This collection of short stories by Elizabeth Berg shows all her strengths in vignettes of plain folks of all ages…79 years old Mavis McPherson taking a few days’ retreat in her bathroom to revisit her memories, a home nurse relating to a difficult Aides patient, junior scientist Sarah Harris teaching English to a newly immigrated German grandmother, and other delightful persons.
These brief encounters encourage one to read Berg’s novelettes. So far I have enjoyed WE ARE ALL WELCOME HERE, in which ten-year-old Diana copes with her own conflicting resentment and love while helping to care for her quadruplegic mother. Berg captures children’s voices particularly well, I think. In a compelling subplot, Diana’s astringent housekeeper chooses between loyalty to her employer and flight to save the life of her civil-rights protesting husband in that time when blacks were beaten and killed for efforts to obtain their voting and social rights.
In THE YEAR OF PLEASURES newly widowed Bostonian Betta Nolan follows her beloved late husband’s encouragement to try out their dream of a house in the MidWest and her own dream of a store full of lovely things for women. Here poignant moments from the past are skillfully interwoven with the demands of the present in a new environment.
TRUE TO FORM is narrated by a preteen who reluctantly accepts two summer jobs she expects to hate: helping an aging husband care for his stroke-damaged wife and baby-sitting for two obnoxious little boys. To her surprise she does well at both jobs and comes to empathize with all her charges. In addition she learns that when one betrays an old friend in the effort to impress new ones, the result can be painful but instructive.
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