Amy and Isabelle : A novel

Rating:
Summary: Lecherous losers versus powerful sisters
Review: Isabelle lives with her daughter Amy in a New England mill town and keeps aloof from neighbors and co-workers. Amy is seduced by her math teacher. Amy and Isabelle fight and become reconciled. Isabelle gradually becomes less isolated. The mysteries of her past are revealed. It's a strong plot without being a melodramatic or high-concept one.
I found it hard to believe this was a first novel because it is so superbly crafted. It is told mainly from the point of view of Isabelle and Amy but shifts POV seamlessly whenever needed so as to give a vivid picture of the town of Shirley Falls. Sometimes an omniscient narrator steps in unobtrusively. The story opens during a hot humid summer. The main action is takes place over the preceding year, with each season artfully drawn; then it climaxes during a brisk autumn. It is further anchored in time by an evocative period setting in the early 60's, with men landing on the moon, typewriters, home economics classes, illegal abortions, and rumors of sexual liberation. When earlier back story is needed it is brought into perfectly natural dialog.
The characters are simple unsophisticated people but Strout neatly brings in literary parallels. Isabelle is mortified when Amy corrects her mispronunciation of Yeats. She tries to read the classics and is captivated by Madame Bovary. She thinks Emma should have stood by her man and tried to make something out of poor Charles.
Actually Charles Bovary is about the only male character who gets a good grade in this book. Most of the men are lecherous losers. Sisterhood is powerful in the end.


Rating:
Summary: An Authentic Exploration of a Mother-Daughter Relationship
Review: "Amy and Isabelle" is the well-crafted story of a single mother Isabelle and her beautiful shy daughter Amy. The story takes place during a sweltering summer in mythical Shirley Falls. (Which reminded me of both Bedford Falls, the setting for "It's a Wonderful Life", and Seneca Falls, the upper New York State town where the first Women's Rights convention was held.) A river passing through Shirley Falls divides it into the "haves" and the "have-nots", and Isabelle has attempted to plant roots on the side with the "haves." After 14 years of trying to fit in, it's time for Isabelle to be honest about herself. Meanwhile, Amy is learning about her sexuality, and her need for love. By the end of the summer when the weather finally breaks, both Isabelle and Amy have had a kind of an awakening. Plenty of other small-town characters, from creepy Mr. Robertson to friendly Fat Bev, Avery Clark and all the church wives, and Amy's pregnant friend Stacy provide color and counterpoint to the main story.

If you're a mother or a daughter or both, like me, you will enjoy this book. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Great writing, okay story...
Review: After having this novel sit on my bookshelf for 2 ½ years, I thought it was time to finally read it. And while I can't say I was totally mesmerized by this book, I did enjoy it. However, it isn't the storyline that cinched it for me -- in this case, Elizabeth's Strout exceptional writing talent made Amy and Isabelle a 4-star book.

Sixteen-year-old Amy is disenchanted with high school. Spending her classes in a fog and smoking cigarettes with her pregnant friend, Stacy, during lunch seems about as good as it will get. But when Amy's old math teacher is replaced mid-year with Mr. Robertson, things start to perk up. And when Mr. Robertson starts paying special attention to Amy, the rest of the school year, and ultimately her life, changes forever. Into this mix is Amy's mother, Isabelle, who craves acceptance from her daughter, her boss, and her co-workers at the shoe mill office. And once Amy's secret about Mr. Robertson is out in the open, Isabelle questions herself, her parenting, and her own secrets from her past.

I will admit that the storyline did not grab me like I had hoped. The tone of the story was very mundane, unhappy, and drained of color. However, in some strange way, I ended up liking the book, and I will have to attribute that in part to Elizabeth Strout's excellent writing skills. I would definitely read another book by this author with hopes for storytelling/writing equality.

Rating:
Summary: Merely O.K.
Review: Another take on the traditional mother-daughter struggle. I'm still waiting for a fresh approach!

Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly open and forward!
Review: Elizabeth Strout has written a masterpiece here. A friend gave me "Amy and Isabelle" shortly after I was finally able to come to terms with myself, my past and come out about all of it - at 31. My first thought, was "ugh, another mother-daughter story from another well-meaning friend", but Strout managed to present the story of a mother and daughter coming to terms with themselves and each other without developing suffocating tunnel vision or a soapbox.

This tale is always open with many interwoven avenues like a road map. The reader gets a broad perspective of the various individuals with whom Amy and Isabelle Goodrow interact on a daily basis, rather than just being limited to Amy and Isabelle themselves like so many other mother/daughter reads tend to do somewhere after page 1. There's Avery, Fat Bev, Dottie Brown, Stacy, Mr. Robertson, and a number of others rounding out the picture. We really get to see the clearest measure of Amy and Isabelle -- of how they measure themselves, how they believe they are measured, and how they are measured in reality -- through these other characters. In fact, what is measured in the end is how we view ourselves as [reader] in light of those with whom we interact.

Both Amy and Isabelle find unexpected strength when they each quit trying to be something they are not, and allow themselves to become human, in Shirley Falls, where Isabelle has for many years thought that 'being human' was probably the worst possible thing to do. The characters are all so familiar that one can't help but put themselves into at least one pair of shoes in this book. Strout has achieved a familiar, three dimensional, fast and engaging style that keeps you reading until the book runs out...

