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.

So NUBClub challenged me to write this in the style of the novel, and that challenge has been accepted, but just to give you the tl;dr here - most of us liked it, a few of us thought it was one of the most important things we've ever read, and a few of us despised reading it. But we got three virtual sessions of conversation out of it, and we ranged in topic from how mothers are depicted in fiction to what it means to consume modern media to what freedom is. It's deep and very hard to read, but it's like nothing else we've ever read. Proceed (with this review and with the book) with caution -- it's brilliant, but you were warned. And read no further if you're going to read it, because I cannot imagine of trying to read this book when it's spoiled. Ahem. the fact that we just finished Ducks Newburyport, whew, 1000 pages, 3 sessions, Zoom, talking heads, the fact that most of the thumbs were slightly up, the fact that two were straight up, we two loved the book, the fact that two were straight down, the fact that thumbs mostly went up more as we talked about it, about mothers, about baking, about guns and climate and flooding and industrial farming and rivers and fathers killing families and plastics and all of that, the fact that we thought a lot about how this was a meditation on modern motherhood and all the pressures that is, is she trapped, is she sympathetic, that fact that her ethics are slippery, slippy, whishy, washy, wash clothes, cook, kitchen, the fact that the scene in the kitchen was either funny or horrifying or both, the fact that some people saw it coming but most were stunned by it, maybe the whole book was written for that one scene, just to show you how much thought and intelligence and depth mothers have, Ellman even says that, how when mothers are killed by men all you hear about is how they were good mothers, as if there was nothing else, Sarah, depth, thought, spirals, stream-of-consciousness, Ulysses, Wolfe, Stein, the fact that there haven't been real stream-of-consciousness books about mothers as mothers, the fact that maybe that's what the title refers to, Mirjam, Ducks, Newburyport, Picnic, Lightning, Nabakov, matricide, the fact that Lolita can spend one sentence on a mom and so Ellman can spend 1000 pages to prove that mothers are characters, moms, daughters, whats her name, Gillian, Stace, that fact that the narrator is constantly worried about Stace, teenagers are teenagers, the fact that the narrator is constantly worried and threatened by the world, what can she do, climate change, guns, MAGA folk, that fact that she is scared, who wouldn't be with 24 hour news and all the real threats, can you do anything about them, does she do enough, does Leo, is Leo a good husband, the fact that Leo means lion and Leo pretty much is a male lion doing nothing while the narrator does everything, the fact that lots of mothers do everything, the fact that it's no surprise that she would freeze in a threat because she has to think about everything all the time, lion, cub, Stace, spiral paths, cinnamon spirals, tart tatin, the fact that we all agreed that the lion scenes were amazing, even the two haters, that fact that everyone would have read that book, lions in cages, lions with families, is the lion mother happy to be reunited or trapped, is it both, is Stace worse off for being more family focused or is she the lion, hunter, warrior, the fugitive, the fact that the references in the book are about survivors and wanderers and other relationships, that fact that maybe the narrator's family is the modern Little House on the Prarie, wow is this hard to read, that fact that it's SO LONG, does it have to be that long, couldn't you just cut 500 pages and have it be the same, the fact that Ellman paces things so nicely in this book, the fact that we believe that people think this way, a metaphor for modern life, spinning on things you can't control, Nick, why didn't this win the Man Booker, was Atwood or Evaristo more ambitious than this, but it's so long and boring in places, at least for two of us, the fact that she is trapped in that house, trying to make a business, choosing battles, having friends, the fact that violence is so pervasive but still so close, that fact that her take on her mother and aunts and friends is so real, the fact that in the end she can stop worrying about Stace, is that growth, is she free, is she trapped, what is motherhood, the fact that no one of will ever think about motherhood the same way again, fear, power, depth, love, family, home, responsibilites, powerlessness, hope, the fact that it's crazy how much is in this book, the fact that two people still didn't like it, the fact that NO ONE would recommend it because its so hard, the fact that at least two of us loved it and even those who didn't were happy they read it, mostly happy, mostly satisfied, the fact that we did finish it, so many of us reading 1000+ pages for NUBClub, Zoom sessions, 50%, 74%, Dan, Mirjam, David, Jill, Kim, Sara, Melanie, Nick, Ellman, Lucy, Ducks, Newburyport