What is the significance of Lucy's feelings toward Bob Burgess? Were you surprised by the direction it took? Will it endure?

What is the significance of Lucy's feelings toward Bob Burgess? Were you surprised by the direction it took? Why, or why not? How do you think this connection will endure beyond the novel?

Lucy is comfortable being with Bob. He listens to her. It makes her feel like everything she says is important. William often does not listen. She likes walking with Bob and sitting on the bench next to him. They both have a lot to say. During this pandemic he is a welcome friend. I imagine them sitting on the bench together, Lucy by the sea enjoying her friend.

I think Lucy needed Bob Burgess and the friendship he brought to her life. He was a true friend. She could depend on him and know that he would really listen to what she had to say. It made it easier for both of them to honestly share their feelings.

I think Bob reminded her of her husband, David. Lucy and David's life was calmer and more quiet than the life she had with William and the girls. The were able to just be with each other. Bob proved to be comfortable companion in the same way David had been.

I also wonder if Lucy felt a pull toward Bob because William had cheated on her with Bob's wife. Even if Bob didn't know, Lucy did. She formed an "alliance" of sorts with him. Bob obviously trusted Lucy too. She kept his cigarette smoking between the two of them.

I think it will endure. Lucy and William purchased the home in Maine. Life after the pandemic with be more laid back than her life in New York. Lucy will have time to continue her friendship and hopefully their walks!

They both liked having someone to talk to other than their partners. It was a plain and simple friendship and that was one of the parts I liked about this story.

Bob Burgess made Lucy feel important. He made her feel she mattered; she never felt she mattered. He thought she was brave, she felt afraid!
As others said he listened to her.
So I think the friendship endures.

Bob was someone who didn't 'expect' anything from Lucy--he accepted her quickly and easily as someone he was comfortable talking to. Lucy felt the same way--even though they had some 'history', it was a genuine 'fresh' friendship that developed, and I am confident it will last.

There's an irony about Lucy and Bob's friendship given that William cheated with Bob's first wife (though Lucy and Bob's relationship is platonic and William and Pam's relationship was sexual). Bob's life story is fully developed in Stout's novel "The Burgess Boys". Bob is a good man who has his own demons. He grew up thinking he caused his father's death but later learned it was his brother Jim's actions that led to the tragic accident. Lucy has her demons having grown up in poverty and deprivation.
I think Bob and Lucy provide each other emotional comfort and will continue their friendship into the foreseeable future.

Bob was someone she could help pass the time with during the
time of isolation from groups. They were just friend, no expectation of anything deeper.

I was very glad that Bob and Lucy were friends and could confide in each other. I think their early childhoods gave them something in common. Bob felt that Lucy understood him, and Bob was a great listener. Lucy found a lot of peace from her talks with Bob. I definitely think their friendship will endure.

They were truly good friends. Both Lucy and Bob enjoyed the relationship because it was simple..nothing dramatic. William is a take charge person, and to Lucy Bob’s friendship was enjoyable and hectic free.

Bob was that great friend that is there when you need somebody. As we know New Yorkers aren't always welcome especially when they might bring the virus with them. Bob was easy going, liked to walk and to listen and Lucy needed someone to hear her. She needed to hear her thoughts out loud and not be judged and Bob was not in the least judgmental. He accepted William who had had an affair with Bob's first wife.
I feel Bob and Lucy will remain friends and enjoy each other's company. He was also the character that helped the reader to gain access to Lucy's thoughts.

I feel that Bob was much more like Lucy in the many ways he thought deeply about things. As many here have written, she didn't feel much of this deepness in her relationship with William. She also saw her daughters less and less while they were each dealing with things they didn't want to talk about, so they backed away in the middle and in the 3rd quarter of the book which made her feel more alone in the worst way. She was looking for a friend in the few people she encountered but none of that worked out. Bob became a confidante and the person she most wanted to talk with because she felt heard by him.

I really liked their friendship. Bob was another person outside Lucy's household that she could interact with and she could be very honest with. He never dismissed her and he truly listened to her. Just as we can sometimes take those we are closest to for granted, quarantining during the pandemic put us in very constant close contact with our closest family members, and that could and sometimes did lead to feeling ignored, or dismissed, or just on the receiving end of allllll the feelings happening in the home. Bob let Lucy talk about whatever she needed to, and she did the same for him, giving him a place to have a smoke and chat. There was a line in the book where Lucy is unhappy about doing a couples activity, and she doesn't want to get 'stuck' talking to Bob's wife. She thought that the conversation wouldn't be as interesting, and that his wife might not listen as well, I think.