Customer Reviews

Amy and Isabelle

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you're looking for a Movie of the Week book, or a Jerry Springer-type mother-daughter turmoil book, look elsewhere. Although there is a disquieting edge of menace in Amy and Isabelle, including a murder and an unethical teacher, it's not an action story and it's not overwrought or overdone.

This is a story about the secrets we keep from ourselves and others, about the fictions we create and believe -- sincerely or otherwise -- to protect our images and illusions in others' eyes. In quiet, lucid prose, Strout captures the hesitating, awkward moments of friendship, crushes, life at work and at home. The changes undergone by the characters are mostly subtle, but rewarding.

Our book club argued over this book for hours -- but even those who found one of the characters maddening and prim had to admit that the book truly captured the ambivalence of the mother-daughter relationship: those moments when love, embarrassment, fear, anger all exist at once. Ultimately, it's about the freedom and power gained when one finally accepts oneself, one's mistakes and the things we actually did right. Which makes it sound a lot more trite than it is. Read it.

With Amy and Isabelle, a compellingly told mother/daughter tale, Elizabeth Strout makes her literary debut. We can only hope there are many encores for this first-time novelist who relates her story with resonant assurance. When this is coupled with Ms. Strout's balanced compassion for her characters and her sharp eye for the precise telling detail, Amy and Isabelle becomes a work to be admired and savored.

Isabelle Goodrow and her 16-year-old daughter, Amy, make their home in a small New England mill town, Shirley Falls. This is a lugubrious community where in the hot summer that Amy turns 16 and comes to dislike the sight of her mother, the river is "just a dead brown snake of a thing lying flat through the center of town."

Their rented house is in an area called the Basin, where many blue collar workers live. Isabelle, a tentative woman who wears her hair in a flat French twist and works in the office room of the mill, would never dream of buying that house because she "could not bear to stop thinking that her real life would happen somewhere else."

Hers was a solitary existence, save for Amy. Isabelle is aloof and easily wounded, hurt when the deacon's wife disapproves of the leaves Isabelle had used to decorate the church altar. And, she is proper, always sitting toward the rear of the sanctuary as her mother had taught her to do. This propriety, blended with Isabelle's innate fastidiousness made Amy's illegitimacy even more of a shameful secret.

Amy, too, was reserved. She had but one friend, Stacy, with whom she shared cigarettes, candy bars, and confidences during school lunch hours. A good student with a love for poetry, Amy had long golden hair and a slim well-developed body which made her all the more self-conscious. During classes she would duck her head down, hiding her face behind her hair.

When a substitute teacher, Mr. Robertson, teases her saying, "Come on out, Amy Goodrow, everyone's been asking about you," there is little indication of how Amy will respond.

Yet respond she does as first she is puzzled and then exultant in the burgeoning sexuality that Mr. Robertson coaxes from her. They are, of course, discovered.

The forced awareness of Amy's duplicity and also of her emerging womanhood is a devastating blow to Isabelle, who feels she has spent her life for naught. In fact, Isabelle feels as though she has died: "Her `life' went on. But she felt little connection to anything, except for the queasiness of panic and grief."

And Amy, too, feels betrayed as she realizes that Mr. Robertson has used rather than cared for her. ".....ever since she found his number disconnected, found out that he had gone away; she could not stop her inner trembling."

With Amy and Isabelle Ms. Strout has proven herself to be a considerably gifted writer. She has drawn vividly erotic scenes, and deftly limned some of life's most tender moments. There is every indication that she well understands and cares deeply for the characters she has created.

On the surface, the lives of Isabelle and Amy appear mundane. But the author, Elizabeth Strout, makes us care deeply about this mother and daughter as well as many of the other seemingly uninteresting characters who people this small New England mill town. Until the summer in which this story takes place, Isabelle and Amy exist in a world of their own, not really belonging to any social group within their town. But the same incident that causes a traumatic rift in their relationship, finally enables them to connect with these other individuals as well as to truly understand and accept each other for the first time. Strout's ability to climb into her characters' minds, understanding their longings and fears, is just extraordinary. She treats all her characters (her female characters, anyway) with great compassion and understanding. The character of Fat Bev was a particular standout. Run, don't walk, to buy this book!

I read at least a book a week and this is one of the best I've read. The atmospheric background of the town and the depth of the characters is reminiscent of Alice Hoffman. The psychology of Isabelle's character was very well done. I found myself disliking her and pitying her at the same time. I kept wondering how the author would take us to the end of this complex story...and she did it with beauty and tenderness and insight. A good read. Enjoy!

A page turner of a mom/daughter book. I really felt the heat of the summer and the boiling rages of the two main characters both of whom I rather disliked. The secondary characters, especially Fat Bev, were better developed than Amy and Isabelle. Stacy did not ring true for me at all. She was an exaggerated version of a rebellious teenager without any dimension. Her parents were laughable stereotypes. I could relate to Amy's infatuation with her math teacher as I had a crush on my math teacher in ninth grade! This story line was well depicted and believable up to a point that point being Robertson's exploitation of a young girl and his subsequent cruely to her. Yes, such behavior happens however in this story it comes on as too heavy handed and therefore does not have credibility. The Congregational Church ladies also seem like cutout figures; all of whom are depicted as snobs, and hypocrites. The author's physical descriptions are superb. The town, the factory office, Isabelle's house were great. Isabelle's change of personality near the end of the book came too rapidly. The reunion while heartwarming was hard to believe. In spite of these negatives I really cared about these people - I didn't always like them - but I was interested in learning the outcome. The author did a great job in capturing and sustaining my interest. It's a wonderful first book.

