Open House

Rating:
Summary: A Bit of a Letdown
Review: Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors, and "Talk Before Sleep" is my favorite novel. Open House was just not up to the same level as some of her other works. Nothing was ever resolved, and the reader never got to learn much about the characters. I think I was expecting more "Where the Heart Is" - all these characters (people she normally would never meet) coming into Sam's life and helping her find her own place. We never get to know much about the characters, they just move through the story. David is only described by his bad qualities - surely there must have been more to him. And there were a few twists that, while pretty cliched, could have added dimension, but they were resolved so quickly and easily. And why didn't she get a real job? Or, if she was going to temp these odd positions, there were probably lots of interesting people she could meet - but, again, they were there and then gone quickly. Like another reader, I also thought the few fairly graphic sex scenes seemed out of place, and really did not add much to my understanding or empathy for Sam.

Hopefully, Berg's next endeavor will be better. I can't believe Oprah picked this one over her other novels.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!
Review: Elizabeth Berg has created a modern masterpiece in Open House, capturing all of the trials and tribulations of post-modern feminism. While the ending is somewhat predictable, the reader will enjoy an unforgettable roller coaster ride in getting there. Be prepared to cry a little, laugh a little, smile a little and be torn in a thousand different directions. You'll go through an emotional tug-of-war, but when you finish this gem of a book, you can sit back and drink a glass of wine relaxed in the knowledge that you've just read something very special indeed. Being a recently divorced woman, I could truly appreciate this book. Although I think anyone would enjoy Open House. (As an aside, after I finished Open House, I read a light hearted comedy called Fried Calamari about a divorced woman back on the dating scene -- which served as a perfect anectdote to such an emotionally packed book like Open House.)

Rating:
Summary: i recommend another book ,,,
Review: i highly recommend another book - entitled "JULIA'S MOTHER" - written by an ER doctor practicing at a children's hospital. SO very beautifully written, so poignant.... i couldnt put it down, didnt want it to end .....

Rating:
Summary: Open your house to "Open House"
Review: I can't believe it...I actually read a book BEFORE it was chosen for Oprah's Book Club. I selected "Open House" because I had read "Talk Before Sleep" and wanted to read more of Berg's work. From the beginning, she captured the devastation that a person in Sam's situation experiences. I was hooked by the second page. Berg's touches of humour also kept me turning the pages.

Characterization is definitely one of this author's strengths. I've read three of her books ("Range of Motion" most recently) and have been able to identify with one or more characters in all of them. Friendships must be important to Elizabeth Berg because that theme is always strong and always well developed.

If you haven't read any of her books yet, "Open House" would be a good one to start with. While it deals with serious issues, it also is a bit "lighter" than the others I've read. Her books are easy to read because: they aren't real long, they don't get bogged down with details, and they are so darn compelling! Berg manages to tell a really good story in the time it takes some authors to get started.

I don't always agree with Oprah's choices, but this is one book she and I are seeing eye to eye about. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Pah-lease!!
Review: This is another book about the "poor woman" scorned! It is trite, predictable and sappy. It is the perfect book for women who self-pity themselves after a divorce in which they probably contributed. (Did I mention the the main character has a child (son), too many bills and bad luck? How original.)

Rating:
Summary: HOPE
Review: I love this book. It gave me hope. I am a large person like King, only I am a woman, and approaching 40. While I have never been tricked sexually like King, I have always feared that situation happening to me. I have heard men offering other men money to ask me out, as a joke, though. Anyway, I have been grieving, thinking I have missed out on the oppurtunity for love including sexual experiences. I felt hopeful after reading this book. The love scenes were written so tenderly and beautifully they made me cry. I hope someday to be recounting similiar experiences into my own journal.

Rating:
Summary: A lesson for all...
Review: Like, who are all the lonely people and, like, why don't they go away? Open House, by Elizabeth Berg, asks these questions and then answers them in a fashion as starkly beautiful as a mid-winter forest. Inside each of us is a lonely misunderstood soul that camoflauges itself through the daily rituals of life: water-cooler chit-chat, sunday ballgames and endless telephone converstations. And then, inevitably, comes the BOMB. Berg uses divorce but don't get fooled; it's only a plot device that could have easily been replaced by cancer, death of a loved one, substance abuse or any one of a thousand nightmares that pop up in life and hit you like a just opened bottle of sour milk. And then what? Berg so eloquently shows how the lonly people get that way and how you and I are only a footstep away from joining them. Berg writes with the skill of a subtle horror writer, illuminating how scary and sad the lonley life can be. Her prose ably pulls off the paradoxical task of fully describing what can best be thought of as a void, a place where human interaction is useless and only reinforces lonliness. At times I thought Open House should have been retitled "Hearts of Emptiness" But then Berg, always a pragmatically optimistic writer, shows life to be not a graveyard for the living but a garden. A garden where hope and love bloom unexpectedly, nourished on the tears and joys and tribulations and triumphs of all that has come before. With Open House Berg has taken her writing to new levels of technical and atristic mastery. It is a complex, multi-leveled work. I would recommend it only to those interested in running the marathon that we call life. And that, my friends, should be all of us.

Rating:
Summary: i recommend another book ...
Review: i highly recommend another book - entitled "JULIA'S MOTHER" - written by an ER doctor practicing at a children's hospital. SO beautifully written, so poignant .... i couldnt put it down, didnt want it to end .... such a moving account of parents and their children at their most vulnerable, most heroic. Should be an OPRAH pick, too .....

Rating:
Summary: What a sweet read...
Review: Great sweet summer read. The author has you riding the emotional roller coaster of Sam and rooting for her throughout. While the ending is predictable, you will smile as you turn the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Real life lived by real people!
Review: Once again Elizabeth Berg has created a woman I want to meet, I love this woman! Samantha holds her own while struggling to maintain a normal life and provide a loving home for her son Travis in the midst of recovering from having the rug pulled out from under her feet and figuring out where to go from here. These characters are so real it's amazing, what a talent Ms. Berg has! Samantha manages to make me laugh with her "so very real" internal dialogue even as she is on the edge of utter despair. . . I can't say enough good things about this writer!