The narrator in Oh William is Lucy Barton. Lucy has been in several of Strout’s other novels. William is Lucy’s first husband. They had two daughters, and after they divorced Lucy remarried once, William twice. When William discovers through a DNA test that he has a half sister living in Maine, he asks Lucy to accompany him there, although he has no idea what he is going to do after he arrives.

I love the way Strout writes. Everything is seen through the eyes, ears and mind of Lucy Barton. The prose seems so simple but there is so much behind so many of Lucy’s observations.Oh William has a main story line, but while Lucy is recounting it, she often digresses. For me, her digressions were just a fine and thought provoking as the plot. Oh William says a lot about family, marriage and how the past is always a part of the present.