Amy and Isabelle |  | Authors: Elizabeth Strout, Stephanie Roberts
Publisher: Chivers Audio Books
List Price: $84.95
Buy New: $54.93
as of 3/21/2010 02:00 CDT details
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Seller: codybooks
Rating:  180 reviews
Sales Rank: 2531995
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.8 x 2.5
ISBN: 0792723430
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780792723431
ASIN: 0792723430
Publication Date: May 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
"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
Product Description
Amy Goodrow, a shy high school student in a small mill town, falls in love with her math teacher, and together, they cross the line between fantasy and reality. When discovered, this emotional and physical trespass brings disgrace to Amy's mother, Isabelle, and intensifies the shame she feels about her own past. The two retreat into silence. This conflict is surrounded by other large and small dramas in the small town. And with Amy and Isabella as her main focus, Stroud attends to them all.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 180
 Didn't like it December 20, 2009
Maria R. Stanley (San Diego, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wow...all I can say is this was the slowest, most predictably bad book I've struggled thru in a long time. I kept waiting for something to happen. Strout's writing style is actually ok but the non-existant plot and troubling characterizations make for a really boring work. I really wanted to like this, as I enjoyed "Olive Kitteridge." I wish I could say something positive but my honest review is don't bother, don't waste your time, in other words, forget about this one. Sorry.
 Exquisite Writing, Compelling Story November 10, 2009
Samantha Hoffman (Chicago, Illinois United States)
Amy and Isabelle is a compelling story of a mother and daughter and the secrets they keep from each other. Elizabeth Strout gets into the hearts and souls of these characters and makes you care about them with all their faults and frailties. It's a story of people who learn to accept who they are, understand how they got that way and how they affect those who love them. Strout's writing is exquisite. Read this book and let me know what you think.
This was a best seller?? October 26, 2009
Barb P (Columbus, Ohio)
This book wore me out. I kept waiting for it to get somewhere with a plot of substance. I found myself skimming a lot of the text to get through the minutia of unrelated stuff. I got within a couple of chapters of the end, and just threw it aside. I didn't care how it ended because I was just tired of the story.
A tough read, but in the end 4 stars October 17, 2009
Book Maven (Southern USA)
While I found this novel to be a very tough read, I kept with it. There was too much telling and not enough showing. However, I pushed beyond that I found that once I got into the rhythm of this novel, I felt compelled to keep reading.
What I liked about this story was the essence of secrets--those we keep from others and those we try to keep from ourselves. Isabelle infuriated me, and yet I could, at times, feel compassion for her. The same could be said for Amy. The author did a good job at creating the core essence of a small town with all its gossipy tension. And, the sad, extremely awkward scenes between Amy and Isabelle were so real that I could feel them. Though I vacillated between giving this book 3 or 4 stars, I ultimately decided upon four for that one reason.
 Mothers and Daughters? October 1, 2009
Yolanda S. Bean (Chicago, IL)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There was something missing in this story of a mother and a daughter. Overall, the plot was predictable. There were no startling revelations. And the characters' isolation was so profound that even the reader felt cut off from them. The era was unclear - though described as the early seventies, it felt like it could be any time in a small town. The only true-to-life thing was Isabelle's rich fantasy life. And the background story of the summer of a kidnapping went grossly unresolved. All in all, I was disappointed that the conclusion wasn't stronger and because of that, was disappointed in the novel as a whole.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 180
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