Elizabeth Strout: My Name is Lucy Barton

Če iščem kratek povzetek romana, se ponavadi obrnem na Guardian. Ne spomnim se, da bi kdaj kakšen avtor kar sam od sebe ponudil smiselno alternativo. Razen seveda Elizabeth Strout na 107. strani:

This is a story about love, you know that. This is a story of a man who has been tortured every day of his life for things he did in the war. This is the story of a wife who stayed with him, because most wives did in that generation, and she comes to her daughter’s hospital room and talks compulsively about everyone’s marriage going bad, she doesn’t even know it, doesn’t even know that’s what she’s doing. This is a story about a mother who loves her daughter. Imperfectly. Because we all love imperfectly.

In to je to, pravzaprav.

Po Olive Kitteridge, ki je eden izmed najmogočnejših literarnih likov zadnjih let, je Stroutova ustvarila Lucy:

"This is Lucy." She added, almost playfully, "Lucy comes from nothing."

Lucy, spravljena s svetom, leži v bolnišnici, kjer jo iznenada obišče mati. Mati, ki ne zna reči: "Rada te imam." Razen kadar spiš.

Zgodba me sicer ni prevzela, a je roman kot celota tako uravnotežen, da je - še pred branjem Szalaya, ki ga je pohvalil Rigi - Lucy zaenkrat moja zmagovalka za bookerja 2016.