Amy And Isabelle

by
Elizabeth Strout

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Amy And Isabelle

by Elizabeth Strout

3.52 · rating details · 3,403 ratings · 576 reviews

"It was terribly hot the summer Mr. Robertson left town." For Amy Goodrow and her mother, Isabelle, the heat of that summer is the least of their problems. Other citizens in the New England mill town of Shirley Falls are bothered by the heat and by "other things too: Further up the river crops weren't right--pole beans were small, shriveled on the vine, car...more"It was terribly hot the summer Mr. Robertson left town." For Amy Goodrow and her mother, Isabelle, the heat of that summer is the least of their problems. Other citizens in the New England mill town of Shirley Falls are bothered by the heat and by "other things too: Further up the river crops weren't right--pole beans were small, shriveled on the vine, carrots stopped growing when they were no bigger than the fingers of a child; and two UFOs had apparently been sighted in the north of the state." But Amy and Isabelle have a more private misery: a seemingly unbridgeable chasm has opened between this once-close mother and daughter and nothing will ever be the same again. For Amy has fallen in love with her high-school math teacher, Mr. Robertson, who has gone way beyond the bounds of propriety by encouraging the crush. When Isabelle finds out, she is horrified to realize that her anger at him is dwarfed by her rage at her own daughter for "enjoying the sexual pleasures of a man while she herself had not."
Mother-daughter novels can, by virtue of their subject matter, often seem claustrophobic, a little overwrought; Elizabeth Strout masterfully avoids this problem by placing Amy and Isabelle in the larger context of the community they inhabit. Though her main focus is on the Goodrow women, Strout often detours into the lives and thoughts of her many secondary characters: Isabelle's coworkers Dottie Brown and Fat Bev; Amy's best friend, Stacy Burrows; Stacy's ex-boyfriend, Paul Bellows; and women from Isabelle's church such as Peg Dunlap and Barbara Rawley. She also introduces a chilling frisson of menace with the unsolved abduction of a 12-year-old girl and a mysterious obscene phone-caller. Like the best of Alice Hoffman, Amy and Isabelle offers up a moving yet resolutely unsentimental portrait of people coming to terms with their lives, finding unsuspected nobility in themselves and unexpected kindness in others along the way. Elizabeth Strout has written a gem of a novel. --Alix Wilber(less)

Published by Turtleback Books (first published January 1st 1998)

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Jan 20, 2008

Joanna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

Heartbreakingly real, beautifully written, the relationships in this book will stay with me. This was an intense read and I am filled with both hope and despair for all of these women. A delicate but steely line separates us from joy and can only occasionally be broken, but with a quick flip of the wrist that same line separates us from fear.

My favorite "aha" moment of the book--Isabelle decides to educate herself and starts reading Hamlet but breaks off at the point wh...more

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Nov 15, 2007

Miya rated it

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Shelves: why-did-i-bother, never-finished-reading

Not sure why I even picked this book up. Boring and predictable. The fact that it was made into an Oprah movie should have been the first clue...

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Jul 17, 2008

Heather rated it

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This story could have ended halfway through and I would have been content with that. Instead, it went on, way past where I would have expected it to end, and each additional page felt like some secret reward. Strout writes deliberately and without trite language. She's able to masterfully capture the feel of both the single mother and her sordid past as well as the teenage daughter and her sexual awakenings. While predictable in spots (I knew that Isabelle would eventually reveal her past and th...moreThis story could have ended halfway through and I would have been content with that. Instead, it went on, way past where I would have expected it to end, and each additional page felt like some secret reward. Strout writes deliberately and without trite language. She's able to masterfully capture the feel of both the single mother and her sordid past as well as the teenage daughter and her sexual awakenings. While predictable in spots (I knew that Isabelle would eventually reveal her past and that it would be somewhat identical to that of her daughter's present), there were a number of twists that were not foreseen (or, rather, a number of false predictions). The final scene between Amy and Mr. Robertson was typical, yet still (I typed stiff, LOL) fresh enough that I had to read it twice before deciding to read it once more. And while teacher-student relationships are wrong, I still found myself hoping that this one would be different, sort of similiar to Amy's slight obsession.