Rating:
Summary: Many thoughts
Review: Elizabeth Strout's novel "Amy and Isabelle" is beguilingly complicated, or complicatedly beguiling - I'm not sure which. Either way, it's gripping stuff. Taking place one summer in Maine, the story revolves around the relationship between fifteen-year-old Amy Goodrow and her repressed mother, Isabelle, who is hiding a secret. Given the course of the story, said secret will more than likely become manifest well before Strout actually states it outright. (Though more than likely you will want to read the whole thing through anyway.)

Without a doubt the book's greatest asset is the strength of the characters. Everybody, even the most peripheral of players, is three-dimensional. Although of course Isabelle and Amy are the primary focus of the tale, there are a few secondary characters who figure almost as prominently - most notably Mr. Robertson, the slimy math teacher with whom Amy becomes inappropriately involved; Stacy Burrows, Amy's troubled friend who becomes pregnant; and Avery Clark, Isabelle's boss, with whom she is secretly besotted. All of these characters and numerous others are multi-faceted and often riveting.

The book's greatest weakness is in its lack of humor. This may seem a rather preposterous comment given its decidedly unhumorous subject matter, but I mean it in a very subtle sense. Very often the tone of the story is intensely harrowing and maudlin, and one might well find oneself wondering if Strout could have found anyplace where it was possible to lighten things. She is obviously not without humor. (Take for example one scene early in the book, when Amy is angry at Mr. Robertson and writes something nasty but undisclosed about him on the wall of the school restroom. The ending sentence of this paragraph made me snicker out loud.) There are more than one of these instances, but they are too few and too brief - in my opinion, at any rate.

Overall, I found this a gripping story with a lot going for it, but not necessarily one I would put myself through more than once or twice. Perhaps this in itself is a testament to Strout's abilities as a writer - she really makes you go through everything the characters are going through right along with them.



Rating:
Summary: Searing exploration of the mother/daughter relationship
Review: I'm a girl in high school and I read this a couple years ago. I have to say, it's amazing. The writing is strong, especially because the setting and character development is written so vividly that, for me at least, everything became very real and palpable. The storyline is heartbreaking, emotional, and yet also very moving. I think every girl in high school would have a hard time NOT relating to this. All I can say is that Elizabeth Strout must have written this from the heart, because it is that real. A great read for mothers and daughters.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, memorable mother/daughter drama...
Review: This novel is exceptional. Elizabeth Strout manages to take a simple, almost mundane story about a mother and her teenage daughter and turn it into something special. The story takes place in a year in the life of Isabelle, a single mother, and her daughter Amy. Amy falls in love with her math teacher, and mother and daughter are, at least for a while, torn apart due to said feelings. Amy is not the easiest person to deal with, but Isabelle's love and patience make an already wonderful, staggering story truly shine...

The special thing about this novel is the incredible evocative powers Strout has. She is able to, with very few words, bring you to a time and a place, and you are there. That is not to say that the writing is in anyway "sparse". Quite the contrary, this is a rich novel, but without any excess weight. Amy and Isabelle, as characters are completely real, completely believable. Although I do give this novel five stars, it does have a few, minor flaws. Amy never wonders about her father, which I found a little hard to accept. Additionally, sometimes, Strout's involvement of the minor characters seemed a little forced. As a whole, however, this is an outstanding first novel and I look forward to her future works. This is a great book to discuss with other book enthusiasts. I've had this book for quite a while. I don't know why it took me this long to give it a whirl. Highly recommended...

Rating:
Summary: A Good Relationship Book
Review: This was an easy read and a quite good mother-daughter story, taking place in a Maine mill town in the 60s. The mother's and daughter's stories are told in the context of the lives of other people in the community. The two women come to terms with complex changes and events that jeopardize their relationship and threaten to alter it forever.

Strout did a great job of revealing the inner lives of the main characters and allowing the reader to feel empathy for them. Amy was plainly revealed early in the book but it took a while longer to get to *know* Isabelle. I felt that the character portrayal was very realistic and complete, with the exception of Mr. Robertson--I felt that he could have used more development to reveal his motivation.

I thought Strout did an especially good job with Avery---he was so unkind and unfeeling, so uncaring about the effect of forgetting he was supposed to go to Isabelle's. My heart just ached as she got the house ready and waited and waited.

Sometimes Isabelle's pain, about the way her life has evolved, was almost too much to bear. What a sad and empty life she led with no confidantes and her daughter as her only interest.

There were a few loose ends that could certainly have been eliminated, and probably would have made the book flow a little better. Overall, though, it was a good reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: Slow to warm up
Review: To most people, Amy nad Isabelle Goodrow are your typical mother-daughter pair: they love each other, they hate each other, they can't live without each other. And in their small town of Shirley Falls, everything goes normal exactly how it should.

We all know it'll mever last.

First, Amy falls in love with her math teacher and fails to tell anyone about it. When she finds out, a vengeful Isabelle destroys her daughters beauty and sentences her to the house for the summer. Now in full fledged hate with each other, the two live together, eat together, watch TV together, and even work side by side together without exchanging much more than a word. But this is not Amy and Isabelle's book entirely. We get to know the trials of Fat Bev, Isabelles boss Avery, Peg Dunlap, Dotty Brown, Barbary Rawley, Amy's pregnent friend Stacey Burrows and her boyfried Paul Bellows all in one seamless narrative. We also mildly participate in the murder investigation of Debbie Kay Dorn, a missing 12 year old gilr kidnapped from her home. But the main storyline is how a teenage girls sexual awakenings and a mothers confrontal of her bitter past.

Elizabeth Strout has written a stunning, heartbreaking novel. She is one of those writers you watch out for her second, her third, or even her fourth. Any fan of mother/daughter novels will love this book.