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Lily King

The English Teacher Paperback – June 7, 2006

by Lily King (Author)

276 ratings

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Chosen by the Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Novels of 2005, Lily King's new novel is a story about an independent woman and her fifteen-year-old son, and the truth she has long concealed from him. Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best teachers Fayer has ever had. By living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.

This is a passionate tale of a mother and son's vital bond and a provocative look at our notions of intimacy, honesty, loyalty, and the real meaning of home. A triumphant and masterful follow-up to her multi-award-winning debut, The English Teacher confirms Lily King as one of the most accomplished and vibrant young voices of today.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grove Press
Publication date

June 7, 2006
Dimensions

6.62 x 0.76 x 8.08 inches
ISBN-10

0802142664
ISBN-13

978-0802142665
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; Reprint edition (June 7, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802142664
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802142665
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.62 x 0.76 x 8.08 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #291,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,421 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #8,454 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #17,822 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
276 ratings

About the author

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Lily King
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Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad.
Lily’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Her third novel, Father of the Rain (2010), was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year and winner of both the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Fiction Award. Lily's new novel, Euphoria, was released in June 2014. It has drawn significant acclaim so far, being named an Amazon Book of the Month, on the Indie Next List, and hitting numerous summer reading lists from The Boston Globe to O Magazine and USA Today. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.”
Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies.
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5 star		39%
4 star		35%
3 star		18%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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LA Blackwood

It's not good to figure out and hope everything will turn out ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2016

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I was enthralled by this novel. Lily King has to have lived this story to be able to know the heart and soul of what is in one's head. As I read it I took the time to tell friends how incredible the book is. Unfortunately I should have waited until I finished the book to comment on it. It needs one more chapter. It needed wrapping up. It's not good to figure out and hope everything will turn out just fine. I'd sleep better really knowing all ended up well. Did the mother stop drinking? I hope so. Did everyone live happily ever after? Vida being an English teacher quoted from "Tess of The d'Urbervilles" throughout the novel. It made me interested enough to put it on my wish list. So I guess it earned it's 4 stars. Wish it could have been 5.

7 people found this helpful

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P. Bolton

A good early work

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2016

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I am a big fan of 'Euphoria' and have now read all of her books. Each one is better, in my opinion, than the previous.
Two real weak points in this one: The story takes a rather unbelievable swerve near the end and it is never clear why Vida gets married.
The first three quarters, or so, is quite good and then the swerve occurs.

9 people found this helpful

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Eric Selby

Lily King and Elizabeth Strout: Two Amazing Novelists

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2010

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The further I traveled in this brilliantly written novel, the more I found myself thinking that Elizabeth Srout and Lily King must live next door to each other where they meet out on the Maine coast to read what each has drafted that week. Vida, the central character in "The English Teacher," has been so perfectly carved out just as that other teacher, the math one, Oliva Kitteridge, is in Strout's Pulitzer winning "Olive Kitteridge." I taught English all my adult like and actually continue teaching part time at a local college in Miami, so naturally stories about teachers interest me. (There is something about Maine that makes for great writers. I am so convinced of this recently.)
Unlike Olive who taught at a local public school, Vida teaches at a private Maine school, also on the coast--actually on an island. And she is the mother of fifteen-year-old Peter. At the beginning of this novel, Vida marries, actually for the first time although no one at her school is aware of that. They assume that since she has been Mrs. Avery all these years at the school, the English teacher with the highest standards, the one who has been awarded the school's highest honor four times as best teacher, voted so by her students. But now she very quickly has become Mrs. Belou, the new wife of a widower with three children. And suddenly Peter has step siblings, and his new stepfather has just walked into a marriage with a woman who is clueless about love. Hers has been an adult life dedicated to her teaching, dedicated to the literature she loves.
And one of the many elements of this novel that make it so special is the degree to which the novelist has treaded literary references to the plot of the novel, starting suddenly with a reference to Lena, the central character in Faulkner's "Light in August" except the writer does not even tell us the name of the novel. Only those of us who have read it know. It is that type of novel. And, of course, as Vida--Mrs. Ayers? Mrs. Below?--guides the students through the thicket of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," we see how our protagonist has essentially allowed herself to be a modern Tess.
The novel is set against the backdrop of the Iranian hostage crisis that undid the presidency of Jimmy Carter. And there is another hostage crisis as well: Vida, the stepmother. And Vida the mother, holding people hostage because she has so many issues about being in control. But I will say no more about that.
This is also a novel with just beautifully controlled point of view. We are allowed to see how Peter views the world in which he struggles to survive as well as Vida's new husband and his three children.
This is just the most incredible novel, right up there with "Olive Kitteridge."

10 people found this helpful

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rojo

Shows promise of what’s to come from Lily King

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020

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I love this author. While I liked this book too, I have enjoyed her later books more than this earlier one. Lily King is wonderful at creating characters, whether they’re women, men or children. If you haven’t read anything of hers yet, I’d recommend starting with Euphoria — it’s superb.

One person found this helpful

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James Felt

fortunately there are still authors that treasure each line and ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2014

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What an unexpected find!.
fortunately there are still authors that treasure each line and word, and are able to transmit emotional and intellectual impact beautifully and economically at the same time. Even seemingly trivial details are eloquently rendered, increasing the color and texture of this fine literary work. and she uses a slightly whimsical device of having the protagonist, the English teacher, teaching the reader at the same time she teaches her class, how to appreciate literature through probing Hardy's Tess (one of my favorite novels). the author reminds us as few authors do today, that words matter.

5 people found this helpful

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Thalia

while nicely written, it cloyed a bit at the end

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2014

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I was captivated quickly but by 60% reading I had grown weary of all the unhappiness and mental wailing and figured out that the finale would be a common and awful reason for the main character's misery. It was. So, while nicely written, it cloyed a bit at the end. The character was so lucky to have this wonderful man love her. He hung in there despite the calamitous scenes and her blinders. How must it been even writing this?

7 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Starts ok and ends strongly.

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2015

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I absolutely loved Euphoria and so sought something else by King to see if it could be as good. The answer is not quite. An earlier book, The English Teacher starts more jerkily, with the protagonist contemplating cancelling a date when she suddenly receives a proposal instead. Given her initial lukewarm attitude, I was surprised when she says yes and the wedding follows almost immediately. Fortunately, the book improves from here, and by the conclusion I became a fan and the protagonist's eccentricities made sense.

2 people found this helpful

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Carolyn Weaver

An English teacher reviews The English Teacher

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2014

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I am a retired English teacher, so I had a vested interest in reading Lily King's novel. It rang true to life in teaching, parenting, and the pursuit (or avoidance) of romantic relationships. The characters were credible and uniquely interesting, so much so that I thought about them long after I closed the last page. The ending was restrained, which I thought was in keeping with believable character development. I had this in common with the protagonist: sometimes lives revealed in literature seem more real to me than actual life. Another thing I loved--this teacher cared about her students and helping them to really learn. The plot is intriguing enough that you will want to read it all straight through.

12 people found this helpful

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Miss Ellie

A character i didnt care for at all

Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2020

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I almost liked this book a lot
But the protagonist had problems that were too serious for her to deal with on her own. So her new husband and step children and her own son had to bear the brunt of her selfish behaviour. I wanted to slap her half the time I was reading this book. She was not at all likable, due of course to no fault of her own. But even in the midst of horrible memories, we have to sometimes move on, grow up and deal with it for the sake of others. Not this protagonist though. She didnt care what she was putting others through
Its a very well written book though. Maybe the author wants us to feel contempt for the central character ... if so, it worked

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