Ordinary Life

January 28, 2002
Focusing, in 15 short tales, on those moments in women's lives that provide opportunity for reflection, bestselling author Berg (Open House, an Oprah's Book Club selection) zeroes in on the same kind of emotional revelations she plumbs in her novels. In many cases, her characters have simply reached a point at which they need to take stock, as has 79-year-old Mavis in the title story, who decides to hole up in the bathroom for a week. Supplied with food and magazines, and keeping her baffled husband at bay, Mavis ponders the seemingly arbitrary events of her marriage, the upbringing of her children, and the recent death of her sister, wondering if there is any meaning to it all. The adult daughter in "Caretaking" remembers her childhood as she learns how to cope with her mother, afflicted with Alzheimer's disease; in "What Stays," a young daughter takes solace in memories of her mother's gentleness and love. Couples who are at a dead end in their relationships learn things about themselves in unexpected ways, such as the pair in "White Dwarf," who examine the fallout of the wife's affair while playing a word-association game. "Martin's Letter to Nan" is the husband's response to the wife who left home in Berg's novel, The Pull of the Moon. While the men and women who populate the stories typify the monolithic entities of the fabled battle of the sexes—"men don't talk" is a refrain repeated more than once—Berg's gentle probing of everyday events offers insight into turning points of life that may not set off fireworks but are nevertheless indelible. Affecting and sentimental, these stories could easily appear in the magazines sold at grocery checkout counters; as light commercial fiction, they should provide sustenance for Berg's fans. Agent, Lisa Bankoff. 10-city author tour.

January 1, 2002
Spanning her writing career, Berg's collection of stories resonates with a sense of nostalgia and loss. Her women characters seem to regard their lives and their decisions with longing and regret, wishing or actually trying to return to some place in the past where life was different, safer, easier. In the title story, Mavis McPherson locks herself in the bathroom for a week, telling her husband that she is "on retreat" so that she can have some time to think. Phyllis is collapsing on herself like an imploding star, Alice and her parakeet both have cancer, and Kate finally realizes that she can't change her father. Though clever, beautiful, and often funny, Berg's writing is weighted with an overwhelming sadness; readers may find the pieces hard to read in one sitting. Still, this latest by the best-selling and award-winning novelist (Open House) is recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/01.] Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib., Providence.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2002
Berg has been writing about the rock-bottom realities of life--sex, love, marriage, children, difficult relationships of all configurations, serious illness, age, and death--with fidelity, empathy, and awe over the course of nine deeply moving novels, including the Oprah pick, "Open House" (2000). Her short stories, collected here for the first time, cover the same territory with the same sensitivity and imagination, and their conciseness serves to intensify the lucent beauty of Berg's prose, the verity of her insights, and the tenderness of her regard for her fellow human beings. The relentless misunderstandings between men and women are a particular forte, and Berg approaches the battle between the sexes with graceful inventiveness in several remarkable stories, including "Martin's Letter to Nan," which continues the scrutiny of a marriage begun in "The Pull of the Moon" (1996). "Caretaking" concerns the challenge of Alzheimer's; a mother's mental illness is the subject of the exquisite "What Stays"; and the title story, a portrait of a longtime marriage, is so radiant and wise it feels like a benediction. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)