Strout incorporates the New England summer well, presenting it almost as its own character, alongside the small town snobs and busybodies that surround the tangibly difficult relationship between mother and daughter. Amy, in high school, is already at odds with her mother, as well as the world. It isn't until the new teacher takes a special interest in her that Amy blooms (trite as that may sound, it's true). Isabelle grapples with wanting to destroy her daughter, thus ending the possibilities of continually repeating the same pattern, and embracing the child she can still see in her daughter.

Things that I expected to happen but didn't:
Amy and her pregnant friend experimenting sexually.
Mr. Robertson being the local killer.
Amy and Paul driving off in search of Mr. Robertson.
Mrs. Robertson murdered by Amy or Mr. Robertson.
Isabelle to turn into Carrie's mom, or Sibyl's mom or Mommie Dearest.
Amy to commit suicide, Stacy to then take Amy's place with Isabelle.

As I read it, I tried to visualize the characters, cast the movie based-on-the-book, if you will. For Fat Bev, I imagined the housekeeper from Two and a half Men. Mr. Robertson would have been Ryan Gosling, Isabelle Toni Collette. I Googled the book (as I do for almost everything) and was briefly excited to find that a movie had already been made. Then I read the entry at IMDb and found myself awash with disappointment: Oprah Winfrey as executive producer? Elisabeth Shue as Isabelle? Some really old guy as the teacher--as if old teacher and young student isn't played out. I was tickled to find I'd appropriately cast Fat Bev, though. I would gladly read this again, but I'll pass on the made-for-TV movie.(less)

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May 08, 2008

Mayra rated it

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This novel is about a mother and daughter with secrets that are to be kept a secret so that nobody thinks bad about them.Amy is a quiet girl and she is very shy.She meets Mr.Robinson and hates him at first but after sometime starts to like him.Their relationship goes even further then a teacher relationship.Amy starts to see her teacher and they start to talk later they do more.Amy is told not to tell anyone and she doesn't. She loves the fact that he loves her and does these things with her an...more

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Aug 20, 2009

Sandra rated it

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I was wowed by Strout's writing in Olive Kitteridge, so decided to read other books she has written. I was not disappointed with Amy and Isabelle, a novel about the strained relationship between Isabelle, a single mother, and her teen-aged daughter Amy. A/I is a coming of age story of young Amy--but also of her mother--as both slowly and painfully find their freedom, independence, and the confidence to move ahead.

The story is not merely a struggle between mother and daughter; it’s a...more

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Dec 17, 2008

AJ rated it

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Shelves: chick-lit

An amazing read! Takes place around the early 1970s, but reads as if it were today. Isabelle is a single mom raising 16 year old Amy in a small, gossipy mill town. The two have a common mother/daughter relationship of sometimes love and sometimes hate. The book starts out looking at the lives of the two, but slowly branches out to include many of the women in the town.

Strout has a gift for developing characters that are so complete you wonder if they actually exist. Everyone has...more

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Jan 06, 2012

Meghan rated it

· review of another edition

I love Elizabeth Strout (ironically enough, a classmate of Ann Patchett's at Iowa Writer's Workshop, and a friend of hers now too) and anything she's done is quality fiction at its finest. I decided to read this because I loved Olive Kitteridge, and I was not let down. Strout's characters are so real I could feel them; they were so honest in their responses that it was sometimes painful. She captures the heartwrenching love and frustration and beauty of a mother daughter relationship; she als...more

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Aug 05, 2011

Pat rated it

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This is a great story of a daughter and her mother. They are navigating the life changes that come from the child becoming an adult and the parent letting go. This book is beautifully written and one becomes enthralled with the characters of Shirley Falls. A mill town in New England. The summer is the hottest anyone can remember. The town is split with class differences that boil over. Expectations unmet. Bored teenagers.

