucy says. The many things we do not know until it is too late.

Review:

Oh William!, the new novel by author Elizabeth Strout, is the culmination of a three novel exploration of the affects of child abuse.  As with the other two books, these topics are brought up subtly.  There's as much conveyed with what's not being said as there is written on the page.  I enjoyed this series of books so much for it's characters, storytelling, and insights.  Oh William! is a worthy conclusion to this series.

What I Liked:

Progression of the Series:

This is the third novel in the series where the author explores the effects of childhood trauma.  The first book, My Name is Lucy Barton, shows how Lucy glossed over the many terrible things her parents did to her and her siblings.  We see how Lucy's mother simultaneously attempts to make amends while also minimizing what happened (a classic gaslighting technique!).    The second book, Anything is Possible, is a series of short stories about many of the peripheral characters from Lucy's small town.  We see that everyone has various hidden traumas and secrets.  And it shows, in particular, how Lucy's siblings were affected by their child abuse.  The third novel, Oh, William, demonstrates how what happens in childhood lingers for most of our lives.  All of Lucy's relationships are affected by her difficult youth.  

Characters:

We are reintroduce to Lucy, her two daughters, William, Lucy's ex-husband, and William's mother.  Lucy and William are not well into old-age, and her daughters are in their thirties.  

Lucy has just lost her husband of many years, David.  She still doesn't really blame her parents for her horrific childhood.  I think she puts most of the blame squarely on their poverty.  I do think that, as an adult, one can see the contributing factors (such as stress over money, and earlier trauma) that boil over into child-abuse.  It's not that Lucy gives her parents a pass on what happened.  It's that she doesn't hold any anger over them.

I liked how we get to see Lucy and William's daughters, Becka and Chrissy as adults.  They are barely mentioned in the first two books.  But here we see how the their parent's lives have an effect on them.  Although Lucy has attempted to shelter her daughters from the worst of her ex's affairs, the girls have always sensed that infidelity was the cause of their parents divorce.  For the most part, Becka and Chrissy are doing well.  But I could also see that they lost a lot of respect for William as he goes through yet another divorce.  How will this affect their own marriages?

William has had a series of failed relationships following his divorce from Lucy.  He makes a lot of excuses for his behavior.  But he doesn't acknowledge how his relationship with his mother may be at the root of his issues.  Catherine, William's mother has been dead several years in the timeline of this novel.  And William is just now facing the fact that Catherine (his mother) was not so perfect, after all. 

William learns some startling facts about Catherine after someone gives him a membership to an ancestry website.  These revelations could explain why his mother "had the blues" in his childhood.  Her depression resulted in Catherine maintaining a distance from William that deeply affected him.  It just goes to show that our parents are human.  They often have faults and issues we are unaware of.

Storytelling:

 This novel has a really creative approach to show how Lucy and William's divorce has impacted their daughter's lives.  As William looks into his family history, he asks Lucy to lend him her support.  This leads to a road trip where Lucy and William reflect on their marriage, and think about their own childhoods.  Everything that affects them is layered one on top of the other.  You can see a linear progression from both of their childhood issues to why their marriage ended in divorce.  Then this brings them to the present day, where they can both see how their actions have contributed to their daughter's insecurities.  I liked that they both did not assess blame on themselves for their daughter's issues.  It is what it is.  But they do acknowledge that they contributed to it. 

Trigger Warning for Childhood Abuse

Rating:   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  October 19th, 2021

Author:  Elizabeth Strout

Publisher:  Random House

Genre:  Fiction

Page Length:  256 Pages

Source:  NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  A worthy bookend for a haunting series that explores the effects of childhood trauma and poverty.  Read (or re-read) the previous books first, to get the full effect.