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Abide with Me: A Novel |  | Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $2.96
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You Save: $12.04 (80%)
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Seller: coastbooks100
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 2435
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0812971825
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812971828
ASIN: 0812971825
Publication Date: March 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In her luminous and long-awaited new novel, bestselling author Elizabeth Strout welcomes readers back to the archetypal, lovely landscape of northern New England, where the events of her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, unfolded. In the late 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must come to terms with its own strengths and failings–faith and hypocrisy, loyalty and abandonment–when a dark secret is revealed.
Tyler Caskey has come to love West Annett, “just up the road” from where he was born. The short, brilliant summers and the sharp, piercing winters fill him with awe–as does his congregation, full of good people who seek his guidance and listen earnestly as he preaches. But after suffering a terrible loss, Tyler finds it hard to return to himself as he once was. He hasn’t had The Feeling–that God is all around him, in the beauty of the world–for quite some time. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, and to bring his five-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the family’s tragedy.
A congregation that had once been patient and kind during Tyler’s grief now questions his leadership and propriety. In the kitchens, classrooms, offices, and stores of the village, anger and gossip have started to swirl. And in Tyler’s darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation’s humanity–and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all.
In prose incandescent and artful, Elizabeth Strout draws readers into the details of ordinary life in a way that makes it extraordinary. All is considered–life, love, God, and community–within these pages, and all is made new by this writer’s boundless compassion and graceful prose.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
 Very interesting character study...but... November 13, 2009
Jake Levitatieau (Washington State)
It goes nowhere...and I mean nowhere. It just ends leaving all sorts of loose ends lying everywhere. Preachy sometimes too much even thought the main character is a minister. Ending horrible!...but getting there wasn't too bad. Pick up a different book...life is too short to read this one.
 A Savory Read September 29, 2009
Peggy Tabor Millin (North Carolina, USA)
I sank into this book like I would a couch of silk-covered down cushions. I savored word-by-word the life of Reverend Tyler Caskey as he takes up his first church in a small Vermont town. He brings his somewhat innocent faith and doctrine of total love and acceptance to his flock which embraces him whole-heartedly. They were less enthusiastic about his young wife, Laura, however.
The omniscient narrator writes, "He had married a summer girl. Almost never- plenty of people would have told you this-was that a good idea. He and married a summer girl from Massachusetts, and that alone brought complications." But when Laura dies shortly after the birth of their second daughter, Caskey slowly crumbles beneath the weight of his grief, the challenge to his faith, and the demands of being a single father. His congregation responds to his stress by exhibiting their own flaws. Through the ensuing struggle, we are introduced to wonderful characters whose minds we enter with incredible ease and whose voices are clearly individual.
Abide with Me is Strout's second book and follows Amy and Isabelle (2000), a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her new book, Olive Kittredge, is getting rave reviews as well and I look forward to reading it. For writers, Abide with Me provides an excellent opportunity to study two elements of craft: writing from the omniscient point-of-view and development of fallible yet sympathetic characters.
Peggy Tabor Millin, author of Women, Writing, and Soul-Making
[...]
As well written as Olive Kitteridge September 28, 2009
Becky D Mc (san jose, ca United States)
I have read two other books by Elizabeth Strout: Amy and Isabelle and her award-winning best seller Olive Kitteridge. They were all exceptionally well-written books. All 3 had "mini-stories" going on around the main plot (in the case of Abide with Me, the plot is about a minister and his family). After reading Olive Kitteridge, I sought out the other books by Ms. Strout. I read Olive Kitteridge without knowing it was a best seller. Halfway through, I looked up Elizabeth Strout on the web, because I was sure it was Pulitzer-winning quality.
Some of Strout's characters are likeable, some are horrible. But they all blend together to create exceptional stories.
SMALL TOWN / LARGE TOWN BOTH CAN BE VICIOUS September 27, 2009
Fairlee E. Winfield (Scottsdale, Arizona)
It was wonderful to find this lovely book about a New England minister so mesmerizing. I hated to put it down. No violence, little action, but plenty of sharp roiling passion in what is a quiet community. The writing is so skilled and beautiful.
I enjoyed this more than Strout's first novel: Amy and Isabelle: A novel. Reverend Tyler Caskey's struggles with grief remind us that it is not always just the steps so neatly outlined by grief counselors. We go through so much more.
With each book, Strout gives us greater insights and understanding of complex human salvation.
 A Pulitzer Prize author's second book September 26, 2009
D. Fitzgerald (Illinois)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Interesting characters, authentic settings, a plot based on characters' ' reactions to each other and their circumstances, and a hope for some sort of redemption at the end. What more could a reader ask? I truly enjoyed this and Elizabeth Strout's other two books.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
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