This is mostly a book about women. Strong women. I loved the ch...more

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Jun 21, 2011

David Lentz rated it

· review of another edition

In her first outing, Elizabeth Strout shows great promise as a novelist. Clearly, she has not caught full-stride as a writer in this probably largely autobiographical first work. Her lean, almost minimalist, writing style is deceptive in its depth, at first. The women are all round, full and deep in their portrayal. But the men are all flat, one-dimensional, cardboard fiends. She seemed to be stretching to create a gritty realism in the dialogue, which simply came across in many places as contri...more

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Feb 27, 2011

Carla Lowe Baku rated it

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Recommends it for: Readers of Anne Tyler or any other strongly character-driven fiction

Recommended to Carla by: Megan Staffel (MFA advisor)

I just finished Amy and Isabelle and am in a state of writerly awe; it is now on the list of books about which I can say "I wish I had written that book!"

Strout's deft handling of the omniscient point of view is remarkable and fluid. It's rare to find a story that dares to dip into the heads of multiple characters in a single scene, primarily because it's hard to do WELL. The author does so in this novel subtly and with a light touch. Her handling of time passing is also wo...more

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Aug 28, 2010

Nitya rated it

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I love Elizabeth Strout's writing. Wanted to read this since reading Olive Kitteredge. Amy and Isabelle did not disappoint, though I see Strout's growth as a writer in that I think Olive Kitteredge was even better.
Amy and Isabelle tells the story of a single mom (Isabelle) and her teenage daughter (Amy) in a small midwestern town in the late 60's. Isabelle works as a secretary at a local mill, goes to church regularly, but has no social life and no friends. Amy, like her mother, is als...more

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Jan 27, 2010

Salwa rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm about 3/4 of the way through this book so I feel like I can accurately judge it. This is Elizabeth Strout's first book of fiction (pubbed in 1998) and I can see how she has evolved into the writer who wrote Olive Kitteredge (2008), which I read recently. She likes to keep multiple story lines going all at the same time, though it's clear that the relationship between Amy (16 years old) and her mother, Isabelle, is the primary concern of the book. I think what Strout does best is describe her...moreI'm about 3/4 of the way through this book so I feel like I can accurately judge it. This is Elizabeth Strout's first book of fiction (pubbed in 1998) and I can see how she has evolved into the writer who wrote Olive Kitteredge (2008), which I read recently. She likes to keep multiple story lines going all at the same time, though it's clear that the relationship between Amy (16 years old) and her mother, Isabelle, is the primary concern of the book. I think what Strout does best is describe her characters' inner thoughts and feelings. Often while reading I'll think, "yes, that's true," or, "that's exactly how I've felt, too." This is an amazing skill. Her characters, too, are completely believable. Unfortunately, she lacks in the plot department. Spoiler alert: The main crisis of the book is the reveal of Amy's affair with her teacher. OK, that's a pretty intense crisis and it definitely had me wanting to skim to find out what happened as quickly as possible, but there were 150 pages leading up to this and another 150 pages dealing with the sulky teenage and distressed mother wreckage. The scenes with the teacher are definitely cringe-worthy and horrifying or seductive and sweet, depending on your perspective (adult/parent or teenage girl). As with Olive Kitteredge, she spends pages and pages fleshing out minor stories, some of which are interesting (her friend Stacy and her pregnancy) and some less so (the church ladies in general---boooooring). At least Olive was billed as a short story collection, so the minor stories made more sense there. The effect of the description and sub-plots is to understand the context of Amy and Isabelle in this town and this particular moment in history. But, let's move it along here. I like a lot of description, but it's all just taking too long. I mean, 5 pages about the heat and then the rain that finally ensues? I get it, the bleakness of the summer parallels the issues in the relationship, but do we need so much of it? So, to summarize, a good book, beautifully and insightfully written but a bit slow. That being said, I just ordered Abide with Me, here 2nd book, so clearly I like Strout as a writer. (less)

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Nov 19, 2010

Jessica rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: completed-in-2010

I liked this book right up to the ending.

Both Isabelle and Amy were well developed characters, and I particularly liked that Isabelle was somewhat unappealing. Much like Olive Kittridge, Strout makes her main character flawed in a way that I found disconcerting, but mostly because I recognized things Isabelle did in myself and my acquaintences which were less than flattering.

