- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Arrow; New edition edition (5 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 009944688X
- ISBN-13: 978-0099446880
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 649,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Anna Maxted
'American Maeve Binchy, a modern day Jane Austen, whatever praise you heap on Elizabeth Berg, she probably deserves it.’
Book Description
'Berg oozes warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit. Her writing is quite brilliant.' Anna Maxted
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First Sentence
IT IS THE FIRST SUNDAY EVENING of the summer, the sky an ash rose color and losing its light to night. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IT IS THE FIRST SUNDAY EVENING of the summer, the sky an ash rose color and losing its light to night. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Be sure to listen to the reading of this book by Arija Bareikis. She's terrific!
Imagine that you are a thirteen year-old girl whose mother has died, and your authoritarian father (who is in the Army) gets you two jobs for the summer that you don't want. Obviously, you are going to do the jobs . . . but your stomach is churning with dread. What is there to look forward to?
Katie Nash ends up having the summer of her life, learning new meanings to friendship, making new friends, and finding out important lessons about herself and the challenges of being a teenage girl. She brings a caring heart to her life that takes this book from being somewhat of a formula book into one that will bring many smiles.
Although I was never a teenage girl, Ms. Berg's writing took me back to those days and the desire to be an adult . . . while my parents had other ideas.
Part of the book's charm is that Ms. Berg knows how to let her characters grow and change in ways that you usually don't expect.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to re-create 1961 and think about the importance of becoming open to more possibilities.
Imagine that you are a thirteen year-old girl whose mother has died, and your authoritarian father (who is in the Army) gets you two jobs for the summer that you don't want. Obviously, you are going to do the jobs . . . but your stomach is churning with dread. What is there to look forward to?
Katie Nash ends up having the summer of her life, learning new meanings to friendship, making new friends, and finding out important lessons about herself and the challenges of being a teenage girl. She brings a caring heart to her life that takes this book from being somewhat of a formula book into one that will bring many smiles.
Although I was never a teenage girl, Ms. Berg's writing took me back to those days and the desire to be an adult . . . while my parents had other ideas.
Part of the book's charm is that Ms. Berg knows how to let her characters grow and change in ways that you usually don't expect.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to re-create 1961 and think about the importance of becoming open to more possibilities.
Format:Paperback
Don't be put off by a couple of harsh reviews. If you liked Durable Goods you'll love this.
This extract from the back-cover sums it up:
"Savvy, wry, and sharply observant... EB's graceful prose is laced with clear-eyed insight... deft and inspiring."
You won't find an exciting hi-octane plot here, but you're not meant to. EB says, in her writing `how-to' book "Escaping Into the Open" p105: "I like the small human dramas that get played out in kitchens rather than in exotic locales." What you will find is an excellent `people story', a gentle narrative that transports you into Katie's life -but don't underestimate it. Someone said that revealing character is the number one purpose of fiction. If you agree with that you'll enjoy this book.
If you haven't read it before, read `Durable Goods' first. It introduces Katie, a pre-teenager living in Texas on an Army base. She is recovering from the loss of her mother and being raised by her strict military father. We meet her family and her best-friend Cherylanne.
The second book `Joy School' continues with: Katie settling into a new town, suffering a crush on a young married man, and we meet her new friend Cynthia.
`True to Form' is book three and follows Katie as she tries to make sense of the world and navigate a path through the minefield of teenage: changing schools, parents, having to make her own decisions.
The second book held me less than the first but I still wanted to follow the character. The third is even better than the first. ( At a push you could skip the second book and go straight on to the third without losing too much.)
The thoughts and emotions as Katie experiences them and the author's observations on male/female roles, and religion, will make you smile.
EB has a powerful understanding of people and their interactions. All through the book are truths most readers will recognise from their own life experience and that includes me, a man.
( One reviewer mentioned that it seemed to 'just end'. This is partly the publisher's practice of adding the first chapter of another book, so when it feels like you still have about 30 pages to go, it ends. The rest of the pages are a taster chapter for another book. I wish they wouldn't do that. )
To sum up, if you enjoyed Durable Goods, don't miss this one. You may also want to check out the many good reviews it received on Amazon.com.
This extract from the back-cover sums it up:
"Savvy, wry, and sharply observant... EB's graceful prose is laced with clear-eyed insight... deft and inspiring."
You won't find an exciting hi-octane plot here, but you're not meant to. EB says, in her writing `how-to' book "Escaping Into the Open" p105: "I like the small human dramas that get played out in kitchens rather than in exotic locales." What you will find is an excellent `people story', a gentle narrative that transports you into Katie's life -but don't underestimate it. Someone said that revealing character is the number one purpose of fiction. If you agree with that you'll enjoy this book.
If you haven't read it before, read `Durable Goods' first. It introduces Katie, a pre-teenager living in Texas on an Army base. She is recovering from the loss of her mother and being raised by her strict military father. We meet her family and her best-friend Cherylanne.
The second book `Joy School' continues with: Katie settling into a new town, suffering a crush on a young married man, and we meet her new friend Cynthia.
`True to Form' is book three and follows Katie as she tries to make sense of the world and navigate a path through the minefield of teenage: changing schools, parents, having to make her own decisions.
The second book held me less than the first but I still wanted to follow the character. The third is even better than the first. ( At a push you could skip the second book and go straight on to the third without losing too much.)
The thoughts and emotions as Katie experiences them and the author's observations on male/female roles, and religion, will make you smile.
EB has a powerful understanding of people and their interactions. All through the book are truths most readers will recognise from their own life experience and that includes me, a man.
( One reviewer mentioned that it seemed to 'just end'. This is partly the publisher's practice of adding the first chapter of another book, so when it feels like you still have about 30 pages to go, it ends. The rest of the pages are a taster chapter for another book. I wish they wouldn't do that. )
To sum up, if you enjoyed Durable Goods, don't miss this one. You may also want to check out the many good reviews it received on Amazon.com.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found the writing style of this book to be very poor. The story tells of a summer in the life of 13 year old Katie and is told through her eyes, and I think Berg has tried to emulate the way a 13 year old thinks but failed. The prose is immature and clumsy, the speech is stilted, the little characterisation that exists is stereotyped. At times the book was over-sentimental, mostly it was boring and a laborious read. I found none of the "warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit" promised in the blurb. Whether this is because Berg can be accused of trying to hard or because she simply cannot write, I would not like to say. Interestingly, after completing True to Form, I gave Berg the benefit of the doubt, and read another of her novels, but found much the same thing.
If you enjoy reading tales of childhood, I would avoid Berg and recommend reading Esther Freud instead, who can capture brilliantly and without condescension, the world seen through the eyes of a child.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very dissapointing....
This book was OK but it definitely wasn't inspiring and didn't provide any of the 'warmth, engagement or self-discovery and definition' that the blurb promised. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2004 by Clatter Ho
Lazy Lazy Lazy Form
When i first came across Elizabeth Berg i read Open House and i loved it.I then quicky read Never Change which i also adored. Read more
Published on 20 April 2004 by Blue Tree
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