A review by abby_writes
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

4.0

(3.5) I JUST finished this book and I still really have no idea what to make of it. Ducks, Newburyport is a 1000 page, single-sentence insight into the brain of a middle-class Ohioan housewife who bakes pies for a living, has four kids, a failed marriage, dead parents, and all the accompanying neuroses. It's also an indictment of American culture which is both appropriate and timely, filled with distinct Americanisms (American as apple pie!), but the narrator, for me, was SO unlikeable -- selfish, self-absorbed, an extreme mommy-martyr. She worries about being judged then fairly aggressively judges others. Luckily, I don't mind unlikeable narrators. I liked the rhythm of words, the copious lists, the cougar. But then, after worrying about guns in the hypothetical for the entire book, the ending felt a little too tongue-in-cheek for me. Was it meant to be funny? I'm not sure. It was an experience in form, not something I'd recommend to people who want a comforting read.