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Summary: Yet another Berg book to treasure...
Review: What a wonderful writer Elizabeth Berg is. I've read all of her books, and thoroughly enjoyed this one. This book will have you laughing and crying, all the while examining your own relationship with your mother. Berg has a way with words that is truly remarkable. Her beautiful prose, while seemingly simplistic, is honest and refreshing. I am an avid reader, and it is not often that I stop reading in mid-chapter just to appreciate the beauty or poignancy of a single sentence, as I do with her books. Also try Range of Motion & Talk Before Sleep. You won't be disappointed!
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Summary: What We Keep
Review: I sat down one afternoon and finished it the next day! What a wonderful story! The author was great at flashing back. I felt as though I was sharing the room with the sisters. I could see the house they lived in and taste the French toast for breakfast. The twists made the book a page turner. I was a little surprised at the end but glad at the same time. I would read more of Berg's books.
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Summary: A MUST READ FOR ANYONE THAT HAS A MOTHER!
Review: ...wheather you are close to your mom or have never met her before, this book will help explore, understand, respect and accept the relationships between mother and child. I am not a mother yet, but after reading this book - I have more understanding and respect for what my mother had to go through and what she had to give up. I called her the minute after finishing it and told her how much I loved and appreciated her! Elizabeth Berg intimatley involves us with her characters, the reader comes to know the family extra-ordinally well. You will completley feel the emotions of the young sisters as well as the adult versions of the pair. I have never read any of her other books, but am anxious to do so now. I thought the story was well written and much better than I had expected going into the book. I completed it in one afternoon if that says anything! Every mother and daughter would greatly benefit from reading this book. It brings us to a closer understanding of eachother -reminds moms of how things are for their young children and gives forsight into a mommies mind for those that haven't had their own kids yet! It was a wonderful reminder that sometimes we go through so much hurt and pain - and often we don't know the real reasons why- and don't take the time to find out. We miss out on so much sometimes and dwell on what we have lost- but we have to remember that what we lost is not important- what matters is what we keep.
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Summary: The time when mothers become human.....
Review: The story begins with Ginny, who is 47 years old and is flying to visit her mother, who she hasn't seen for 35 years. My first thoughts were, 'how could you not see your mother for that long?' But as the story unfolds, detailed in flashbacks, I began to empathise with Ginny and her sister Sharla. It becomes quite clear how they found it easier not to have contact with their mother. Their mother did walk out and leave them, afterall. Their mother began to regret her life, and the predictability of it. She felt like she hadn't lived to her true potential, and she had to find that away from her family. So she sacrificed her children for her own shot of life. I understand to a point how a mother would WANT to leave her children, especially when suffering from depression, but I don't understand how she COULD. I know I couldn't step more than three feet from my front door before I'd turn around again. It's a fine line being a mother, a wife and a person with needs. All us mothers walk that line everyday, and I think it's important to realise that our mothers did too, as did theirs, without the options we have today, like childcare, part time jobs etc. These girls found out that it's a luxury to take mothers for granted.
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Summary: What We Keep by E. Berg
Review: This book was the August selection for our book group. It was liked by the majority. The narrative by the twelve year old character was realistic and touching. The relationships that developed were interesting and revealing. The end of the book did leave us thinking that the character may have been less than complete. We did find it easy to read.
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Summary: A Tale of Mothers and Daughters!
