Until the Real Thing Comes Along

Rating:
Summary: A miss for Berg
Review: I have read only one other Elizabeth Berg, Talk Before Sleep, and fell in love with her writing after this book. For my next Berg selection I chose Until the Real Thing Comes Along and have to admit I was highly dissappointed. I give the book 2 stars only because I was able to finish the entire book in a few days as it did keep something of my attention.

From the moment I started reading this book, though, I wanted to smack some reality into the main character, Patty. Patty was in love with her best friend and refused to even try to give love a shot with other men. This frustrated me as I found Patty whining more and more about her missing love life and her want for her best friend Ethan and I wanted to tell her you will never get him to marry you so stop obsessing!

I continued reading the book just to find out if Patty ever found her dream man or ever had a baby, but finished the book with a feeling of dissatisfaction. I felt the book ended with an ending that was empty. I feel Berg left us with a simple ending and characters that readers could not totally connect with. I am moving on to Range of Motion and hope this one is better than Until the Real Thing Comes Along.

Rating:
Summary: A Quick Read
Review: This was my second book by Elizabeth Berg. I had read 'Pull Of The Moon' and loved it plus I had heard so much about other books by Berg.

Until The Real Thing Comes Along is about a 37 year old woman, Patty, who is afraid that she will never get married and have children. Her character basically is dull. She works at a job in which she has no skill and is making no money. She is in love with someone who can't love her because he has come out of the closet. Patty doesn't deal in reality, she deals in dreams and wishes. While reading this book I couldn't believe this was a story that Berg made up. You have heard the saying, "Truth is stranger than fiction?" I wonder if this is a real life story written in the form of fiction? Because although the writing is great and is what keeps you reading, the story and characters are a little hard to believe. I gave it a 3 because of Berg's writing ability.

Rating:
Summary: Painful
Review: It's painful to read the book simply because, like Patty, I also feel so much of the longing and desire to have a baby. Sometimes I do feel I want a baby more than a husband. And it strikes true when the heart rules against the sensible mind - wanting so much for the perfect one (a perfect someone for me, not the perfect man). You want to kick her and knock her head, and yes I want to kick myself too. But OK, don't judge me for that.

Berg seems to know how it all feels and and she describes the emotions well. Her language is awesome and so very true.

However, I have to say the storyline could be better. Certain things seem to be too convenient making it much less interesting.

I'm thinking of reading her other books.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, But Not Berg's Best
Review: Warning for those who haven't read the book: spoilers.

I have been a huge fan of Elizabeth Berg's for years, ever since reading her novel "Durable Goods". She has an incredible ability to turn ordinary people into extraordinary ones through the gorgeous language and imagery she uses. There is no lack of that in "Until the Real Thing Comes Along." However, I must admit that I was disappointed with this book. I found Patty to be whiny rather than sympathetic. The plot seemed a little too convenient in too many places. How nice that Ethan, Patty's gay true love, eventually decides to get Patty pregnant. How nice that Patty's best friend Elaine and her former lover Mark get married and (almost) begin a family of their own and all three remained close. And how sad that Patty has another worry in her life with her mother getting Alzheimer's disease. All of these things are fine in and of themselves, but there was not explanation for them. They just sort of happened with too little warning to make the story really work, and often seemed almost clichéd as a result. Now, don't get me wrong. I love Elizabeth Berg's work, and I will anxiously await her next novel (and perhaps reread some of the old ones in the meantime). This was just not her best, and for an author with such a gift for stunning language, that's really disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Enh...
Review: This is the first Berg book I've read, and while I admire her writing style, I couldn't stand the main character, Patty. She was just too self-absorbed for my taste. It drove me crazy. Ethan was a slice of heaven, but the situation they were in was incredibly unrealistic to me. I know this kind of thing does happen, but I think there should have been a lot more conflict involved.

Rating:
Summary: Off-beat Love Story
Review: I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Berg and her special skill at creating characters who make us exclaim, "Yes, that's just like so and so!" I've enjoyed some of her other books more, but I can understand the elemental pull towards motherhood (after all, I'm the author of a book for mothers, NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL). An interesting story.

Rating:
Summary: A little dissapointed...
Review: I LOVE E. Berg, however, in this novel I thought the story was a little dragged a little and the ending was rushed. it was as if she realized this story needs to end. though Funny at times I just wished all the action didn't happen at the few last chapters.

Rating:
Summary: OK BUT LEFT OUT SO MUCH!!
Review: The idea of this book is good, but alot of it was very unrealistic. I think if this were a real situation there would have been alot more emotion and not tied up so quickly at the end. These characters just did not act like someone in this situation should act. Getting pregnant on the first try and just moving on the way the story did just did not seem real to life to me. They also seemed very immature. I just think it could have been alot more emotional and really captured the idea of the book better.

Rating:
Summary: Unsure of whether it is realistic enough for me....
Review: _Until the Real Thing Comes Along_ is a very fascinating book. The subject matter is one that I think many single women in the earlier thirties or even later has "entertained" at one time or another. I know that the subject matter really piqued my interested, as it relates to things that I had hoped to have one day - a family and a husband. At like the title implies, the main character felt that she had to compensate somehow until, you know, "the real thing did come along."

The main character, Patty, desperately wants a baby. However, she doesn't have a husband and the biological clock is ticking. She is a great character, and I loved reading about her as she developed throughout the novel. She was humorous, she had feelings, and she had problems with her family, her friends, her work, and her love life of course. She has this best friend, Ethan, who happens to be a gay man. He seemed pretty secure to me in the fact he was gay. Knowing many gay men, who too also seemed to be secure in their homosexuality, it seemed peculiar to me that Ethan went along with Patty's plan. Perhaps there are more gay men out there like Ethan that I am completely unaware of. I think this was my major hang-up with the book, which prevented me from completely enjoying it altogether.

On the whole, for an enjoyable read, and as something you will get through in the matter of a few days, I found this book to be quite satisfying and also interesting and fun too. To be entertained by a book, and to be satisfied is all that I ask, and this book accomplished both tasks. For it to draw out emotions in me, or to make me "think" about life, I would have to say it failed. But it was still not a waste by any means.

Rating:
Summary: Just Wanting to Share My Thoughts....
Review: This is the second Berg novel that I have read. The first one, "What We Keep" did not appeal to me at all, and it took me awhile before I picked up another novel by her.
I was thrilled by this piece of writing! I think that in many ways, Patty relates to the average woman. I think that many of us ache to be mothers when we are pursuing a career, and many of us also lust after the wrong guys (even the gay ones). I thought that the writing was very light-hearted, and I loved the smart-mouthed Patty. I think that Berg writes her characters as "real" people, and found myself amazed that some of the things going through Patty's head, actually had gone through mine many many times.
I recommend this novel. It was interesting, and I thought that the subject matter contained was interesting as well. I related to her main character, and I cried quite a bit at the end. It's funny to think this, but perhaps I had found someone whom I related to, and it was sad to let her go.
It's amazing to think of the compromises that we make in order to make others dreams come true.
Anyhow, get this book and read it. If you are disappointed, at least the novel is short enough where you don't feel that you wasted too much time. I don't think you'll be disappointed though. It's a page-turner.