This is another book that’s about loss…and the process of starting over after a loss. In my real life I work as a social worker for a hospice program so this is a topic I encounter a lot. I truly enjoyed how Elizebeth Berg wrote about the life of Helen Ames and the process of healing and grieving that she went through after the death of her husband, Dan.
Helen is 59-years old and at the start of the book talks about how her husband died suddenly about eleven months before. Helen is an author and talks about how previously she had been very dependent on her husband. Over dependent so that one of her first reactions when he died in the kitchen was to ask him what she should do. Helen has a daughter named Tessa who she is turning to and leaning on now that Dan is no longer there.
Helen is trying to get her life back on track. She is not able to find words to write so she is looking at other changes that she can make to fill her life back in. She talks about looking for any excuse to get out of her pajamas. There is also a desperateness in the way she makes requests from her daughter that hurts a little bit. Yet in the end, it is a book about growth, about starting over. And it is very good.
08/01/2011 at 10:31 pm Permalink
Berg is one of my favorite authors. I love the realism she puts into her novels. There were many aspects of this book I loved. As you say, we got an up close and personal view of a widow trying to put the pieces of her life, her self back together. I liked the dialog with her daughter. Realistic and yes, we feel a bit embarrassed for her. And worried.
I found myself half way into the book, when the surprise is revealed, feeling a little incredulous. It sounded like a fairy tale come true. Not the realism I look forward to from Berg. It just seemed too over the top sentimental. I happen to be married to a home builder who has built custom homes. I try to imagine a wife being happy that her husband built a house for her entirely from a conversation they had about dreams and that he got it so right. I’m too much of a pragmatist, I guess.