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Love Invents Us

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 1,259 ratings · 142 reviews

National Book Award finalist Amy Bloom has written a tale of growing up that is sharp and funny, rueful and uncompromisingly real.A chubby girl with smudged pink harlequin glasses and a habit of stealing Heath Bars from the local five-and-dime, Elizabeth Taube is the only child of parents whose indifference to her is the one sure thing in her life. When her search for love...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published January 27th 1998 by Vintage (first published December 30th 1996)

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Oct 09, 2008 Kyra rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up on spec at Powells because someone had written an enthusiastic shelf talker for a more recent book by Amy Bloom. The book starts off a bit strangely as the narrator - who is in Grade 5 - spends her after school time trying on furs in her underwear for the admiration (and ONLY the admiration) of the elderly shop owner. The narrator is the single and not much loved child of a successful professional couple living in Great Neck, Long Island, in the sixties and her continued efforts...more

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Mar 07, 2008 Tiffoknee the 3rd Conner rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Serious readers.

Shelves: indispensable

I wrote this down in my reader-response journal and sometimes re-read it on the train, bus, or just when I feel the need to shed a quick tear, which is more often than I care to admit.

"The organ came in on cue and everyone stood up as the lady in gray sang again, sang the only hymn Mrs. Hill had ever sung, in her cracked, phlegmy voice. She sang it so often Elizabeth learned the words, and hummed along, not wanting to intrude or do the wrong thing until Mrs. Hill called her into her bedroom one...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Amazin'A rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up in a used bookstore a couple of weeks ago because I loved the title (I believe the title: love *does* invent us), and I have read great short stories by Bloom. On reading the 1st page, I realized that I had read this novel before, a few years ago (a library copy? or have I bought it a second time?). I reread it, over about a 24 hr period. Partly procrastinating (who wants to pack for a move, after all, or put together their reappointment dossier?!), but partly because its a very...more

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Dec 23, 2008 Jalena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-finished

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

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Jun 26, 2012 Charlotte rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of Amy Bloom, but sometimes I wonder if that's mostly because I'll never get over one of her first short stories, "Love Is Not A Pie." What is best about her, for me, is in that first collection of stories: she writes about what is taboo directly and from a startling point of view that makes me appreciate the transcendence of love over our conventional limits. Plus, she writes so beautifully, she'd be irresistible no matter what she was writing about.

Love Invents Us contains some of h...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Jen Knox rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like the sadness. A lot of sadness and longing here, sometimes for no apparent reason.
It felt like a memoir, only sadder. There was beautiful, spare writing throughout with a few absolutely fantastic descriptions ("And beneath those feet, my hands ... worn and rough as cedar bark. Ivory angel feet with opal nails and satin soles. And my hands became his steps."), but Bloom doesn't flaunt her skills, she teases, lets a reader peek. The simplicity of her writing makes such passages leap from th...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was the first book I've read by Amy Bloom, and I'm afraid my expectations were a bit high. She has tremendous descriptive talent--so many gorgeous, seemingly effortless, just right ways of putting things. The language was truly rare, and a wonderful pleasure. Storywise, however, I found the characterizations and character psychologies a bit obscure. I don't want to give anything away, but I found the central protagonist's motivations difficult to discern, and the fact that the POV rotated f...more

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May 31, 2012 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, general-fiction, jews

The beginning of this book reminds me of another book named: "Amy & Isabel" as Amy fell in love with her English teacher. Once Isabel found out about Amy's infatuation and the teacher's sexual advances toward Amy, took action to end their so called relationship.
However, in "Love Invents Us" the mother figure was absent, and Elizabeth could move freely from Mr. Stone (Her English teacher) to another lover (Horace, Huddie) and nobody was there to question the righteousness of her actions.

I rea...more

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May 04, 2012 Joanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a whirlwind of a book. In near 200 pages you follow the narrator from the age of 4 to about 40, focussing on the realtionships in her life that represent "love" to her. Bloom is definitely a lyrical writer, she's funny and clever and it that, in addition to the pace, make it a quick read. However, I felt like to understand the main character, I needed additional information. I didin't get why she did many of the things she did, and I ended up not liking her or any of the other characters...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Annette rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was quite a departure from what I usually read. Traveling through 30 years with Elizabeth, ignored by her parents, dressed in furs by an old shop owner in early childhood ( wearing only panties ), loved intimately by a high school teacher, IN love with her black high school boyfriend, a miscarraige impregnated by a soldier on leave....