As many of the earlier reviewers have commented, this is a wonderfully detailed honest portrayal of the tensions and love between an adolescent daughter and a mother. My favorite part, however, were the many minor characters -- who made the community seem all too familiar, and who became interesting in a few very brief scenes. These really show Strout's strength as a writer. In particular, the workplace dialogue among the women that Amy and Isabelle share an office with is truly wonderful -- the constant bickering, shifting alliances, yet underlying friendships -- everyone who has worked in close quarters with others has been there!

This book is very well written -- my only complaints were that the "happy ending" seems a little contrived, as does the parallel between Amy's life and Isabelle's life -- there the realism breaks down. Also, there's a little too much detail about the natural world - sometimes it breaks the (quite compelling) narrative flow.

AMY AND ISABELLE by Elizabeth Strout

AMY AND ISABELLE is the story of a mother and daughter, their relationship, and the coming to terms with one's past. On the surface, it appears to be a story about Amy, the teenage daughter that is prone to boredom and feels nothing but contempt for her mother. Amy yearns for a closer relationship with her, but it seems that everything her mother does only irritates Amy further.

However, the story is more than just that. The stormy relationship between Isabelle and Amy reveals a typical relationship between mother and teenage daughter, but besides the problem of Amy and the relationship with her mother, the secondary story line belongs to Isabelle, and why she behaves the way she does. What is the secret of her past? It is obvious to the reader that she is hiding a past that she is ashamed of, and it is this reason that Isabelle isolates herself unintentionally from the rest of the world.

Isabelle is a single parent, a hard working executive secretary in a factory mill. She's been at the same job for many years, but despite this fact, Isabelle does not seem to have any friends at work, nor does she have any friends outside of the office. She goes through life as if on automatic, day dreaming about being the wife her boss Avery should have, thinking she "belongs". She feels she's above the social status of her co-workers, and feels that if she tried, the upper class women in this small town, such as Avery's wife Emma would accept her as one of their own. The fantasies that Isabelle has during all hours of the day and night is almost ludicrous, as the reader knows that Isabelle does not seem capable to see life as it really is. She does not seem to have a grasp on reality. She also tries too hard to make friends, which often causes her embarrassment.

Amy doesn't have many friends either, except for Stacy, who along with Amy, acts out as the rebel teenager, skipping classes, smoking where no one can see them, and sharing stories of their miserable lives. Early on in the story, we find Amy dwelling on her fantasy relationship with her teacher, Mr. Robertson, and soon a real relationship blossoms. It is this relationship that causes the greatest problems between Amy and Isabelle.

As the novel progresses, we begin to learn about Isabelle's past. It is this knowledge that moves the rest of the book forward, and it culminates at the end of the book with the revelation of what happened to Isabelle in the distant past.

I greatly enjoyed this novel by Elizabeth Strout. She has a wonderful way with words, making the scenes so vivid that I could imagine myself walking amongst the fall leaves with Amy. I also enjoyed the story line and I know that I will be reading more of her in the future.

While I can't say I found "Amy and Isabelle" to be unreservedly enjoyable, I did find it compelling enough to read all 300-plus pages over a two-day period. That's not to say there aren't flaws. Some of the symbolism is a little heavy-handed - e.g., the desiccated landscape that mirrors Isabelle's lengthy sexual dry spell, and the inevitable rainstorm that foreshadows Amy and Isabelle's confrontation and ultimate reconciliation. Certain members of the book's supporting cast are almost overbearingly familiar (for instance, Fat Bev, the stereotypical "earth mother" who is simultaneously fat, jolly, and nurturing and to whom everyone naturally gravitates). And the novel's ending seems a little "patched on," almost as if it were an afterthought.

But on the whole, the writing and the story are both quite good. I found Amy to be a particularly compelling character. She is by far the most interesting person in the book and the most emotionally comprehensive. Without her, I wouldn't have finished "Amy and Isabelle," but I think getting to know her makes it worth the effort.

If you are looking for an exciting book, this is not it. However, if you enjoy wonderful characters and a slice of real life, this is the book for you. This book explores the relationship of a mother and daughter and shows the richness of everyday life. There is no great message in this book, other than that peoples' lives are not always what we perceive them to be. I really loved this book and am sharing it with my mother. Your life doesn't have to parellel these characters to appreciate the wonderful writing in this book. Beautiful phrases and wonderful pictures are drawn with words. I highly recommend this book.

This is Elizabeth Strout's first novel, and, taking this into account, I have to say it's an excellent book: It has its flaws, sure, but all in all it's a story true to life, and has lots of good points that made me read it in 2 sittings...

Strout has a real talent when it comes to portraying the characters- Amy and Isabelle: the shy, teenage daughter and the neurotic mother terrified of her past being revealed. Mr Robertson, the math teacher with whom Amy experiences lust & love for the first time. Fat Bev, a nurturant, kind woman who ultimately helps Isabelle face up to her past & start opening up...

The descriptions of the weather or of other minor characters (especially the men, who all seem wooden & one dimensional) sometimes are a little tiring. Also, it's true that some loose ends remain in the end, but then, life itself often doesn't tidy everything up.

The small town life of Shirley Falls is beautifully created, the painful but in the end cathartic relationship between mother and daughter is believable and true to life. The book is also very funny at times, for example I couldn't help laughting out loud when Isabelle was pathetically trying to read Hamlet. And in the end, Amy and Isabelle is one of those books that mark the beginning of a promising writing career. I look forward to reading Elizabeth Strout's next novel.