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.
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 evening and said, 'Sing,' and they had sat up together in Mrs. Hill's bed, their hands in a pile and night falling fast, singing, 'Why should I feel discouraged, why do the shadows come/why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home/When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is he/for his eye is on the sparrow and I know he's watching me/and I know he's watching me-e-e-e,' and Mrs. Hill touched Elizabeth's face with paper-dry fingertips and said, 'You're the sparrow girl,' and Elizabeth thought that this was family, dirty dishes and unappreciated treasures, the low friendly buzz of TV and two stiff fingers tapping her cheek, a full embrace of all-believing, all-hoping, all-enduring love in the face of deceit and pretense and the unchangeable past and the inevitable end." The protagonist thinks these thoughts at the funeral of her friend. I don't believe in God or even have religion, but this part of the book made me want to be in a church with these kinds of thoughts in my head. Ah, Amy Bloom . . .
Do You like book Love Invents Us (1998)?
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 to find love in all the 'wrong' places lead her to a life-altering affair with her high school English teacher. Sounds kind of dumb, but Amy Bloom writes divinely and about half way through as the book shifts from the first to the third person and suddenly turns into a genuine novel (it sort of felt like a David Sedaris long short story wannabe at first)the story really took off and left me sad & confused & wanting more. If you have ever loved or been loved, this is a book you should read. I HIGHLY recommend it.
—Kyra
this book was weird... since the first page you get that this book will be weird and odd and maybe uncomfortable... we see Elizabeth a elementary school girl modeling coats in her underwear to an older man, one that is creatly sexually atracted to her.... and you have and idea that this book will not be an easy read, that is will be more troubled...I did't liked that everything in Elizabeth life was about sex when it shouldnt be... even the kids she meets (kids that are really kids and kids that may be in puberty) it's all about sex...I'm not shure I liked this book... but I have a strange obsession of finishing a book I started :S
—Rocio Rodriguez Torres
Sometimes it's okay to judge a book by its cover. For example, when the cover boasts a review like this, from the Los Angeles Times: "Bloom is a truly excellent writer...lyrical and funny....There is a line worth quoting on almost every page of this book." Under these circumstances, one would be wise to judge the book by the cover, because it's true: Amy Bloom is an excellent writer and Love Invents Us is lyrical, funny, and quotable.The story follows the lives of its three main characters, Elizabeth, Max, and Horace/Huddie, as they grow, mature, fall in and out of love, and deal with life's intricacies. As I read all I could think was that I want someone to make this a movie because it would be so interesting to see how a screenwriter/director/actors interpret it.
—Rachel
