Book Review: Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Book: 184

Rating: 4.5/5

This is truly one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read but the payoff is worth it. The main narrative is a stream of consciousness of our unnamed Ohio homemaker: a mom of four who bakes pies for a living, and her neurosis, anxieties, and ramblings are chronicled through essentially one long run on sentence. Later on in the book, there's a second side narrative of a lioness who is separated from her cubs and follows her journey of trying to find them.

This book is funny and sad, beautifully composed and so incredibly well thought out. The more I read, the more I really started to appreciate and recognize her train of thought and the intricacies of writing a book like this.

I can definitely see myself re-reading this book in a few years; it seems like one of those where you catch more the second time you read it.