Never Change

Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: This is a story about how a single woman finds love in her life. Myra is a strong woman with many people around her who care for her but she doesn't see her life as this way. Elizabeth Berg writes very well. Every single line in the book pops up at you. The story is simple and yet very true. I liked it a lot and will try Berg's other books.

Rating:
Summary: WOW! Elizabeth Berg has done it again...
Review: The other reviewers have done an excellent job of summarizing the story of "Never Change." So I can only add that as a major fan of Elizabeth Berg's prior books ("The Pull of the Moon," "Talk Before Sleep," "Range of Motion," "What We Keep" and "Durable Goods"...and these are only the ones that I've read!), I have always loved her luminiscent gift of creating and evolving women characters whom we not only believe, but whom we cheer as they struggle to grow and reinvent themselves. And I was treated to this same pleasure in "Never Change." Elizabeth Berg is so masterful at creating characters whose every word, feeling and action rings true. There is not a false note in her books, and this one was no exception. I spent a few years of my life being a Hospice volunteer. And I can say from my experience that her genuine depiction of the excruciating passages that terminally ill patients and their families and loved ones endure on the way to a "good death" was right on the mark in this book. Thank you, dear Elizabeth Berg, for writing so beautifully, and for having such a clear and crystalline view of the miracle of life and death and our journies between the two. I will always be a fan!

Rating:
Summary: EMOTIONALLY CHARGED!
Review: Myra Lipinski, an only child, grew up isolate and lonely in a small New England town. In high school everyone liked her, but did not want to spend time with her. Most of this was because she withdrew into herself and had no self-confidence......After graduating from high school she went to nursing school and was an excellent nurse, but she further isolated herself by working in the acute care unit of the hospital where most patients were unable to communicate due their severe illnesses......Now at age 51 she is working as a visiting nurse, endearing herself to her patients because she goes the extra step to love and care for them, thereby enriching their lives....Alone in the world, Myra dotes on her dog Frank and even takes him with her to visit some of her patients who really enjoy him.....One day she takes on a new patient, Chip Reardon, whom she has adored at a distance since high school....Chip has returned to town from New York City with a terminal illness and decided he wants no further treatment, much to the dismay of his parents. Myra and Chip engage in a complicated revisiting of old memories.....The author has a gift for seeing into the depth of her characters and bringing them to life in your hearts......PLEASE READ THIS BOOK, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

Rating:
Summary: Facing Death
Review: Never Change - Elizabeth Berg

Myra Lipinsky is 51 years old, never been married, and lives alone with her dog Frank. She's used to being the loner, the odd one out, the kid that always got picked last for softball. Everyone likes her, but for some reason Myra always subconsciously pushes people away.

She spends her days working as a nurse for a temp agency, going from one patient's house to another. Her patients' illnesses vary. One old man, Dewitt, has a wound that needs to be dressed every day. Rose is another elderly patient. She's diabetic and Myra helps take care of her daily needs along with administering her insulin injections. Grace is a teenage mother, learning how to cope with a new baby and trying to decide whether to give her baby up for adoption.

And then there is Chip Reardon. Chip is a cancer patient, but he also happens to be someone she grew up with and had a big crush on in high school. Chip was the most popular boy in high school, so when Myra finds out that he has brain cancer, she immediately wants to be the one to help him through his last months. This is her chance to get close to him like she never did in high school.

As Myra and Chip get reacquainted, she starts to fall in love with him. Things get complicated when an old flame of Chip's, Diann, asks to see him, and Myra offers Diann her extra bedroom, since Diann lives too far away to do an easy commute. As one can imagine, this is not easy for Myra, but being the person that she is, she watches in the wings as Diann and Chip renew their romance from years past, and Myra fights back the jealous rage that she feels. But it's not only jealousy that she feels, but sorrow, as Chip's life fades away before her eyes.

I enjoyed reading Never Change. As always, Elizabeth Berg depicted characters with such depth that made them so real to me. I was able to sympathize with the characters, and felt a great respect for Myra, who was able to deal with and cope with a friend's death. This is another great book by Elizabeth Berg that fans will not want to pass up. It's probably one of her best novels.

Rating:
Summary: Nurse Myra or Saint Myra?
Review: This is a review of the abridged audiobook version of this story.

In the beginning, it was enjoyable - Myra, a 51 year old wallflower has become a nurse and while her life is not exciting, it is livable. She has her own home, an absolutely wonderful dog named Frank and a Porsche. She no longer works in a hospital setting but visits homebound patients who can't live without her. While she did seem believable in the beginning, she quickly escalated into "Saint Myra" mode - dealing with all of her patients problems, taking a 98-year old woman (who also still volunteers in the library and has just applied for a job at the local bookstore) to the movies, counseling a 15-year old on whether or not she should put her baby up for adoption, going into horrible neighborhoods and befriending gunshot victim drug dealers, and does all this while taking her dog with her to visit the patients in their homes. I rather liked the dog!