Descriptive and straddling the narrowest balance btween provocative and lurid. "Love Invents Us' made me uncomfortable, but not TOO uncomfortable. Well...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Brandon rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who's ever been in a long-term relationship

Recommended to Brandon by: Terry Hertzler

It seems to be a given that in either fact or fiction love is sure trouble, even without the complications age or race that Amy Bloom mixes into her novel Love Invents Us.

The set-up: Elizabeth Taube attracts older men in part because she wants to. But as quickly as she settles into a serious relationship with her a high school English teacher Max Stone, she becomes attracted to a classmate Horace “Huddie” Lester. Not that anything was stable before, but this triad serves as the surface trouble i...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The beginning of the book rated 2.5 stars, but the last four pages of the book was 5 stars in my opinion. Overall, I think I'd lean towards a 3.75-star rating if technically possible on Goodreads.com.

First of all, I picked up this book thinking Amy Bloom was Judy Blume. "Oh yay! Judy's writing for adults now, how fun!" was my mindset going in. So I was sadly disappointed about 10-20 pages into the book, as I'm thinking "this child is completely unbelievable, what happened to Judy??" and googling...more The beginning of the book rated 2.5 stars, but the last four pages of the book was 5 stars in my opinion. Overall, I think I'd lean towards a 3.75-star rating if technically possible on Goodreads.com.

First of all, I picked up this book thinking Amy Bloom was Judy Blume. "Oh yay! Judy's writing for adults now, how fun!" was my mindset going in. So I was sadly disappointed about 10-20 pages into the book, as I'm thinking "this child is completely unbelievable, what happened to Judy??" and googling it and realizing of course I'm an idiot. So having accurately adjusted my expectations - and by that time Bloom's protagonist Elizabeth had outgrown childhood to my relief - I was much more ready to enjoy the rest of the book.

Bloom does not know children. (No 5 year old brings books to school to hide behind. NONE. And, children under 10 do not teach themselves how to cook 3-course meals by reading cookbooks. I mean, ok, both might happen, but they'd be central plot lines/devices, not incidental/contextual anecdotes used to illustrate a character.) I also found the vagueness of Elizabeth's age when the book begins to be unsettling/irritating. I kept going back and re-reading pages to see if I skipped over/missed some age reference.

But damn does Bloom know adult relationships. And everything we gain and lose through human relationships. What's said, what's thought, what's felt. Bloom hits her stride and the story pulled me in when Elizabeth falls for Huddie. (Although my interest had already started to increase as Elizabeth develops a relationship with Mrs. Hill.) Bloom switches from first person to third person perspectives, depending on which character she's channeling, and that annoyed me initially, although I got used to it by the end of the book. I usually find perspective changes pointless, tiring and distracting, but I fell so hard for the ending of the book that I didn't mind it. (Although the last line in the book??? - half a star. What the hell?! WTF happened? Do they get together, do they not?? I know the answer's not the point, but still, I thought the last line was a mean way to end the book. Just take it out. Please.)

The part where Huddie leaves Elizabeth because she doesn't have the motherly instincts his wife does - and would never know to make a pillow from a sweater for a child - is so perfectly, realistically ironic when three pages later, Elizabeth instinctively makes a pillow from a jacket for someone she used to babysit. No matter how much we love someone, we never fully understand them. Hell we never fully understand ourselves.

I enjoyed how Bloom allows readers to draw their own specific conclusions as the story progresses - I didn't connect the dots and realize that Mrs. Hill is black until she died and Elizabeth attends an all-black (except for her) funeral. Bloom also seems to indicate that Elizabeth's best/only friend, Rachel, is gay, but it was never clearly established - and never needed to be. Bloom also employs an interesting technique in referencing future events as other writers use past events, to establish context and add more dimension, e.g. Elizabeth "didn't see Huddie again for seven years." Or the smart, competent Rachel, "who would become a doctor." I liked this as well - as a life can only be measured/evaluated fully in its completeness: what will happen is as important and revealing as what has happened. It also makes Bloom appear confident in her writing/plot-making - she does not need the element of surprise/mystery to be on her side to keep her story interesting.

