Amy and Isabelle: A novel

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.

I really liked her writing style!! Even though you may not initially be drawn to or even like the characters, Ms Strout’s descriptions of what they are feeling and thinking helps you understand them and love them for our shared humanity. I’m ordering another of her books because of this one, and am hoping it will be as good. Pretty much, I don’t even care about the story line when the prose and thoughtfulness is of this quality. Reminds me of how I feel about Wendell Berry’s writing. Sensitive and insightful. He knows and loves his characters, and I think Ms Stroud does, too.

Wow! This is a fabulous and painful story about a single mother raising a teenager. Both Isabelle and Amy are strong characters, and because the book was written in 1998, its not about today's teenagers, but it is a universally relevant story. There were many incredible moments in this very well told story. My only complaint was that Stacy, an unwed teenaged girl who is Amy's smoking buddy, never discusses sex with the innocent Amy. The fact that these two are close and at that age seems unlikely that they wouldn't talk about sex in their discussions. There are many things to love: the factory women, the new teacher( well...), the painful self- consciousness of Amy and the inadequacy that Isabelle feels around the preacher's snobby wife. All in all the unfolding of the story is genius, and its almost curious why it's not considered a classic must-read. Having discovered Elizabeth Strout late, I'm going to make an effort to read other works by her. As a writer she is truly outstanding.

Like The Burgess Boys, Amy and Isabelle is a powerful story about how a moment can spin lives into new paths. Reflecting back Isabelle ponders "She had never really imagined-that was the thing. But imagine it now, standing in your kitchen, wondering what to make for dinner that night, checking the refrigerator-and the telephone rings. One minute your world is one way, the next minute it's all caved in." (Loc 4889)

There are a few such moments in the novel. Toward the end viewing a friend's moment of crisis "...she [Isabelle] could see. She could easily see that. God knew she could see how one's entire life could be taken apart and that Dottie's life was being taken apart right now, almost in front of Isabelle's eyes." (Loc 4061).

Unlike The Burgess Boys where we see the impact an accident affects the lives of siblings half a lifetime later, in Amy And Isabelle we see the primary moment of change, Amy's seduction by her teacher, build slowly but inexorably through the first half of the book. Powerful and destructive changes occur immediately and affect the mother and daughter the rest of their lives. Isabelle's struggle is to find some sense of grace and forgiveness both for her daughter and herself.

Then tension builds again for another set of changes one night that adjusts the course of lives once again. "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. Dottie, Bev, Isabelle, in their own ways knew this. But Amy was young. She didn't know yet what se could or could not bear, and silently she clung like a dazed child to all three mothers in the room." (Loc 4993)

Elizabeth Strout is a wonderful writer. She comfortably and completely inhabits her characters and their physical and emotional landscapes. She has a beautiful style of writing and weaves words together to build a work of art. I particularly like one aspect of her style where she doesn't show us the internal view of one of the major characters - Mr Robertson the teacher in this case. We only see him through the eyes of Amy and Isabelle; so we never get a sense of his motivations and struggles.

Strout does a marvelous job examining one small moment are viewed so differently by the different people involved: "'Are you hungry, Amy? Would you like something to eat?' And Amy simply shook her head, not able to speak because of some swift, unarticulated compassion for her mother. But Isabelle in her memory, for the rest of her life, saw Amy's indifferent shake of her head as proof that already the girl had been lost to her..." (Loc 5292).

Elizabeth Strout captures these universal moments we all experience and reflects them back to us clearly and powerfully; isn't that the job of an artist?

This is a harrowing book. Searing, magnificent and at times almost unbearable in its truth and precision. I enjoyed Olive Kitteridge and Abide With Me but I consider Amy and Isabelle to be Strout's most extraordinary achievement. To me, this is the book that deserved the Pulitzer Prize. Brilliant, merciless, burning with light and heat and all the things left unsaid and all the things purged or sucked down or clawing their way to the surface. How Strout perfectly assembles this novel is baffling. Every sentence is seamless and sparkling until you glimpse a layer of filth caking around these desperate characters. Yes, this book is dark, but it's so well crafted, so paradoxically luminous in its darkness that you can't dwell on the misery. Strout doesn't shield you. She hurls you into Amy and Isabelle's small town, their meager house, their sweltering summer of work at the mill. She strips Amy and Isabelle, layer by fastidious layer, until you reach the real mother and daughter. The ones we often fail to see. The ones who don't admit their regret, shame or bitterness. This book touches on universal themes and no one is exempt. Strout takes this little town of Shirley Falls and one by one she plucks each character out and peels them down to the core. Ordinary lives. Lonely and broken, dirty and twisted, sucking cigarettes, feigning virtue, waiting for morning... And then you look around you and realize they're everywhere, Strout's people. They're living above you or beneath you. They're in the markets, subways and restaurants. And they are all brewing with love and hate, shame and despair, betrayal and deception. A quiet chaos heard and flawlessly replayed by this astonishing novelist.

It's been over a year since I read this book but maybe that gives me a bit more perspective. What I remember most is some wonderful passages of just: Descriptions. Descriptions of scenery, the townspeople, etc. Sometimes stuff like that can be ultra-Boooring, but Ms.Strout writes it so well that I was drawn completely in! Secondly, Isabelle was SO stilted, and yet was painted to be doing a complete "180" at the end (much like the mother on Six Feet Under, for anyone who ever watched that show). I did not find this transformation beleiveable at ALL. So sorry. And: the teacher. Ultra-YUCKO. I mean you can smell "Yuck" on him from the first time he appears,before he even is "doing anything" of import; good job Ms. Strout on painting him negatively from the get-go! You never had any good feelings about or for him. (apparently, only naive Amy did). You just KNEW he did the obscene phone call (although that was never confirmed,and that maddened me somewhat). And how he acted on the phone w/Amy at the end of the book; tripled the yuck factor. Ugh. ! It doesnt' help that I knew someone almost EXACTLY like him when I was 19/20 years old (not a teacher of mine). Just a snake and a liar through-and-through. In this book you can almost FEEL the hot summer, especially in the office descriptions at Isabelle's job. I mean it's been awhile since my reading of it and I can still remember those images. I just loaned this book to another mother at our daughters' school-and I told her she would be "Enthralled." And I meant it!

A sad but beautifully written story of a complex relationship between the mother and her teenage daughter. In many ways, Isabelle and Any, the mother and daughter, share similar personalities – they are shy, taciturn, and conservative. Both grew up in a small town, had a simple, quiet childhoods and limited interaction with others. Hence, when faced with complicated situations, they are naive and vulnerable.

They dream and yearn for affection and love, but they don't know how to protect themselves and end up falling into the trap of lust. After experiencing all the ups and downs in life, I am truly glad that Amy eventually connects with her half-siblings and Isabelle marries someone and starts her own family. It is always nice to see a happy ending.

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 contrived. Both Amy and Isabelle were utterly bewildered by virtually every man whom they met. Yet by the end of the novel, I really liked the women and felt I knew them as friends. Ultimately, Strout creatively built a small, milltown community in Shirley Falls, Maine, much as Faulkner did in Mississippi. The production quality of the book itself by the publisher was masterful. Women will probably strongly gravitate en masse toward this novel, which men may be less likely to embrace. With creative seasoning, Strout's next novel will build upon the promise she has definitely demonstrated in this early work.