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Open House [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Berg
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Book Description

July 2000
In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart.
Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember--and reclaim--the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. Open House is a love story about what can blossom between a man and a woman, and within a woman herself.


Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Random House USA Inc; First Edition edition (July 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375501002
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375501005
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,480,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

The narrator of Elizabeth Berg's Open House calls divorce "a series of internal earthquakes ... one after the other." She ought to know. Samantha is abandoned by her husband in the opening pages of this three-handkerchief special, and the resultant tremors keep her off-balance for most of the novel. There are practical problems aplenty, of course, including a shortage of money and an 11-year-old son to raise. But Sam's sense of emotional bereavement is far worse, despite the fact that her husband had been giving her the conjugal cold shoulder for years:
I miss David so much, yes I do, I miss the presence of another person in my bed at night, even if he doesn't touch me; the reliability of someone else being there in the morning, even if they only shave and stare straight ahead into the mirror while you lean against the bathroom doorjamb with your cup of coffee, chatting hopefully.
The loneliness in her "as constant and as irrefutable" as circulating blood, Sam begins to rebuild her life. She finds herself a job and takes in a couple of boarders to help meet her mortgage payments. (One of them, a depressed student named Lavender Blue, informs her that "life was nothing but one major disappointment after the other"--the sort of homily that Sam is understandably reluctant to hear these days.) She also starts dating, with disastrous results. Yet this comically grumbling heroine does manage to find love in the ruins, and by the time Open House winds down, it's hard not to believe that she's much better off. Throughout, Berg alternates her snappy and sappy registers like a real pro. And the conclusion, which most readers will be able to spot a mile off, seems just right--the light at the end of the post-matrimonial tunnel. --Anita Urquhart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'American Maeve Binchy, a modern day Jane Austen, whatever praise you heap on Elizabeth Berg, she probably deserves it.’ -- Anna Maxted

Berg shows a sparkling ability to distil complex human emotions into a few hundred pages of clear, evocative prose. -- Journal Sentinel

Berg's narrative is agile and freshly observed -- New York Times Book Review

The details and emotions in Open House are sometimes heartwrenching, sometimes hilarious. -- Chicago Sun -Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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I DRESS TO BRING IN THE MORNING PAPER. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Promising start - fluffy end. 3 Oct 2002
Format:Paperback
I loved the start of this book - the domestic details interspersed with the pain Samantha experiences when her husband leaves, is really touching. As the book went on though, I began to find it too light, the pain and hardships are glossed over in favour of the various amusing experiences of Samantha's life. The fact that the end is so happy does not ring true for me, especially considering her son. Overall, a reasonably enjoyable read, but not as indepth as Oprah's other choices, most of which I enjoyed more.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, touching, a very moving story 14 Mar 2002
Format:Paperback
Open House is a light read trying to look at the funny side of finding yourself on your own after so many years of marriage. The story is light reading that can be finished in a day but it without a doubt, make you strike a connection with Samantha. A very good read.
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3.0 out of 5 stars A good read 10 Dec 2012
By Mags
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Got right into this book until about the middle when it became inevitable what the outcome was going to be. Still enjoyed it though.
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