And, while I did really love the last four pages, or the writing anyway, and appreciated the reassured completeness that Elizabeth has found....did she really really only have to become a Mom in order to find fulfillment and happiness? Really? Children/Motherhood redeems yet another woman. It felt like an easy, trite and almost unbelievable way for such a non-conventional, non-conformist character to find her place in the world. (less)

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Jul 26, 2010 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

Amy Bloom's novel. Away, was one of my favorite books in 2008. While in Michigan for my mom's memorial in June, I stopped in at Shaman Drum Bookstore in Ann Arbor (which sadly closed its doors on June 30) and picked up Love Invents Us, Bloom's first novel. I had been slogging through Sara Water's lugubrious The Little Stranger (which I will review next), but once I read the first few pages of Amy Bloom's novel, I fell again under her spell.

I read all through lunch at Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Road...more Amy Bloom's novel. Away, was one of my favorite books in 2008. While in Michigan for my mom's memorial in June, I stopped in at Shaman Drum Bookstore in Ann Arbor (which sadly closed its doors on June 30) and picked up Love Invents Us, Bloom's first novel. I had been slogging through Sara Water's lugubrious The Little Stranger (which I will review next), but once I read the first few pages of Amy Bloom's novel, I fell again under her spell.

I read all through lunch at Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Roadhouse (they serve 6 varieties of macaroni and cheese; I had the spinach and pancetta), I read while waiting to board my plane home at Detroit Metro, I read through the 5 hour flight and then in bed that night, when I finished this astonishing book.

The story opens thus:

"I wasn't surprised to find myself in the back of Mr Klein's store, wearing only my undershirt and panties, surrounded by sable.
'Sable is right for you, Lizbet,' Mr Klein said, draping a shawl-collared jacket over me. 'Perfect for your skin and your eyes. A million times a day the boys must tell you. Such skin' "

A bit alarmed that I might have stumbled into some modern day Lolita but hopelessly captured, I read on. Not Lolita, but erotic while heartbreaking, as Elizabeth, the pudgy, lonely middle-grade daughter of an interior decorator and a lawyer, searches for love and thereby clues to who she might be.

She falls in love with Mr Klein, then a piano teacher, her high school English teacher, and finally an African American basketball player from her high school team.

It is not that Elizabeth does not come to harm. She does and she has no one but herself to fall back on. But, as the title states, her loves do tell her who she is. She grows into a strong unique individual. Still lonely, still off the beaten path of normality, but fiercely the champion of those she loves, Elizabeth is a character only Amy Bloom could have created.

Love, like life, is dangerous, illuminating, messy and even humorous. While reading Amy Bloom's book, I got a new look at my own loves and how they have formed me.(less)

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Apr 21, 2010 Life of a Doctor's Wife rated it 3 of 5 stars

Aimee Bender won me over a few years back with her incredible short-story collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.

Which is why I was so eager to read Love Invents Us when I saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until much later that Aimee Bender is not the author of Love Invents Us. (The real author is Amy Bloom.) Luckily, I didn’t realize my mistake until after I’d devoured the book.

It was one of those books that kept me up until 3:00 am, reading and rea...more Aimee Bender won me over a few years back with her incredible short-story collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.

Which is why I was so eager to read Love Invents Us when I saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until much later that Aimee Bender is not the author of Love Invents Us. (The real author is Amy Bloom.) Luckily, I didn’t realize my mistake until after I’d devoured the book.

It was one of those books that kept me up until 3:00 am, reading and reading. It was one of those books I read in three days.

But looking back on it, I’m not quite sure why I sped through it so quickly. It’s not one of my favorite books. Despite the clean, lovely prose and the vivid depiction of the main character, I don’t even think it would make my top 50.

Mini plot summary: Elizabeth lives in a cold and not-very-loving home. She finds love with a series of questionable partners. She falls particularly hard for two men. One of them leaves her. She leaves the other. She finds them both again, to find one dying and the other married.

