Julie's Review: Tapestry of Fortunes

Summary: In this superb new novel by the beloved author of Open House, Home Safe, and The Last Time I Saw You, four women venture into their pasts in order to shape their futures, fates, and fortunes. Cecilia Ross is a motivational speaker who encourages others to change their lives for the better. Why can’t she take her own advice? Still reeling from the death of her best friend, and freshly aware of the need to live more fully now, Cece realizes that she has to make a move—all the portentous signs seem to point in that direction. She downsizes her life, sells her suburban Minnesota home and lets go of many of her possessions. She moves into a beautiful old house in Saint Paul, complete with a garden, chef’s kitchen, and three housemates: Lise, the home’s owner and a divorced mother at odds with her twenty-year-old daughter; Joni, a top-notch sous chef at a first-rate restaurant with a grade A jerk of a boss; and Renie, the youngest and most mercurial of the group, who is trying to rectify a teenage mistake. These women embark on a journey together in an attempt to connect with parts of themselves long denied. For Cece, that means finding Dennis Halsinger. Despite being “the one who got away,” Dennis has never been far from Cece’s thoughts. ~powells.com

Review: I am happy that Alice led me to Ms. Berg's novels. Tapestry of Fortunes is my 2nd novel of hers that I've read and I enjoyed it. I closed the novel with a warmed heart and a need to go on a road trip with my girlfriends.

We are introduced to Cecelia (CeCe) after the death of her best friend, Penny. She is lost and rearranges her life to find herself again. She finds herself living with a group of women who have their own issues to resolve and reconcile. It is through each other that they face their fears and begin to move on.

Tapestry of Fortunes is a novel about letting go and just being. It is about reconciling your past and moving towards your future. Is your future in your past? Or had that road been closed?

It is a short and quick read but one that does have important messages. If you are a fan of Elizabeth Berg's novels, then you won't want to miss this one.

Final Take: 3.75/5

Julie's Review: Dream While You're Feeling Blue

Summary: New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes us to Chicago at the time of World War II in this wonderful story about three sisters, their lively Irish family, and the men they love. As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters–Louise to her fiancé, Kitty to the man she wishes fervently would propose, and Tish to an ever-changing group of men she meets at USO dances. In the letters the sisters send and receive are intimate glimpses of life both on the battlefront and at home. For Kitty, a confident, headstrong young woman, the departure of her boyfriend and the lessons she learns about love, resilience, and war will bring a surprise and a secret, and will lead her to a radical action for those she loves. The lifelong consequences of the choices the Heaney sisters make are at the heart of this superb novel about the power of love and the enduring strength of family. ~amazon.com

Review: Alice is a huge Elizabeth Berg fan and after reading Dream When You're Feeling Blue, I can definitely see why. She definitely has a gift for transporting her readers to a different era. For this novel it was the era of World War II. The Heaney's are a big Irish Catholic family living in Chicago in the midst of World War II. Pearl Harbor has been bombed and young men are enlisting like crazy. This includes Louise and Kitty's boyfriends who are off to boot camp and then off to fight the evil Axis.

I have to say that I loved all of the characters in the Heaney family. They each had their own personalities. I will say that Tish annoyed me the most. She was a moon-y 17 year old girl who had a major crush on her sister's boyfriend.

Ms. Berg did an excellent job of describing how the war was affecting families. Everything from cooking to having a simple cup of strong coffee wasn't easy to do. The sacrifices every family made to help the war effort was astounding. I wonder if our country could rally like that again?

Kitty is the main character or voice of the novel. She is the oldest sibling in the family. She is a bit lost in the beginning of the novel. She is really unsure of her relationship with Julian. So much that she struggles to write him long letters. Kitty really changes and grows throughout the novel. She gets a job in a factory making airplanes and it gives her purpose. She is an easy character to like and cheer for.

My issue with the novel was the ending. I felt that it came out of nowhere and with no explanation. It seemed to me that it was a sacrifice that really wasn't needed. I did like that we got a glimpse into their futures, that might be the only thing that saved the ending for me.

I can say this, I will be reading Ms. Berg again in the future.

Final Take: 3.75/5

Alice's Review: Once Upon a Time, There Was You

Summary:  This is a novel about the vagaries of love and the cost of love and the worth of love and the utter confusion of love.On her wedding day, Irene Marsh sits in the bride's room asking her best friend Valerie to go and get the car and help her escape. And if Valerie doesn't want to help, Irene understands; she says can take a bus home.  On the night before his wedding, John Marsh sits in a bar with his best friend who asks a nervous John to recall why he's marrying Irene, in an effort to calm him down. John says: "Because she doesn't wear make-up?"  Perhaps not surprisingly, this marriage ends in divorce. But many years later, the couple is brought together again because of something terrible that happens to the one thing they still have in common: their beloved daughter.  I write novels for lots of different reasons. This time, I wanted to look at what if. What if a couple long divorced were suddenly thrust into living in the same house together again, seeing each other--and themselves-- in new ways. What might happen? As is typical of my books, there's a mix of humor and pathos here, and illumination of some difficult truths. In one of my favorite scenes, Irene and Valerie show each other their aging bodies, in an effort for Irene to determine if she's "normal." And for all of you who are going to ask if I ever did that, the answer is no. But I kind of wish I could. Irene is an eccentric character and a bit difficult at times, but she is so full of love. All she has to do is figure out is a way to let it out. ~elizabeth-berg.net

Review:  I’m a sucker for relationship novels.  I love romance, I love the idea of love.  I love all aspects of it, the good and the bad.  As you all know, I read with my heart and Once Upon a Time, There Was You had a lot that made my heart very happy.