Amy was very convincingly written to me. I thought Strout presented a very believable teenaged g...more

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Jun 23, 2009

CJ rated it

· review of another edition

I didn't love this book, but I liked it. It took me until nearly halfway through to find it compelling, but I admit that after that, I couldn't put it down. I feel kind of picky when I think of the things that I didn't like about it. First, the setting wasn't clear to me. I know it was in New England, but I kept picturing the South. I also know it was set roughly in the 70's, but it felt like a much earlier time period, such that the mentions of TV news and hippies felt anachronistic. Then, I di...more

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Sep 25, 2009

Dawn Michelle rated it

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Shelves: books-read-in-2009

1 1/2 Stars

I did not like this book. At all. And after reading reviews by others here on GoodReads, I have to wonder if I missed something !!) in this book. I didn't see ANY of the same things that they all saw that they deemed the making of this book wonderful. In fact, in over 20 reviews, only TWO reviews were negative, where they (like me) felt the book was crap. And all this makes me feel flawed (Even though I *KNOW* I am not). Like there is something inherently wron...more

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Aug 30, 2009

Hillary rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

I picked up this book because i'm on the waitlist for Olive Kitteridge and was wondering why i'd never heard of this author before. i'm so glad i did, as i was quite impressed by her Strout's first novel. reading her evocative descriptions of New England weather, and how the seasons played into her tale, really reminded me of the drama of New England seasons that i grew up with. and while the the student-teacher plot would appear, on face, to be the more titillating of the many major and mino...more

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Aug 29, 2010

Nancy rated it

· review of another edition

This turned out to be a rather lovely read. It started I thought as a simple little story of relationships between Mother and Daughter;but soon revealed itself to be a complex relationship that wasn't to be fully understood till the end though much surmised by the reader. But the daughter lost in the turmoil of growing up and maternal moods never really understood until the end. Around the central characters there were several subplots of women struggling with a myriad of lives issues. I love...more

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Jul 06, 2009

Karyl rated it

· review of another edition

This book is just as bleak and dour as you'd expect from a book associated with Oprah. (It's not an Oprah Book Club book, but apparently it's an Oprah Winfrey Presents movie.) Initially it was hard to get into; it seemed a bit slow and confusing. The book isn't told in straightforward chronological way; a lot of it is told in flashbacks.

However, I found the imagery very compelling. The author will be going along, describing a mundane event (like a sermon the minister is giving)...more

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Oct 15, 2007

Theresa rated it

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Recommends it for: those interested in well-drawn mother/daughter relationship

Shelves: novel

On the whole I really enjoyed this book - a story of a strained mother/daughter relationship with lots of secrets in the single mother's past. Life eventually forces the very controlled and tense mother to give up some of her stuff, due to events in the life of her teenage daughter. The author has a great sense of humor which manifests in the day to day lives of some of the less important characters. The novel is set in a backwater New England mill town.

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Jun 13, 2010

Rhonda rated it

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Shelves: read-in-2010

3.5 stars, if I could.
Isabelle and her infant daughter, Amy, move to a small gossipy mining town, saying only that she was widowed and needed a job to earn a living. She works her way up to becoming secretary to the boss. Isabella and Amy are going through the tough, difficult relationship brought on by teen years, when Amy starts staying after school with her substitute math teacher, Mr. Robertson. Things happen....and they are caught by Isabelle's boss.

This book explores...more

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Jan 02, 2010

Amanda rated it

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I'm quite behind in my reading. There's three big reasons for this: I am ridiculously busy at work; I'm trying to read The Corrections and I can't get into it; because I can't get into it, I've been re-reading the Anne of Green Gables books to pass the time. But I did manage to finish Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout. It's a mother-daughter tale, so you know it can't be good. Wait, that came out wrong. I mean that fictional mother-daughter tales usually involve heartache and strife, not that...more

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Aug 25, 2011

Suzy rated it

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Recommends it for: Meagan, Elise, Teri, Kathy

I loved this book as if it were a person--still do. It's actually several people, mainly Isabelle and her teenage daughter Amy, but also Amy's friend Stacy and her boyfriend, Amy's substitute teacher Mr. Robertson (whom I don't love), and Isabelle's office mates Fat Bev and Dottie. I read Olive Kitteridge--also by Elizabeth Strout--and didn't much like it (unlike most people) but I had nothing against Strout's writing, so I gave this office book-swap find a try. I found Strout to be amazing w...more

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May 27, 2009

Carol rated it

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I was looking for something a little lighter and more humorous when I checked this book out from the library, and this was neither. This is a very gritty book about a 15-year-old girl who becomes involved with her math teacher. It is also about her very hemmed in, controlling, isolated mother.

