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Summary: A time for dying.
Review: Elizabeth Berg has done it again. She has given us a story with characters that feel so real, and insights so valid, they go straight to the heart of anyone who is lucky enough to pick up her book. Her greatest strength lies in her observation of the ordinary details of living. She is nothing short of a master as the words and thoughts flow effortlessly across the page.Myra is a 51 year old Registered Nurse who works for a home care agency. Her new patient just happens to be Chip Reardon, a popular boy she loved from afar in high school, who has come home to die. Myra has been aloof all of her life, a wallflower, the watcher and never the center of life as it goes on around her. She is about to learn a very important lesson as she walks through the drama her life will become. Berg has added a few unexpected twists that keep us wondering till the end, leaving us for a time with a story that can go two ways. A wonderful book not soon forgotten. Another intuitive and embracing selection by Berg is PULL OF THE MOON. Kelsana 6/19/20
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Summary: My favorite Elizabeth Berg book so far.
Review: This is the third book I've read by Berg, and it's my favorite so far. The main character, Myra, is a 51 year old spinster who's never had much of a life. Although she enjoys her job as a home visit nurse and her dog Frank, she has little else to give her life meaning. Suddenly, everything changes when she is assigned a new client, who turns out to be the popular, likeable boy that everyone (including shy, unattractive Myra) had a crush on in high school, Chip. Chip has come home to live with his parents after being diagnosed with a brain tumor; he is well aware that death is imminent. Chip is pleased to discover that Myra is his nurse, and the two form a friendship in addition to their professional relationship. Complications unfold as Myra's old feelings for Chip resurface and Chip's ex-girlfriend Diann comes to visit. In addition, the story is visited by the odd characters who make up Myra's other clients: DeWitt, a drug dealer with a gunshot wound; Grace, a 15-year old new mother; Marvelous, a woman who becomes Myra's friend; and several interesting others. At first, Myra seems more of a pathetic than a likeable character, but when you start seeing her interact with her patients, you develop admiration and respect for her skill at what she does. As Chip's health deteriorates, so does Myra's outlook on life, but Chip and the other characters try to make her see differently. There are several unexpected twists and turns, including an ending that is not quite as predictable as you might think. Berg also includes an epilogue, which gives this book a greater sense of completeness than her other works. Overall, I found this to be a quick, enjoyable read that I would recommend to fans of Berg or other quirky female novelists such as Anne Tyler.
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Summary: This was my first Berg book...
Review: ...and it won't be my last. It was funny, quirky, sad, and tragic all at the same time. I would start crying on one page and by the next I was laughing again. Berg has become one of my all time favorite authors.
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Summary: Contrived and saccharine - I liked it anyhow!
Review: The set up is completely unbelievable - a 51-year old guy with the ridiculous name of Chip, comes home to die and Myra, a girl who had a crush on him in high school, just happens to be his visiting nurse. Big surprise - they fall in love despite his being a dream boat and her a dog. What saves this from being a maudlin piece is Berg's ability to make her characters real. Even though I didn't believe the plot for a minute, I believed that the characters were real people. Berg's attention to detail is excellent. Her character's voices and observations, and what they say to one another are true. That's why I truly enjoyed this book. But I won't give Berg a five. Recently I heard a story of hers read aloud. It had all the positive points of this book, but it was sophisticated, funny and deep. I want her to write a book with more depth. She can do it. She has plenty of cash now from the sale of all these sappy books. Come on, Liz. Give us a piece of literature.
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Summary: Touching and Beautiful
Review: I laughed, I cried, but most of all I didn't want this book to end. I have read many books by Elizabeth Berg before and she has yet to dissapoint me. This book is about 51 year old nurse Myra Lipinsky, who has never married and her dog Frank is the only family she has. She is truly dedicated to her career and her patients and she has made a comfortable living for herself. The one problem is she suffers from loneliness and she dreams of having a real family.
That all changes when she is assigned a new patient Chip Reardon, who happens to be an old high school friend that she had a crush on and he is dying. He teaches Myra how to open up and except love and he also shows her how much she means to the people in her life. This was a very beautiful love story and I thought it was well written. I highly recommend reading this book or any other book by Ms. Berg.
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Summary: Elizabeth Berg Rules!!!
Review: Anyone who says in any way that Elizabeth Berg doesn't know what she's doing, or should write better, ought to get their head examined. ..Elizabeth Berg is the best fiction writer that I've ever read. She is brilliant. I only wish that I could come close to writing like her. She has a rare gift. I think her books, all of them are the most amazing things ever! I am a reading addict, and I get so excited every time Elizabeth releases another book. ......She's awesome , and I think she's aware of that fact by now...Keep writing Liz, we love you...
