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A review by reggikko
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
5.0
I decided to sit with this for a few days before writing my review. I wanted to put the book in some context based on other books I've read and loved recently. In short, I really love this book. Why then only 4 stars? I am pretty stingy when it comes to handing out 5 stars. Actually, I am on the stingier side when it comes to star ratings in general. To get 5 stars, a book has to be pretty much flawless and I don't think this novel is quite that. Almost, but not quite.
Edit: I’m changing my rating to 5 stars. Now that the book has settled, so to speak, and I find myself still thinking about it, I’ve concluded that whatever tiny flaws there are don’t matter and the book is a towering achievement.
What I loved:
1. I love that Ellmann chooses for her protagonist a woman of indeterminate middle-ish age. The narrator has a 15 year old daughter, so I'd think she is around 40. She's been through a major illness and describes herself as skin and bones thin. She also has debilitating shyness. In other words, by our society's standards, she's basically invisible and a non-entity. She's not young and sexy. She's a harried mother trying to keep herself and her family afloat. I like her ordinariness.
2. In this novel, I feel like Ellmann successfully taps into the anxiety-ridden inner monologue many of us have been living with since November 2016. We're bombarded by horror and tragedy every day. Even in our social spaces (like Facebook) we cannot escape. Last month I took a several week long sabbatical from Facebook, the news, and virtually anything that put more of this stuff into my head. I just needed a break from it all. Still, it's there, like incessant background noise. Ellmann's narrator even asks herself what's up with this monologue? Why is she telling herself all this stuff? The way that the novel is structured accurately illustrates how even when we try to distract ourselves--in the narrator's case with old movies and online jigsaw puzzles--we simply cannot turn it off. It's the neurotic version of Jung's collective unconscious.
3. I love that the book is so female-centric: the narrator, her mother, her aunt, her teenaged daughter, the lioness. It's also about the vulnerability of women, animals, and children. It's about our precarious mortality. It's about the burdens and responsibilities placed on women and about how difficult it is sometimes to be expected to be everything to everyone in your life. The narrator even puts up with an obnoxious man she doesn't like because she feels obligated not to upset him or hurt his feelings. That aspect of the novel is just so damn smart.
4. I have long had a fascination with the portrayal of the everyday in literature. I love the juxtaposition of the quotidian with the wider, unsettling world.
5. Ducks, Newburyport/picnic, lightning. Ellmann had me right there. Nobody loves a good allusion more than I do. Seriously, the book is so damned clever. It's really, really good and I highly recommend it. Will it win the Booker? As of this writing, I'm thinking it probably should.
Edit: I’m changing my rating to 5 stars. Now that the book has settled, so to speak, and I find myself still thinking about it, I’ve concluded that whatever tiny flaws there are don’t matter and the book is a towering achievement.
What I loved:
1. I love that Ellmann chooses for her protagonist a woman of indeterminate middle-ish age. The narrator has a 15 year old daughter, so I'd think she is around 40. She's been through a major illness and describes herself as skin and bones thin. She also has debilitating shyness. In other words, by our society's standards, she's basically invisible and a non-entity. She's not young and sexy. She's a harried mother trying to keep herself and her family afloat. I like her ordinariness.
2. In this novel, I feel like Ellmann successfully taps into the anxiety-ridden inner monologue many of us have been living with since November 2016. We're bombarded by horror and tragedy every day. Even in our social spaces (like Facebook) we cannot escape. Last month I took a several week long sabbatical from Facebook, the news, and virtually anything that put more of this stuff into my head. I just needed a break from it all. Still, it's there, like incessant background noise. Ellmann's narrator even asks herself what's up with this monologue? Why is she telling herself all this stuff? The way that the novel is structured accurately illustrates how even when we try to distract ourselves--in the narrator's case with old movies and online jigsaw puzzles--we simply cannot turn it off. It's the neurotic version of Jung's collective unconscious.
3. I love that the book is so female-centric: the narrator, her mother, her aunt, her teenaged daughter, the lioness. It's also about the vulnerability of women, animals, and children. It's about our precarious mortality. It's about the burdens and responsibilities placed on women and about how difficult it is sometimes to be expected to be everything to everyone in your life. The narrator even puts up with an obnoxious man she doesn't like because she feels obligated not to upset him or hurt his feelings. That aspect of the novel is just so damn smart.
4. I have long had a fascination with the portrayal of the everyday in literature. I love the juxtaposition of the quotidian with the wider, unsettling world.
5. Ducks, Newburyport/picnic, lightning. Ellmann had me right there. Nobody loves a good allusion more than I do. Seriously, the book is so damned clever. It's really, really good and I highly recommend it. Will it win the Booker? As of this writing, I'm thinking it probably should.