Oh William! picks up the story after years when Lucy and William have been divorced a long time. William is on his third wife and Lucy's second husband has recently died. I guess I was sort of confounded as to how - or why - Lucy and William maintained the relationship that they still have after all these years. But that's part of my personal perspective and my history with my ex-husband. Lucy does explain it several times by saying that William always made her feel safe and sort of grounded.
As Lucy is now alone, she has more time to think about William's other relationships and the marriages that her daughters are in. She also thinks a lot about William's mother, Catherine. In the novel, we get to learn a lot more about Catherine's history: who she was before she became William's mother. Really, what do we know of our parents before they were our parents? And how often do we really think about them in that way?
Of the three books in the series that I've read so far, I definitely connected much more to Oh William! than the other two. Perhaps because in the novel, Lucy is nearly my age. She's dealing with an (long ago) divorce, an ex-husband, adult daughters with struggles of their own. Oh William! was an enjoyable follow-up to My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible. Now I'll just sit patiently here, reading other things, while I wait for Lucy by the Sea.
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