Very gritty. Specifically, I could do with FEWER vivid descriptions of really bad smells.

On the other hand, these are some things I always enjoy in a book: I like it when the ma...more

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Jan 15, 2011

Mary Lou rated it

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Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout is a poignant novel about a single, unwed mother who devotes her life to raising her illegitimate daughter respectably only to have the daughter aroused sexually as a young teen by a predatory math teacher. Introduced to her sexual passions and impregnated by the married friend of her deceased father, Isabelle Goodrow is at first supported by her widowed mother, but when the elder dies, Isabelle moves to the small New England town of Shirley Falls to start ov...moreAmy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout is a poignant novel about a single, unwed mother who devotes her life to raising her illegitimate daughter respectably only to have the daughter aroused sexually as a young teen by a predatory math teacher. Introduced to her sexual passions and impregnated by the married friend of her deceased father, Isabelle Goodrow is at first supported by her widowed mother, but when the elder dies, Isabelle moves to the small New England town of Shirley Falls to start over, hoping to find a husband and build a new life. Unfortunately she is so repressed and obsessed with doing things right, that she makes no friends, and, besides the love and companionship of her daughter Amy, has only fantasies about her married boss Avery Clark to enhance her life. Clark is the one who finds nearly naked Amy and her math teacher Mr. Robertson in his parked car, and tells Isabelle what he has seen. She confronts the teacher and he leaves town, but her relationship with Amy is shattered. They have to work together for the summer at the mill where Isabelle is secretary to Avery Clark, and it is the other women in the office who gradually draw both Goodrows into a broader world where women share their problems, speak openly about all kinds of issues, and ultimately help the mother and daughter reconcile.

Strout writes with poignancy and authenticity, at one point commenting that life, like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle often is something other than what it appears to be, i.e. a piece of a dog's ear might look like the bark of a tree (150). “So there were a variety of joys, large and small, taking place through out the town, including a hearty laugh between Dottie Brown and Fat Bev … the kind of laugh … that comes from two women who have known each other for many years, who take comfort and joy in the small, familiar expressions of one another … a lingering warmth of human connection, the belief that one is not, after all, so very much alone” (125). “ ‘Oh, God, please.’ Please what? She hated God. She hated him. …For years she had been playing some kind of guessing game with him. Is this right, God? Am I doing the right thing? Every decision made on what would please God—and look where it had gotten her: no place. Less than no place at all. ‘I hate you, God’” (174).

(less)

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Aug 22, 2011

Jenny rated it

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Have had this on my shelves for years - picked it up at the Strand - but never got around to it till now. A quiet novel, but not "small," beautifully written with extraordinary central characters.

But an ache stayed inside her. And a faint reverberating hum of something close to joy lived on the outer edges of her memory, some kind of longing that had been answered once and was simply not answered anymore. (41)

...a hearty laugh...as they sat at their desks in the off...more

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Jan 15, 2010

Veronica rated it

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Shelves: fiction

Like a lot of people probably, I read this because I enjoyed Olive Kitteridge so much. It has the same minute observation of ordinary lives, but I didn't like it quite so much. It was longer than it needed to be and a bit repetitive at tines (Alice Munro could have done this in a novella!). And some things were a bit too neat/obvious -- the parallels between Isabelle and Lucy's early lives for example, or the inclusion of Stacy's teenage pregnancy. It was a pity all the male characters were so w...more

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Jun 05, 2009

Lauren rated it

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Another amazing book -- I'd place this right up there with the two Lionel Shriver books I've been raving about.

