Until the Real Thing Comes Along

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book
Review: Stupid Patty. Thinks in cliches. *Feels* in cliches. So wrapped up in herself and her fixation with babies and Ethan that she can't see what's going on around her, let alone try to make something of her life.

I really enjoyed _Joy School_ and _Talk Before Sleep_, and that made this book even more disappointing. Don't waste time reading this book. Don't even borrow it from the library.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: A usually adore Elizabeth Berg's books - her TALK BEFORE SLEEP and RANGE OF MOTION are on my keeper shelf - so it was with great anticipation that I read UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG. I found it contrived and in a word - disappointing. That said, I haven't given up on Berg -- quite the contrary -- am looking foward to reading OPEN HOUSE and some of her earlier novels.

Rating:
Summary: A quick,enjoyable summer read!
Review: I have read four other books by this author. While this title treats some very serious topics in a light hearted manner, I still found many chances to soul-search and laugh simultaneously.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: My first Elizabeth Berg novel and I really enjoyed it. I felt that I could really connect with the main characters and thought Bergs developments were great. Its a fun book!

Rating:
Summary: A funny, engaging novel
Review: Patty Murphy is a thirty-six year old real estate agent who goes home to an empty apartment and listens to her biological clock tick. Patty wants a husband and a baby, but the problem is she has only loved one man since sixth grade, her best friend Ethan---and he is undeniably gay. UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG is a funny, yet poignant story of how Patty and Ethan try to have it all, but beyond that, it is an examination of the search for love and true intimacy. Berg has given us a very funny, engaging and compelling novel with characters whose humaity touches the reader. This is a highly enjoyable novel---don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful book
Review: I thought the main character, Patty, wasn't going to draw me in. Her feelings of mediocrity were initially annoying. Suddenly I was sailing through the book, hoping for happiness for her and for Ethan. I felt very satisfied with the entire read. Berg again manages to make me laugh out loud and be touched. She capsulizes little things about life in these hilarious little bundles that I want to copy down straight away and read often. Ethan, for example, on housework: I feel like Sysiphus in an apron. Read and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A near hit....
Review: I've not read any of Elizabeth Berg's other books, although I want to - her writing draws you in to the characters, her descriptions and dialogues are excellent. This story was well written, mildly entertaining (I read it all the way through), but unfulfilling.

A few chapters into the book, though I still wanted to keep on reading, I wondered if this was the book the latest Madonna movie was based on - girl wants baby, girl has baby by gay best friend, everyone lives happily ever after.

This book isn't that story - there's a bit more. Patty's clock may be ticking, but not necessarily for a baby. She thinks it might be for Ethan, but she seems to be searching for some meaning in her life, without knowing where to start. She isn't the only one who is lost, for somehow the message the author was attempting to relay doesn't quite get to the reader.

In the beginning, Patty tells of her 'house game.' An unsuccessful real estate agent, she's been playing this game since she was a child. When driving around, she looks at houses, then picks one she pretends is hers. The only rule is that after she picks it, she can't change her mind if something better comes along. She claims she never feels regret. Here is the big clue about Patty, and what she's doing with her life.

Patty is so preoccupied with her own lack of a love life, she misses clues her parents scatter around that something is not quite right. She throws away, without even trying him out, the ideal guy for her, fixating on someone she can never have, settling for less than she needs to - but in the end, she's moderately contented.

It isn't until the end of the book that the hollowness of Patty Anne Murphy's life comes to light. She has found meaning through her baby - but she's the fifth wheel in a warm dinner in her new home. She claims that's OK - but it sounds a bit like her acceptance of the old game rules for 'house'-- hard to believe. If you really peek closely, you can see hints that she's finding out the real thing she was waiting for wasn't the unattainable guy, nor necessarily the lovely new addition to her life - but is perhaps her acceptance of just being herself.

There seems to be a chapter missing towards the end; readers have to struggle harder than Patty to find some clues. Somehow the connection between writer and reader doesn't quite make it (as other reviewers of this book seem to agree).

It wasn't until I read the interview with Berg after the end of the story that I understood some of her deeper intents for the book. The book was OK - but in my pleasure reading I want something better to come along!

Rating:
Summary: Expected a better book!
Review: In her recent books like Talk Before Sleep and Range of Motion, Elizabeth Berg has become known as a writer of "buddy" books. By this I mean that some of her books revolve arround women dealing with a medical crisis and the support system of the buddies who surround these women. But as many of Berg's readers also know, she has tackled other subjects such as the coming of age stories in Durable Goods and Joy School and passages in a woman's life in my favorite book of hers, The Pull of the Moon.

Now, in Until the Real Thing Comes Along, Ms. Berg once again takes on a subject near and dear to many, the plight of single women who hear their biological clocks ticking away. Patty Murphy is a 30 something woman who not only feels pressure from her family about finding Mr. Right and having a baby, but also finds herself longing to settle down and become a mother. And while she dates some good prospects every now and then, she is waiting to meet a man like her friend who unfortunately for Patty is a homosexual. And when Patty and her friend make an unusual decision, the reader can't help but be curious about the outcome.

This book is hardly a new subject and one would expect that in the hands of Elizabeth Berg, this books would be both witty and poignant but sadly to me as a readers it wasn't one of Berg's better books and somehow missed the mark. For me, the characters didn't ring true and I found myself listening to whining throughout the book.

Rating:
Summary: Blech
Review: Don't get me wrong-- I've been a fan of Elizabeth Berg's for quite some time now. I bought this one the day it came out-- began reading it right away...and was sorely disappointed. The main character, Patty, is just...blech. Like another reviewer said-- no back bone. She had no respect for herself and decided to have a child with a man who would never love her the way she wanted to be loved. She settled. I can't respect a woman like that-- who will fawn all over a man who will never want to be in a real loving relationship. Patty could have found a great man to love her and make a life with, but instead she kept going after Ethan. Blech...

Rating:
Summary: Her protagonist needs a spine
Review: Can the main character of this book do anything but whine and feel sorry for herself? Good grief, what an annoying and unsympathetic character!

Okay, so she loved a man who turned out to be gay. Tough break -- and maybe I could have sympathized if the revelation about Ethan's sexual orientation hadn't happened a decade before the events in this book! I found it impossible to feel any empathy for a character who has spent so many years mired in self-pity, dwelling on the past and refusing to accept the reality that she would never have Ethan. An irritating and pointless novel by a usually fine author.