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Summary: Filled With Rare Beauty
Review: Myra Lipinski is 51 and single. She's plain, introverted, and her one great passion is her job as a nurse. Although she's not exactly discontent, Myra has resigned herself the fact that the rest of her life will be fairly uneventful. Yet then her former high school crush comes back into her life-the handsome, impossibly accomplished Chip Reardon. But Chip is no longer the perfect specimen he was. He is dying from a brain tumor, and Myra becomes his nurse. Then, their relationship deepens and they are both forced to confront horrifying, enormous, and unbelievably profound ideas about dying, death, the meaning of life, and falling in love. Okay, you can stop rolling your eyes now! Admittedly, in the hands of a lesser author, "Never Change" would become a weepy, soap-operaish mess. Elizabeth Berg, on the other hand, has the intelligence, piericingly superb writing skills, and keen sense of character necessary to pull off such a tough subject. What really makes "Never Change" such an unforgettable and deeply enjoyable read is Myra. From the the first chapter in which Berg effortlessly and precisely captures Myra's remembrance of longing to go her high school prom, she makes her character shine. And it's not that Myra shines because she is unique or unusually intelligent or accomplished-she is a memorable character because she is NONE of those things. Instead, throughout "Never Change" Myra's longings, wishes, thoughts, and perspectives resonate because of the deep truth that lurks behind their normalcy. I also loved this novel because it never pretended to have all of the answers about dying. It showed the horribly grotesque and hideously frightening side of being terminally ill and brought up an endless of number of hard questions about the issue. Indeed, "Never Change" even ends with a somewhat nebulous stance on how a life should be lived after it has been touched by another's death. But this seeming wishy-washyness and lack of clear-cut opinions about death is genius. It is truly realistic, since who really know what death is like? Also, by allowing her characters (mainly Myra) to ponder aspects of death and dying without coming up with many answers, Berg takes her readers on a thoughtful "journey" and allows them to perhaps make up their own mind on the issues. Finally, I relished the secondary characters included in the book. Since Myra is a traveling nurse who visits patients in their home, she comes into contact with an eclectic spectrum of humanity. All of these many patients-from a wounded drug dealer to a lonely yet intelligent elderly woman in a retirement facility-add new angles of insight and enjoyment to the story and are cleverly created to influence Myra in unique and "fun to read" ways. Yes, it could have been a horrible book. And yes, the idea of Myra falling in love, over 35 years after last seeing him, with her dying high school crush sounds like a bit too much to swallow. But with her lovely characters, compassionate prose, and satisfyingly deft writing, Elizabeth Berg makes it so you wouldn't want to change a thing about this book.
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Summary: A TOUCHING STORY
Review: Women will weep; women will love it. Elizabeth Berg's latest novel centers around a middle aged woman with an "unfortunate" face. She's unattractive in contemporary America where beauty is the ne plus ultra. She is also lonely. Once again Ms. Berg adroitly offers a less than sanguine protagonist who's getting along by getting along. Myra Lipsinsky is 51, unmarried, and convinced she never will be. She has devoted herself to her career as a visiting nurse, and to the care and well being of her dog, Frank. Myra describes her youthful self as "the one everybody liked but no one wanted to be with." Things haven't changed much over the years - that is until Chip Reardon, the love of Myra's life in high school, returns to town. But Chip has come back home for a tragic reason - he is dying, and Myra becomes his nurse. Of course, his death is inevitable but there are lessons to be learned here and Myra learns them well. Skillful author that she is Ms. Berg paints their relationship with insight and depth while reminding readers that in endings there are often beginnings. - Gail Cooke
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Summary: So many levels...
Review: I found it fascinating to read all the reviews of this book, and its beautiful story. The cynics and the literal-minded disliked it..."shame on the nursing profession" It's fiction, for heaven's sake! The characters were unforgettable, as so many mentioned...and relating to them was not difficult. Berg's ability to make the characters come to life, is for me, her genius.
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Summary: poor followup to other wonderful book by author
Review: This book was a poor, sappy, cheap dime store novel version of the usual wondors Elizabeth Burg writes. It had none of the usual fabulous depht of charecter and thought, and all of a seventh heaven plot, except worse. I still enjoyed it though, because Burg's fabulus voice still shines through the goppy drama
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