Ducks, Newburyport

By Lucy Ellmann

ADD TO MY SHELVES
Recommend book

WINNER OF THE 2019 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE - SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZE - A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2019 - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 - A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2019

"This book has its face pressed up against the pane of the present; its form mimics the way our minds move now toggling between tabs, between the needs of small children and aging parents, between news of ecological collapse and school shootings while somehow remembering to pay taxes and fold the laundry."--Parul Sehgal, New York Times

Baking a multitude of tartes tatins for local restaurants, an Ohio housewife contemplates her four kids, husband, cats and chickens. Also, America's ignoble past, and her own regrets. She is surrounded by dead lakes, fake facts, Open Carry maniacs, and oodles of online advice about survivalism, veil toss duties, and how to be more like Jane Fonda. But what do you do when you keep stepping on your son's toy tractors, your life depends on stolen land and broken treaties, and nobody helps you when you get a flat tire on the interstate, not even the Abominable Snowman? When are you allowed to start swearing?

With a torrent of consciousness and an intoxicating coziness, Ducks, Newburyport lays out a whole world for you to tramp around in, by turns frightening and funny. A heart-rending indictment of America's barbarity, and a lament for the way we are blundering into environmental disaster, this book is both heresy―and a revolution in the novel.

ADD TO MY SHELVES
Recommend book

BUY THE BOOK

Published Sep 10, 2019

1040 pages

Average rating: 6.67

3 RATINGS

|

Community Reviews

Write a review...
Khris Sellin
Jul 05, 2024
8/10 stars
…the fact that, when I got this book, I didn't realize it was a thousand pages of one long run-on sentence, the fact that I didn't realize till I was about 20 pages in that I was still on the first sentence, the fact that I couldn't put it down, not because I didn't want to but I COULDN'T, because there was no good stopping point, the fact that I had to put it down anyway so I stopped at a comma, the fact that around 50 pages in, I thought WTF am I doing, this is ridiculous, the fact that it's not really one long sentence because it interrupts itself every once in a while to tell the story of a lioness, the fact that I started learning about the narrator's life through this stream-of-consciousness rant, the fact that I started getting into it, the fact that I laughed out loud in parts, the fact that she is slightly obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie, the fact that she's also slightly obsessed with Anne of Green Gables and old black & white movies, and lots of other things that rattle around in her head, the fact that there are 19,000 "the fact thats" in this book, the fact that I actually learned a lot of things from her throwing in random words and terms – dictionary, Google – the fact that I FINISHED THE WHOLE DAMN THING!
ic_reactions.svg
1
JOSH
Jun 26, 2024
10/10 stars
40 pages in.

Dear lord what have I gotten myself in to? Two? two's company, three's a crowd, Three's Company! John Ritter. Joyce Dewitt. Twit. Sit Ubu sit. The fact that I can't stop reading the Great American Word Purge. Purge? I really hate that word, it grates. Great Balls of Fire, a Bird on a Wire, tire. Rotation. Space invasion. Can't stop. Jane, get me of this crazy thing!
ic_reactions.svg
1

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.

CREATE YOUR CLUB

More books by this author

Man or Mango?
Things Are Against Us
Man or Mango?: A Lament
Sweet Desserts