This book was easy to read. It was easy to love Elizabeth, the protagonist. But she was not easy to understand, at least for me. I couldn’t quite understand her motivation. You see, she doesn’t have a close relationship with her parents, and she uses sex as a way to get at the love she lacks in her home life. Understandable enough, and a theme that permeates literature and film. But the “love” she gets in return is hard to swallow. One “lover” gives her rides home from school and lets her wear fur coats. Another has her babysit for his three young sons and, ahem, pleasures her with a large electric device. Another “lover” (though not in a sexual sense) gives her beautiful old tea spoons and teaches her to cook.

I’m not sure what I came away with, once the book ended. Perhaps, the idea that love doesn’t fit some specific Hollywood ideal. That it is unique and un-asked for. That it can be transformative and beautiful. That it can be painful and sometimes ugly. Perhaps, the idea that love is enduring, even if you don’t choose it for yourself. That it persists, despite spouses or alcoholism or angry fathers or even death.

I enjoyed reading it. It had some lovely, quotable lines. And I ached for Elizabeth. Her initial “sexual” experience led her down a path that she could not deviate from, even though it sometimes repulsed her.

Should you read it? There are millions of books to read. Many of them are better and more thought-provoking than this one. But if it takes you just three nights to read… if you find yourself caught up in Elizabeth’s misguided life… if you find yourself rooting for her… if you find yourself re-reading a perfectly-phrased line a time or two… then I’d say it’s worthwhile.(less)

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May 08, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this one, and what sealed the deal was the fact that I started it on the train in the morning and finished it at home in the evening, and for a book that can fit into the extra spaces of one day in your life, It's pretty good. It's about a young girl and the people she loves, mostly sexually but also platonically, over the course of her adolescence and early adulthood, few of whom she consciously chooses- she just kind of falls through life and towards th...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wish, I really wish, I could write the review this book deserves. The review that is in my head, that I have trouble putting into words that make sense.

Truly, a very beautiful book. The heartbreaking points are plentiful, but in a way that we all experience at some point in our lives. The absolute ability of Bloom to accurately describe love and infatuation - even I felt in love during this book.

There is no judgment in this book, although much of the subject matter, someone could judge. A revi...more

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Dec 18, 2008 Carolee Wheeler rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just can't get over what a twit the protagonist is. And, oddly, I found a lot of the "love" scenes grotesque. I suppose I am finally reacting appropriately to sexual intimacy between a young girl and her teacher. What's become of me?

This is one of those novels where no amount of gorgeous writing can make me feel anything other than contempt for her all-too-human characters.

ETA: I gave this one more star, because I realized that the twitty protagonist is the whole point. As I went further and f...more

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Mar 26, 2008 tee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own

This is the second of Bloom's books that I have read. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but it was still worth the read. This story was bleak, the characters were damaged and it was moving, in an odd, depressing, Bloom-like way.

I'm not exactly sure why it didn't grab me, but the novel felt .... listless, which I guess echoed the character's own lives. I felt similar to how I did with her short stories, as if it wasn't fleshed out enough. I wanted some of her short stories to be ful...more

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May 07, 2011 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love Invents Us is beautifully written and I think that Bloom's handling of character is deft. I like the realism of both plot and character; the novel stops just short of seeming to revel in ugliness and disappointment just to make a point about how real lives are lived. But as a novel, it doesn't seem to me to do anything particularly surprising or formally inventive. I found myself mostly reading to find out what happened next, which is fine, but I don't read just for plot much anymore.

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Feb 27, 2012 Cassie rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've got to say, I hated this book. The only actual love that seemed to be in this book was with Mrs. Hill. All the other relationships seemed to be all about sex. Plus, Bloom seemed extremely racist and homophobic. She kept making it clear that this is a black man and that it should be a surprise that a black man is successful. Then, when Elizabeth's son comes up, she uses the word queer and faggot, two very discriminatory words. Plus, she made baby Max a stereotypical homosexual, doing cartwhe...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Moira rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Hmm yeah, I don't know... did I like this? The writing was great! Such great writing that it really propels you along, you don't even stop to question, what am I getting out of this disjointed and somewhat depressing book, until the very abrupt and sort of incongruous ending. But man, great writing. I really love her short stories and this is the first novel I've read by her, so maybe she's gotten better at the whole completion thing, I don't know.