I read Elizabeth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge" earlier this year, because it was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award -- my fave award next to the Booker. "O.K." was quietly powerful, and I enjoyed it. After I read it, it won the Pulitzer (unrelated events, I'm sure), which was a pleasant surprise, since Pulitzer Prize winners are so hit ...moreAnother amazing book -- I'd place this right up there with the two Lionel Shriver books I've been raving about.

I read Elizabeth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge" earlier this year, because it was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award -- my fave award next to the Booker. "O.K." was quietly powerful, and I enjoyed it. After I read it, it won the Pulitzer (unrelated events, I'm sure), which was a pleasant surprise, since Pulitzer Prize winners are so hit or miss for me.

Well, "Amy and Isabelle" was written about a decade earlier (late '90's, I believe), and after rooting around for a good read, I settled on this one. And was riveted from the beginning. I read the book in almost two sittings -- which is not something I'm able to indulge in (or should indulge in) given how Ava's sleep schedule affects mine. But I could not put this book down. And it's not a "page turner" in the thriller sense. But it's a page turner in that the characters are finely wrought (my favorite phrase), the descriptions are intoxicatingly detailed, the plot hums, and ultimately I just cared so much about what happened.

It is a story about a mother and a daughter living in a small town in New England, and what happens one fateful spring/summer just before the daughter's 16th birthday. Like Shriver's books and other authors I love, Strout writes about emotions and interactions with exquisite detail. She observes EVERYTHING. She captures those micro-emotions we feel in relationships and interactions. For example, in relating the daughter's budding romances, she describes how her interest in the man waxes and wanes during a single conversation -- based on what he is saying and how he responds to her. Her ear is also finely tuned to small-town relationships, and she skits gracefully between the dramas in many characters' lives, including minor ones. In several passages, she passes through the town -- like an omniscient bird -- relating what a schoolteacher and principal are doing in one house, while another town resident is contemplating suicide and a different town resident is sighing with resignation over the sad, but ordinary fate of her marriage.

Very, very good book.(less)

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Mar 12, 2011

Elinor rated it

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Shelves: books-i-stole-from-family-members

This book was a strange one for me, because I wasn't ever eager to pick it up and start reading, but once I did, I couldn't seem to put it down. It was a bit more graphic than I expected - as in sexually graphic - and it really came as a shock while reading. Also, I don't think the end of winter is the right time to read this book. The main part of the book deals with a horribly hot summer, and summer was so long ago that I couldn't really fathom what that was like, and I feel like the change...more

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May 25, 2010

Christy rated it

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Shelves: adult-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 15, 2009

Meg rated it

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Oh, the trials of being a female/mother/daughter. It's different for us all, the spectrum is gargantuan, though most have qualities that each can relate to. This probably chronicles most of those. Dramatically! It certainly made me feel more unsettled and I wanted to finish it quickly - for two reasons: it was purposefully written to keep you guessing (but fairly predictable at the same time) and I just wanted to be done with it already! I tend to take on characters personalities as my own ...more

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About Elizabeth Strout

ELIZABETH STROUT is the author of several novels, including: Abide with Me, a national bestseller and BookSense pick, and Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. In 2009 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book Olive Kitteri...more

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Books by Elizabeth Strout

2008 Short Stories: Olive Kitteridge, N., Harry Potter Prequel, Sammarynda Deep, Exhalation, Shoggoths in Bloom, 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss

Ploughshares at Emerson College Vol. 36, No. 1, Spr. 2010

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Quotes from Amy and Isabelle

“But what could you do? Only keep going. People kept going; they had been doing it for thousands of years. You took the kindness offered, letting it seep as far in as it could go, and the remaining dark crevices you carried around with you, knowing that over time they might change into something almost bearable.” — 9 people liked it

“The evenings grew longer; kitchen windows stayed open after dinner and peepers could be heard in the marsh. Isabelle, stepping out to sweep her porch steps, felt absolutely certain that some wonderful change was arriving in her life. The strength of this belief was puzzling; what she was feeling, she decided, was really the presence of God.” — 3 people liked it

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