What Myra does regret is that she never had a chance to be with the boy of her dreams - Chip Reardon (horrible name for a grown man). Lo and behold, who is her newest patient - good old Chip who just happens to be dying of a brain tumor and actually wants to die rather than fight to hold on and go through aggressive cancer treatment. And what does St. Myra do? Not only does she take Chip on as a patient, she lets him move into her home with her. And then, to elevate her status as the most used female in the entire United States, she invites Chip's former girlfriend - the senior high prom queen, most beautiful girl in the school to come visit and even lets them make love in the house while Myra is in her bedroom, feeling forlorn.

I understand feeling empathy and sympathy for a character in a book, but perhaps because this book was abridged, Myra came across as being unbelievable, naive and used instead of compassionate and loving. However, the abridged version is short - only 5 tapes and perhaps the depth of the book was cut out.

Rating:
Summary: Berg Never Disappoints Me
Review: I have never been disappointed by an Elizabeth Berg novel, and this one is no exception. I wish I knew Myra Lipinsky, the main character of this novel, so I could benefit from her calm presence and medical wisdom. This book is a comfort to anyone who has ever waited with a loved one while they waited to die. Berg gets it right.

And Berg's subtle spiritual messages always delight me. Never heavy-handed. Always a gentle reminder that we are not alone in this world.

Rating:
Summary: Berg doesn't let me down
Review: Elizabeth Berg is one author that doesn't let me down. Her books are great to curl up & relax with. You can loose yourself in them, if you let yourself. Most of her books are quick reads. They are about feelings, love, family, tragedy...
This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. Like someone else mentioned, it's not your typical romance story, quite the opposite. Berg does a great job of putting you into Myra's shoes and making you understand what it would be like to be her.
She has a very interesting relationship with Chip & Diann- makes the pages turn quickly. The best part is the epilogue...made me cry. Like I said, you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Great -- until the very end ...
Review: Elizabeth Berg is a master of the human character. From "The Pull of the Moon" to "Talk Before Sleep" and now to "Never Change," Berg has a way of drawing a reader into even the most ordinary of lives and making them seem interesting.

Myra Lipinski is a seemingly ordinary woman. She was the plain jane from high school who never really grew out of it. Her one driving passion is her job -- working as a nurse.

When the boy she had a crush on in high school returns to town and becomes her patient, her feelings of inadequacy only increase. She finds that she still has feelings for this man. And this man, who has always held life at arm's length, suddenly has revelations to share with Myra about who she is and why she does the things she does.

The book was engaging until the last five pages, when it ends abruptly with no explanation on why certain choices were made. After a book dedicated to delving into these characters, the last five pages felt flat and a bit like a cop out.

Overall, Berg's book is good and definitely worth the money. She has an easy, simply writing style that is enjoyable to read.

Rating:
Summary: Slow-paced
Review: Initially, when I first read this book, I thought the conversations that Myra had with her patients were extremely boring but as I continue to read the book, I began to understand why Elizabeth Berg included them in her story. As a reader, I learn a lot about what type of person Myra is by her conversations and how she care and interact with her patients. She's not your typical heroine, beautiful, rich with a great job and everyone falls in love with her, Myra is a wallflower, not capable of expressing herself to others and just loving herself. She is contented and at the same time, feels that she lack something in life.

That changes, when she falls in love with her new patient, Chip Reardon, a guy she had a crush on in high school. Even though Chip was slowly dying of brain tumor, he teaches Myra how to love herself and how to love life. In a way, he understands her more than she does of herself.

If you're looking for a exciting love story, this book is not for you. It's slow-paced, with some mundane details and personally, I had difficulty getting through at the beginning but I slowly grew to enjoy the book.

Rating:
Summary: The changing seasons of compassion
Review: I chose this book incidentally, thinking Berg's name familiar. I doubted that the story of a 52-year-old woman nursing a dying former classmate through his final days could hold much more interest than a TV movie. I was wrong. Never Change is a clean, precise novel that walks through what could be mordantly sentimental, with grace and compassion.

Myra Lipinsky, a nurse who has never married, uses her skills for in-home visiting care, her patients an assortment of characters as familiar as our next-door neighbors and aged relatives, who need a little extra help in performing small daily functions. From the absent-minded to the stroke-impaired, Myra unwittingly carves a bit of herself into each of their lives. To most of them, her visits are an event, an opportunity to interact with the diminishing outside world.

When Myra takes on a new patient, Chip Reardon, a former classmate, her memories of their high school years are as vivid as yesterday, without sophomoric romanticism. Chip was one of the popular guys in school, his girlfriend one of the predictable energetic beauties who draw all eyes by simply entering a room. Myra watched them both from afar, anonymous in her plain adolescence. So she is pleased that Chip has become a genuinely nice man and spending time with him brings an unexpected fullness to her life, a companionship that she finds comfortable and welcome. Soon enough, Myra will need to assist Chip through each debilitating transition he faces. It is not difficult for her to love Chip; she is a loving, nurturing woman, unaware of her own value. In fact, Myra's own transitions are the most fascinating aspect of the book. She has an ability to adapt to change, a fluidity in her definitions of life. The decisions she makes, the truths she must realize, are not done in a vacuum. There is a circle of friends, many her patients, who gather around her like soft pillows, until Myra allows herself to be loveable.

This refreshing novel has a clarity that only comes from an author who knows her own nature and understands her true self. Berg reminds us how many generous souls, like Myra, people the world we live in and how we benefit from their existence.