My Name is Lucy Barton

Lucy recalls a memory from her writing workshop with Sarah. She overhears Sarah speaking to a student from another class who talks about a woman named Janie Templeton whose father begins masturbating openly in her house after a breakdown. Lucy confesses that she experienced this in her own home. After publishing her first book, she meets with a doctor and writes down traumatic experiences she has had in her life.

Lucy only sees her mother one more time nine years after her visit to the hospital. She does not initiate communication with her family during this time. After her mother grows ill, Lucy visits her in a Chicago hospital. Her father greets her. Lucy no longer feels resentment toward him. On her second evening at the hospital, Lucy’s mother asks her to leave. Lucy begrudgingly honors her mother’s request. As she leaves the room, she tells her mother that she loves her and awaits her mother’s response. She hears nothing. She informs her father about her mother’s request. He tells her that there will be no funeral service. Lucy’s father dies from pneumonia the next year. She flies to see him in his last days. She apologizes to him on his death bed. After he dies, Lucy “looked at him and said, ‘Daddy, stop it! Stop it, Daddy!’” (160).

After the death of her parents, Lucy struggles. Her book receives positive reviews. She travels to promote it and answers letters from her readers. She does not respond to a letter from the artist she dated in college.

Lucy’s daughters leave for college. She panics. Her marriage to William ends.

In her divorce, Lucy refuses the money that William offers her. She is uncomfortable with the source of the money from William’s German family with possible Nazi connections. She remembers her failed attempts to cook fancy meals for her former husband. William’s new wife loves to cook.

Lucy’s new husband also grew up poor in Illinois. He is a professional cellist who loves anything that Lucy cooks.

Lucy remarks on William’s generosity. He would often take her to baseball games and spare no expense. Although she grew to love the Yankees, she states that she will never go to another Yankees game.

Lucy reflects on Jeremy’s advice to be ruthless as a writer. Now, Lucy acknowledges this ruthlessness in her that led her not to visit Amgash and not to stay in her unhappy marriage.

Lucy and her brother speak every week after their parents’ deaths. They do not ask each other any difficult questions. Lucy’s sister complains about her husband and money. Lucy sends her money.

Lucy shares a story about her college roommate, whose mother sent her a package of cheese. Despite her strained relationship with her mother, the roommate insists on keeping the cheese throughout the year. Lucy disposes of it at the end of the school year.

As a tradition, Lucy and her daughters venture to Bloomingdale’s for treats and shopping. She remembers the artist she dated in college who boasted about his shirt from Bloomingdale’s. Lucy refers to Bloomingdale’s as a home for her and her daughters. After her divorce from their father, her daughters do not come and stay with her.

Lucy meditates on the anger her daughters feel after the divorce. She worries about what her daughters will never forget.

During this time of animosity, Lucy’s youngest daughter Becka tells her that Lucy’s marriage to their father cannot be rewritten. Lucy agrees.

One morning, Lucy visits Becka at her father’s house. They watch the events of 9/11 unfold on television. Becka calls out for her mother. Lucy wonders where Sarah is.

When alone in her apartment, Lucy sometimes calls out “Mommy!” (186). She references these moments as both calls to her own mother and Becka’s calls for her.

Lucy’s eldest daughter Chrissie expresses her hope for Lucy and William to remarry. She ponders how she has hurt her daughter and how she understands this pain.

Lucy fondly remembers sunsets on the farmland around her house. She ends the novel in amazement.