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Dec 05, 2011 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Elizabeth is a young, awkward girl who attracts the attention and devotion of older men, particularly her teacher, Max, who falls helplessly in love with her. She, for her part, loves a black boy, Huddie, and is devastated when he is shipped off to another state by his disapproving family. Well written, if a bit Humbert-Humbert creepy in sections re Max and Elizabeth. Ultimately, Bloom ruminates interestingly about love and how it shapes who we become.

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Sep 22, 2011 Pam rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I try to review books from years ago and can't remember a lot about them, it usually means they were just OK. I remember bits and pieces about this one and it seems that it was a rather strange book - rather like a long short story or made up of short stories that all blend together and really has no ending.
I know she gets great reviews and I did get her 2008 novel "Away" which I'll write about when I get to the 2008 books.

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Dec 20, 2011 Genevieve rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is the first Amy Bloom book that I've read and I'm conflicted with it. I didn't really like the middle part of the book as much as I thought I would. The middle part felt kind of separate from the beginning and I had to kind of battle through it to get to the end. I just didn't care too much to see what would happen to main character Elizabeth since she didn't feel like she cared what happened to her. The other characters weren't really that interesting to me either. It wasn't painful to fi...more

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May 30, 2011 Chrissy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dark, edgy little novel whose name seems misguided. I can't come up with a better title, mind you, but it might help to know that by 'love,' she means the wholly dysfunctional, FUBAR variety that can derail one's life for good.

That said, the writing and character perspective is done really well. The emotional truth is evident on every page, and it was compulsively readable, if only to find out whether any of the characters would find redemption or lifelong heartache from circumstances out of th...more

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May 22, 2012 Diana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I haven't read this book in a long time... but I remember it like I just read it today. It was my go-to book when I needed a reading fix, something comfortable and unsettling at the same time. I could relate to Elizabeth and I hated the grown men who thought they loved her... I always wanted her to stay a child. I loved the writing, it was honest and blunt, no sugar coating. I will always remember it.

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Apr 25, 2011 Lashlee rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is one of those books when you get to the end and you are shocked that you read the whole thing. What a waste of good reading time. I didn't like Elizabeth or understand her decisions and the author made no effort to explain it. Some story lines would begin in the middle as though the reader was just supposed to magically know what was happening or what the characters were talking about. I don't see myself ever bothering with another book by Amy Bloom if this is her trademark style.

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May 08, 2010 Dinah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, novels

I've been avoiding writing this review because it breaks my heart to say anything negative about Amy Bloom, and I just don't see any way around it.

Maybe it's because I've read all her short stories voraciously and often. Her human subjects are so flawed, tortured, joyous and real that I found it to be a real emotional struggle to follow them through a novel-length piece. It did not help that several chapters were clearly re-writes of published stories. Basically by the final chapters I was roll...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Olga Hebert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Love Invents Us is the bittersweet story of a girl growing up looking for the love in all the wrong places. Amy Bloom is my idea of a good writer. Her characters are drawn with keen edges and sharp flaws that they try to redeem but mostly fail. Her descriptions are like watercolors, gently drawing the reader into the scene. And then there was the end. No denouement, just the end of the writing.

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Feb 19, 2013 Paulette R rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is beautifully written ... so much so that I wavered about giving it 2 stars. However, the facts that I cared so little about the characters - including the protagonist - or how the story unfolded, that I stopped reading at page 90, compelled the "2" rating. There is no character development nor am I convinced is there much love in this book. Perhaps it all happened on page 91. I don't much care.

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About Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom is the author of "Come to Me," a National Book Award finalist; "A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You," nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; "Love Invents Us"; and "Normal." Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Short Stories, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and many other anthologies here and abroad. She has wri...more

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Quotes from Love Invents Us

“Some people are your family no matter when you find them, and some people are not, even if you are laid, still wet and crumpled, in their arms.” — 6 people liked it

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