Rating: 
Summary: Just wish that I had liked Ellen....
Review: When Ellen has an affair and wants a divorce, Griffin is (dishonestly) surprised. Zoe, the pampered and loved child is all that matters any more. As the marriage unravels at the seams, the reader is permitted insight into the whys and hows this came to be: "the catalogue of intentional slights, his moments of soft cruelty, his awareness of complicity in creating a relationship that could not work". An unsympathetic wife who is shy and difficult to know, a husband who is passively content and unwilling to see his own lack of contribution. When Griffin refuses to move, the marriage moves on to a "roommate: situation and the two alternate nights out. Ellen goes to her lover and Griffin finds himself employed as Santa and having a couple of dates. Watching lives spiral off and become unrecognizable, the hindsight required to see what really was good and what might not have been - the early contentedness moving onto complacency and becoming contempt. Ms. Berg paints a multilayered picture in this sadly compelling insight of what really does go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: a very realistic book
Review: _Say When_ is prolific Elizabeth Berg's first attempt at the male point of view, and she does not let the reader down. Because she has so successfully written from the perspectives of women and children I was unsure whether the character of Frank Griffin would be believable. He is, in fact, painfully believable in his reactions to his wife's announcement that she is in love with someone else and wants a divorce. Griffin, who goes by his last name, has been inadvertantly ignoring Ellen for a very long time. Now he has to wake up.Throughout the novel, the reader gets to know the two main characters and to learn with them what their mistakes were. Griffin, almost immediately after learning about the imminent separation, impulsively gets a job as a mall Santa Claus. It is that job, as much as his wife's infidelity, that changes him. Griffin and Ellen's daughter, Zoe, adds another dimension of sadness to the story, and also helps the reader to get to know her parents better. She's a sweet addition to the novel, bringing out their different techniques with her, and also their tenderness and love for their daughter. However, as one of my only criticisms of the book, I think that Zoe's actions and habits didn't completely ring true for the 8 year old she is in this story. She also seemed merely incidental to the dramas playing out in both of her parents' heads, which may have actually been Berg's intention. Ultimately, this novel was a simple, interesting read with great characters and almost palpaple emotion. By the end, the reader feels that the conclusion is right and makes sense for the characters, producing a wonderful sense of completion. Elizabeth Berg's books almost always grab you. With this one, she has us in the palm of her hand.
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