Homewood Senior Center Book Club: My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stroud
Homewood Senior Center 816 Oak Grove Road, Homewood, Alabama 35209
Lucy Barton is a thirtysomething wife and mother in the hospital for longer than she expected, recovering from an operation. She’s not dying, but her situation is serious enough that her mother - whom she has not seen in many years - arrives at her bedside. The two begin to talk. Their style is undramatic, gentle - just the simple unspooling of memories between women not generally given to sharing them; still, the accumulation of detail and the repetitive themes of longing and lifelong missed connections add up to revelations that are completely devastating.