Isa and May
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Review
one of the '10 Best book club reads for spring' --Red
`Margaret Forster has always had the enviable gift of making her characters spring to life...' --The Scotsman
`[Forster] has written so brilliantly about female relationships... she can encapsulate a whole scene in a single sentence... [a] whole rich, fascinating novel'. --Literary Review
`A deliciously observed, dilemma-and-drama-packed read' --The Daily Mail
`A sensitive and intelligent novel with passages of beautifully modulated pathos, while being in part, hugely funny.' --The Times
`A compelling story, sometimes funny, sometimes painfully sad ... All family life is here, messy, insistent and, as the author convincingly shows, as essential as breathing' --The Sunday Times
"A curious, compelling story." --The Sunday Telegraph
'Fascinating' --Red
`Past and present come together in intriguing and shocking ways' --Woman and Home
'enjoyable and memorable' --Financial Times, 15 February 2010
`Margaret Forster's professional skills and accomplishment are to the fore, as usual.' -- Independent
`Margaret Forster has always had the enviable gift of making her characters spring to life...' --The Scotsman
`[Forster] has written so brilliantly about female relationships... she can encapsulate a whole scene in a single sentence... [a] whole rich, fascinating novel'. --Literary Review
`A deliciously observed, dilemma-and-drama-packed read' --The Daily Mail
`A sensitive and intelligent novel with passages of beautifully modulated pathos, while being in part, hugely funny.' --The Times
`A compelling story, sometimes funny, sometimes painfully sad ... All family life is here, messy, insistent and, as the author convincingly shows, as essential as breathing' --The Sunday Times
"A curious, compelling story." --The Sunday Telegraph
'Fascinating' --Red
`Past and present come together in intriguing and shocking ways' --Woman and Home
'enjoyable and memorable' --Financial Times, 15 February 2010
`Margaret Forster's professional skills and accomplishment are to the fore, as usual.' -- Independent
Book Description
An engaging, intriguing novel which will appeal straight to Margaret Forster's heartland, about a young woman, her two very different grandmothers, Isa and May, and the secrets that families keep.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
No modern author whose books I have read captures the relationships between mothers and daughters as well as Margaret Forster. I'm pleased to see that she's moved to grandmothers and granddaughters, as I have too moved into grandmotherhood. While this may not be her best book (My favorite is "Have the Men Had Enough?"), her not-quite-the-best is always better than many other authors' best, including many that have won the Man Booker. It's a pity that she isn't better known in the US, then I wouldn't have to pay postage to Texas.
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like Leela, I am enjoying this excellent book. I too am a grandmother (of 10 - 8 grandaughters and expecting no.4 great-grand-child.)
Isamay, the narrator, only grand-daughter of Isa and May, is supposedly telling us about her dissertation for her M.A. which
she wants to be about relationships between grand-daughters and grandmothers but is finding it difficult to find a title.
In the process she unwinds the secrets of her own family's history and also the GM/GD relationships of famous women:Queen Victoria, Sarah Bernhardt etc. My assessment may sound very heavy going but this book is anything but. I catch myself giggling my way through quite a lot of it at the author's delicious sense of humour. Like Isamay, I get curiouser and curiouser as the tale unfolds and keep wondering where Margaret Forster is leading me. She is one of my favourite authors so I grabbed this book as soon as it 'outed' and am finding it one of her best. The contrasts between the two grandmothers, Isa and May, are beautifully drawn and one can feel the riots of jealousy between both. Isamay's partner Ian is an enigma and I wonder how a curiosity cat like Isamay can tolerate his refusal to speak about his past. Another reason to keep reading ISA AND MAY and to delve into their stories.
Isamay, the narrator, only grand-daughter of Isa and May, is supposedly telling us about her dissertation for her M.A. which
she wants to be about relationships between grand-daughters and grandmothers but is finding it difficult to find a title.
In the process she unwinds the secrets of her own family's history and also the GM/GD relationships of famous women:Queen Victoria, Sarah Bernhardt etc. My assessment may sound very heavy going but this book is anything but. I catch myself giggling my way through quite a lot of it at the author's delicious sense of humour. Like Isamay, I get curiouser and curiouser as the tale unfolds and keep wondering where Margaret Forster is leading me. She is one of my favourite authors so I grabbed this book as soon as it 'outed' and am finding it one of her best. The contrasts between the two grandmothers, Isa and May, are beautifully drawn and one can feel the riots of jealousy between both. Isamay's partner Ian is an enigma and I wonder how a curiosity cat like Isamay can tolerate his refusal to speak about his past. Another reason to keep reading ISA AND MAY and to delve into their stories.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I love Margaret Forster and have read all of her novels so was very much looking forward to this arriving. I was however disappointed with this book. It lacks a clear narrative, the characters are not well drawn and it is well - a little smug. The narrative is patchy and lacks a clear arc. It is not clear why she introduces a number of plot changes and devices - most of which do not work terribly well. I will not be a spoiler and reveal what these are but suffice to say that the book is not clear what the main story line is. The second problem with the book is that the characters are a little superficial. The relationship with the parents is not well drawn but this is a minor criticism as against the poorly conceived relationship with the boyfriend. I was baffled at this relationship and it simply does not ring true or work as a plot device. Thirdly, I thought that the relationship between the main character and the grandmas is a little too self congratulatory and smug. The author is at pains to highlight the differences rather than the similarities between the two grandmas and setting them poles apart in terms of class means that the similarities are obscured. Overall, the book lacks the deft touch that I would have expected from Forster. This writer is extremely sophisticated and clever and able to draw the subtleties and complexities of human relationships - this is sadly missing from this book. I was disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Loved It!
I am always sad to finish Mgt Forster books and this was no exception. I am not a grandmother but could identify easily with this well written novel. Excellent!
Published 27 days ago by lizzie2896
Interesting But Not Her Best
Margaret Forster's written some superb books on motherhood and mothers and daughters ('Private Lives', 'The Battle for Christabel' etc). Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Isa & May
Very interesting aspect on how a Grandmother can formulate a grandaughters view on the world. Isa and May are two different types of Grandmother and I felt Isemay at times felt... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sylvia
Disappointed but still reading ...
I agree with you. I used to gobble up anything by Margaret Forster. I would have read a car maintenance manual if she'd written one, such is her ability to bring a subject to life... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mimomeemo
An interesting read on an unusual topic
Isamay is named after her two grandmothers, Isobel and May. The whole theme of the book is the relationship between grandmothers and grandaughters. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Camilla Macaulay
Not enjoyable
Like many of the other reviewers, I was delighted to see a new Margaret Forster novel, but was dismayed to find that it lacked any driving force, characterisation or even plot. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Big reader
Very disappointing
I recently read Isa & May for my book group and was very,very disappointed. I have really enjoyed many of Margaret Forster's previous novels but this is way below her usual... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Collen
DULL and plodding
Agree with everyone else who found it a let down from fabulous Maragret Forster. The plot is slow, all the characters unlikeable. Read more
Published 13 months ago by me
A story stretched too far to fit an undefined point
This book has a feature in common with Penelope Lively's 'Family Album,' in that there's a Big Secret in the family - in fact two, in this case - which turn out to make not much... Read more
Published 13 months ago by davidT
Disappointing
I love Margaret Forster, and have read all her novels, but for the first time, I was disappointed. This novel alternates between the research of the heroine - Isamay - into the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by F. M. M. Stott
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