The novel focuses on three separate relationships:  Eighteen year old Sadie discovering love for the first time, her mom, Irene mending a broken heart (sort of) after a recently ended relationship, and John, Sadie’s father, cautiously stepping back into the dating game.  Not only does Ms. Berg deal with romances for each character but with their relationships with each other.

Once Upon a Time, There Was You is pretty much a coming of age stories with Sadie, Irene and John each coming into their own.  Sadie’s growth was sweet but forgettable, and John’s was a matter of timing.  Irene is the story that I related to the most.  Hers took the most courage.  It has to be hard to be in your mid 50s starting over again.  And she does it with style.  By style, I mean she is the classic case of F.I.N.E.: Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.  I loved Irene.  I think I fell in love with her when while placing a personal ad, she wrote this:

"I believe in defacing books.  I think one’s personal library should be full of books with broken spines and meaningful passages underlined, with pages marked by chocolate or coffee or grease stains.  If there are comments or questions in the margins, even better."

I loved this, and this alone is one of the major reasons I will never abandon tree books for ebooks.  Irene was kooky, a bit odd, funny, passionate.  Her neurosis brought great humor to this novel that probably wasn’t meant to be funny.  I guess I saw a bit of myself in her.  Kind of trying her best, hoping for a good outcome, but scared to death of actually receiving that good outcome.

The other passage I had to underline was about marriage.  As a single person, I think I’ll take this piece of advice to heart.  It was the one thing that failed me in the past, and the one thing I am changing in my current relationship.

“You know, sometimes marriage is iron.  Sometimes it’s tissue paper.  And I think the times it’s tissue paper are when you need to keep things to yourself.  Or you can end up making a mistake that you’ll regret forever.” Valerie to Irene.

Once Upon a Time, There Was You focused mainly on how well do you know someone, what to keep to/for yourself, and when you start to lose yourself (your authentic self) in a relationship.  I really enjoyed how each character found a peace in their situation.  They had to grow apart in order to be together.  I was beautiful to read, and to experience along with the characters. 

 As much as I enjoyed this novel, the one major flaw was the abduction of Sadie.  It served no purpose other than to reunite John and Irene to deal with the aftermath.  I felt it was unnecessary.  I kept waiting for more to come from that plot that never arrived.  It left me feeling wanting.

Overall, Once Upon a Time, There Was You is another good Elizabeth Berg novel and a solid example of why she is one of my favorites.

Final Take:  4/5

Alice's Review: Say When

Summary: Husbands frequently tune out their spouses, but Frank Griffin makes valiant attempts to ignore Ellen, his wife of 10 years, when she announces she has a lover and wants a divorce in this endearing, undemanding novel by Berg (True to Form, etc.). Griffin (he goes by his last name) struggles to hold on to his normal life-namely his house and his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe-while repairing his relationship with Ellen. Refreshingly, Berg tells the story from Griffin's point of view: he refuses to leave home, insisting that he and Ellen live as roommates, and tries to wear her down with small acts of kindness. A decent man and a good provider, Griffin is also-he comes to realize-a less-than-exciting partner at times, dismissive of his wife's attempts to get him to read poetry and see art movies, or try anything new at all. Eccentric, shy Ellen, an isolated, stay-at-home mother whose only friend is the waitress at her regular diner, has her own flaws. In trying to live out her adolescence 20-plus years too late, she flaunts her new romance in ways that evoke either disdain or pity for her naïveté. Some readers may feel she gives up her quest for more freedom too quickly; others will appreciate the way she explores her complicated feelings about her marriage. Griffin, meanwhile, makes changes, too, trying a stint as a shopping mall Santa and winning a few dates. Berg has a talent for dialogue, and her skillfully crafted interactions between characters-scenes with tomboy Zoe are always a bright spot-are homey and convincing. These days, separation and divorce are commonplace, but a book that treats those subjects with Berg's tenderness and understanding is not. Publishers Weekly

Review:  Every once in a while I need to read a novel that speaks to my soul.  Sometimes one comes about happenstance (personally, I love those books); other times I know exactly where to find them.  Elizabeth Berg is that kind of storyteller.

A surprise visit to the library last Saturday brought me face to face with a section of Elizabeth Berg novels.  After perusing the titles I picked one, open it and read the inner sleeve. I didn’t even get through the first paragraph before promptly closing the book and headed to the check out.

I know I’m not alone when I say that I crave conflict in a story.  I crave hurt, I crave grief and turmoil.  As a reader, I think we all do.  Elizabeth Berg’s strength is her ability to describe human emotions in such a way that I can’t help but feel them too.

Say When is the first time I read a novel that dealt with adultery but from a man’s point of view.  Griffin was a regular guy, in love with his complicated wife, living the dream until the day the rug was pulled out from under him.  I enjoyed reading this story.  I liked Frank, I liked getting to know Ellen from his point of view, I liked his relationship with his daughter.  Most importantly, I liked the way Ms. Berg developed Frank’s character by taking away the most important thing to him.  I enjoyed how Ms. Berg kept Ellen’s motives a secret, that the novel was really about Griffith.  I started the novel feeling sympathy towards him.  By then end, I felt like a close companion and that whatever happened, he was a much stronger man, a more loving father because of it.

This isn’t one of Ms. Berg’s strongest novels, the ending predictable.  As always, the writing and emotional delivery was spot on but I think it lacked the soul of Open House or Dream When You Are Feeling Blue.  It’s not a must read, but I did enjoy taking this emotional ride with Griffith.  I don’t regret reading it, but it’s not one I’ll read again.

My favorite part of the novel came during a conversation Griffin had with his coworker Donna.  About compatibility, Donna says, “God above could come down and tell some people they were wildly incompatible with their spouses, and they’d still want to be with them.  It’s like artist sacrificing so much for their art.  For some people, their relationship is their art, they’ll give up everything for it.”

I love that and that alone was worth reading the novel.

Final Take: 3/5