The Story of Arthur Truluv

September 4, 2017
Arthur, the title character of the latest from Berg (Talk Before Sleep), does not enjoy living alone. Since his wife’s death, the best part of his daily routine is visiting the cemetery to eat lunch at her grave. The only other constants in his life are taking care of his cat and keeping his distance from his nosy neighbor, Lucille. Then he meets Maddy, a troubled teen who is bullied at school and misunderstood by her father at home, and who has taken to hanging out at the cemetery to be by herself. The two form a bond, and when Maddy gets pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s baby, she seeks Arthur’s help. Together with Lucille, who has recently faced her own tragic loss, the three form something like a family. Berg’s novel is as comforting as Lucille’s fresh-baked cookies, with plenty of charm and memorable characters. Readers will be taken by this story about how friendship can defy any generation gap and how it’s never too late to find a new purpose in life.

Author Elizabeth Berg takes a wistful but hopeful tone in narrating her audiobook. Three lonely people come together to create a family, and Berg voices them as only the writer as narrator can, opening their interior lives for the listener. Arthur, Maddy, and Lucille are invisible because of their age or unpopularity. When they are seen, they're vulnerable to slights and jabs by other lonely people. Berg's dulcet reading makes the listener SEE the three in their various milieux, feel their loneliness as it settles in every corner of the book. Yet Berg adds soft laughter in some passages, softening the mood. This narration is a treat: to experience these characters from this author-narrator is about as sweet as Lucille's desserts. M.P.P. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine