Say When

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Summary: Wake Up Call for People Contiplating Divorce
Review: Characters are very real. It sheds light on a common cause for divorce: immaturity.

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Summary: Marital struggles seen through the husband's eyes
Review: Elizabeth Berg is a master at telling stories of family drama, and Say When is one of her best books. At the start of the novel, Griffin suspects that something is going on with his wife, Ellen, a sometimes odd woman with a tendency towards sadness. However, he is stunned when she informs him that she his having an affair and wants a divorce. When Griffin refuses to leave the house, they suddenly find themselves negotiating the care of their 8-year old daughter, Zoe, while living as merely roommates.

The fact that the story is told from the husband's point of view is refreshing, as is the fact that there are no bad guys here--both Griffin and Ellen are nice people who have made some mistakes. Furthermore, both are good parents to Zoe, and their interactions with their child are completely realistic as well as touching. In the midst of his domestic turmoil, Griffin gets a job as a mall Santa during the Christmas season, and his conversations with his many young visitors also ring true. The plot is simple yet never predictable, easily engaging the reader in a comfortable way. Overall, this is a delightful little book about marriage, family life, and second chances.

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Summary: A thoughtful novel about a marriage in disarray.
Review: Elizabeth Berg's latest book, "Say When," is the story of a marriage that is going downhill. Griffin and Ellen seem to have it made. They live comfortably in a Chicago suburb, and they adore their precocious eight-year-old daughter, Zoe. Suddenly, Ellen reveals that her marriage is unsatisfying and she asks Griffin for a divorce. Ellen tells Griffin that she is in love with a younger man who truly understands her.

Berg tells this story mostly from Griffin's point of view. For the first time in their marriage, Griffin starts to contemplate some of the ways that he and Ellen are different from one another. Ellen is cerebral, creative and spontaneous. Griffin is grounded, organized and predictable. Ellen and Griffin have always had their differences, but Griffin believes that their marriage is still worth saving.

Berg writes with a delicate touch and gentle humor. I love the character of Griffin. He is a great father and a man of deep feeling and devotion. Many female readers will claim that he is a complete fabrication, since there are no men like Griffin on this earth. If that is so, then there should be. Ellen is a cipher and not a particularly sympathetic character. She comes across as flighty and capricious, although her love for Zoe is unwavering.

In "Say When," Berg turns the cliche of the male having a midlife crisis on its ear. Here, it is the woman who needs to find herself, while the man wants his life to go on as it always has. Berg has written an entertaining contemporary novel that explores the theme of how difficult it is to sustain long-term relationships. After all, why stay married when divorce is such a quick solution to marital problems? Berg hits all the right notes in this touching, funny, wise and very satisfying novel.

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Summary: There is beauty in simplicity...
Review: That's what Elizabeth Berg does best. She takes the mundane things in life, the normalcy, and she changes it around, to help us remember what we saw once, as well.

In this new book, Say When, it opens with a wife and husband, Griffin and Ellen, where the husband has found out that his wife is in love with someone else, and she wants to leave him. To me, this is news enough, because I always feel as though Im reading about the husband doing this to the wife. Needless to say, Griffin is not happy with the separation. He seems to be a character who is happier when married.

The twist on it is, is that no one wants to leave the house. The one thing that they seem to have in common, is the great love they have for their eight year old daughter, Zoe. From then on, they try to reside in the same household peacefully, but, instead, they have much anger and resentment toward one another. I noticed that Griffin, like many others in relationships, thought that everyone was happy and satisfied. Instead, he never realized how unhappily married she had become. She used a great metaphor, "I think our marriage was like a house we stopped using. I mean, you know, you move in, and there are all these terrific rooms, .... and you end up being in the same two rooms all the time... We got swallowed up by a domestic routine that didn't leave room for us as the individuals we are."

I think the good thing about Griffin, was that he found satisfaction within himself, so that, if she ever did come back, he would know that he was being with her for the right reasons, not because he didn't want to be alone.

There is a lot of deconstruction of people and what keeps them togther and pulls them apart. There are a lot of memories and nostalgia so you get to know who you are reading about, wonderful descriptions of people so you feel you can see them, and it was a very quick read. Highly recommended.