Review: As a daughter and mother of a daughter, I am always intrigued by the thought of a book which explores the nuances of these relationships. But if I was looking for a sweet read depicting mother knows best and daughter is listeneing, I should have read something else. For in What we Keep, the author relates the story of a mother and her two daughters in an overwhelmingly sad story. The opening pages of this book begin on an airplane ride as Ginny, Marion's younger daughter and sister of Sharla, explains to another passenger the nature of her trip West. Ginny is meeting up with her sister to visit the mother they haven't seen in 35 years. Then in a series of Ginny's reflections throughout the plane ride, we learn the how and why Marion left her daughters when they were only 14 and 12. Naturally thoughout the book we hear and feel Ginny's struggles with this trip, her recollections of their family life and how she will ultimately feel about her mother. I found this to be one of Berg's more difficult books for me to read perhaps because I had such a wonderful bond with my mother. And I found msyelf dragging through the book not because I didn't want it to end but because it was so painful for me to think about what Marion did despite the fact that I somewhat understood her actions. And at the end I was waiting for parts of the puzzle to be solved and it finally left me wondering why this happened and what the future held for these three women after this meeting. I did find this book evoked some of the same feelings I found in other books by Elizabeth Berg like Durable Goods which explored feelings among siblings and Joy School which described the painfgul days of a first love. And sections of it detailing what its like for a woman to grow older and what we expect from mothers were so beautifully written that I found myself crying. Although this wasn't one of my favorite books written by Elizabeth Berg, pleae do read it and decide for yourself. Even a book by Berg which I liked less than her others is still a most worthwhile read.
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Summary: A Short But Sweet Story about Family and Forgiveness
Review: I had to read this novel for an English class and wasn't exactly too thrilled with spending my time reading instead of enjoying other things. But I soon found myself making time, here and there, to sit and read further into the lives of Ginny and her family. The author, Elizabeth Berg, does a wonderful job of including bits and pieces of everyone's life in this tale of adolescence and loss. The story goes back and forth from the present, when middle aged Ginny is in an airplane, flying to see her sister, Sharla, who is suddenly ill. And then to the past when she and her sister were little girls around the age of twelve. It keeps flipping back and forth throughout the entire novel, and it is not a bit confusing. One of the things I found most charming about this novel was the inner monologue of Ginny which is quite real, which made me keep coming back for more. The way she observed people and objects made me think of children I know. Berg knows children, how they behave and how they act to the point where you forgot a woman wrote this and not a child. Another thing I liked about this novel was that it wasn't filled with fillers and extra storylines to confuse, or take away from the main plot. It's short and sweet, and the characters are all likable. But there is a slight mystery plot. We know from the start that her sister Sharla is sick and now Ginny's flying to see her and her mom, who she hasn't seen in over 35 years. That's the mystery part. When the past is presented in the book everything seems to be fine, and you begin to wonder why the mother is going to leave. That helped me keep going further to find out. This story is also not filled with twists and turns, or action, or suspense, and nothing really happens. It just chronicles the life and times or ordinary people with ordinary things happening to them. But it's a charming tale anyhow.
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Summary: Sweet, shattering
Review: Elizabeth Berg has crafted a book full of contrasts; nostalgic and hard-hitting, beautiful and heartbreaking. The story of two sisters with a miserable and unfulfilled mother, "What We Keep" is a painfully realistic story of love, betrayal, abandonment and, finally, forgiveness. I found this story brought tears to my eyes more than once. Ginny and Sharla are pre-teens when their mother begins to act in a frightening, dispondent manner. Ginny reacts with stormy emotion, while Sharla remains heartbreakingly stoic throughout the ordeal. The pain of these two girls is so clear on every page, even as we recognize and understand their mother's reason for leaving. I found the ending of the book somewhat unsatisfying, only because I wanted to know more about the characters' relationships and experiences. I wish this book had been 100 pages longer! Reading this book provides a vivid and memorable emotional experience. I highly recommend it for any woman who has ever been close to her sister, or has had a mother with emotional difficulties.
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Summary: You Become The Character
Review: This Book was a short easy read, that you can simple enjoy on the beach for a few hours. Everything was in such great detail, that it makes you taste the cups, as she explaines it being sweet, everything was well written, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants a nice family book.
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Summary: Engrossing and wonderfully descriptive -- draws you in
Review: Ms. Berg does a wonderful job in spanning the distance between youthful perception and adult reality. She moves the main character's (Ginny's ) thoughts seamlessly from those of a worried adult traveler back to memories from her youth. The descriptions and sensations ring true and are vividly relayed. The outright trust young Ginny has in her universe, her sense of betrayal by her mother, the strength of the sibling relationship, and even the youthful misinterpretations are well woven into this sad but oddly uplifting story. After this read, my first Berg novel, I am looking to pick up another!
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