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Summary: This was my first Berg book...
Review: ...and it won't be my last. It was funny, quirky, sad, and tragic all at the same time. I would start crying on one page and by the next I was laughing again. Berg has become one of my all time favorite authors.
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Summary: Elizabeth Berg Rules!!!
Review: Anyone who says in any way that Elizabeth Berg doesn't know what she's doing, or should write better, ought to get their head examined. ..Elizabeth Berg is the best fiction writer that I've ever read. She is brilliant. I only wish that I could come close to writing like her. She has a rare gift. I think her books, all of them are the most amazing things ever! I am a reading addict, and I get so excited every time Elizabeth releases another book. ......She's awesome , and I think she's aware of that fact by now...Keep writing Liz, we love you...
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Summary: Laughter and Tears
Review: Elizabeth Berg has given us another lovely and moving story, that of Myra Lipinsky, a 51-year-old visiting nurse in Boston who has never married and never really even had a good friend. My heart ached for this woman, to have never known the joy of having a buddy whom she could talk to, be with, confide in. Myra had never been asked on a date, never asked to go shopping with the girls or to a movie or a dance. People liked her and talked to her--they just did not become her friends. Yet she did not ask for pity. Her best friend is her dog, Frank, but Myra seems very satisfied with her life, her patients, her house, her routine, and her Porsche Carrera 911.Myra's patients provide us with a cast of characters who are similar to those in an Anne Tyler book--odd, quirky, and likable despite their flaws. They have become Myra's "family" and friends. She said that she became a nurse because "I knew it would be a good way for people to love me. And for me to love them too." Into Myra's life comes Chip Reardon, her high school love (unbeknownst to him) and every girl's dream boy, who has returned home to his parents' house in their small home town, ill with an end-stage brain tumor. She is assigned as the nurse to his case and says something so sad: "You know something bad about me? I thought only one thing. I thought, Good. Now I can have him." How she and Chip arrive at a different kind of loving relationship is a wonderful story as only Elizabeth Berg can tell it. The writing in this book is graceful and lyrical. The author is a former nurse herself and although she did not practice nursing very long, she is obviously an astute observer of people as she seems to get them just right. Myra's dealings with her patients is just right too--she coddles those who need it and forces others into making choices and decisions. This is a serious book about a serious subject, but as presented by Berg, it is not too heavy-handed. The title of the book is an oft-written sentiment in high school yearbooks. Berg writes "...never change. As though it were a choice. As though one of our greatest lessons isn't that change is the only constant. The seasons tell us, everything in organic life tells us, that there is no holding on; still, we try to do just that. Sometimes, though, we learn the kind of wisdom that celebrates the open hand. Then we know that letting go of everything is the only way to keep the things that matter most."
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Summary: A beautiful and poignant love story
Review: Even as a child Myra Lipinsky had no friends and failed to connect with anyone. She sold the tickets to the prom, but no male asked her to go with him. As an adult, she had become a visiting nurse. Her occupation is her only satisfaction as she is content with her solitary status especially since her dog Frank provides her with companionship. At fifty-one, her high school secret crush Chip Reardon returns into her life when he is dying from an inoperable brain tumor. Chip refuses to accept chemo or radiation that will grant him a few more months to live, but at a dramatically reduced style of life. Chip moves into Myra's home where he teaches her to live and she teaches him to love. Elizabeth Berg has written a beautiful and poignant love story centering on a person accepting his fate and living what time he has left in life to the fullest. Chip's gift to Myra is helping her to open up to her feelings even as she provides him with the nurturing and the support he needs at the end. NEVER CHANGE is a five-tissue box novel, for the tears that flow not out of sorrow, but out of living. Elizabeth berg has written one of the most dramatic and beautiful books of her career, one that celebrates life to the fullest despite the death sentence hanging over the hero's head. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Amazon recommended Elizabeth Berg . . . but . . .
Review: I didn't believe that I could readily accept a 50+ heroine. I like to identify, even in a remote way, with the heroines in the novels I read, but how could I identify with Elizabeth Berg's heroines?
So, I never purchased any of Amazon's Berg recommendations.
Recently I was on vacation and the rental where I stayed had Never Change on its shelf. I shrugged my shoulders and began to read. Immediately I was captured by Berg's writing. Her writing is exquisite; her prose is rhythmic and layered with detail. She interlaces seemingly insignificant details among important until the reader acknowledges that the insignificant is as important as the "important."
I was captured by the love story of Myra and Chip. Myra is not your average romantic heroine. For years, she has steadfastly avoided romance and friendships believing, however misplaced, that her unattractiveness was of more importance than anything inside that she might have to offer. Tears swelled in my eyes as I read the passage in which Chip proves to Myra how her patients regard her, despite her stubborn feelings of inadequacy. And, I clung to the book, turned page after page, wondering what Myra's ultimate decision would be regarding her future.
If you're a reader seeking good literature, who feels that many writers are throwing plot-driven drivel at you, take in Never Change. I promise you won't be disappointed. I know I wasn't.
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Summary: Delightfully real
Review: I just finished reading "Never Change" and thoroughly enjoyed this. I've read other Elizabeth Berg books that are just as enjoyable. In this book, the main character, Myra Lipinski, is an unmarried 51 year old who's life is about helping others. She has no idea how amazing she is and how important her life is until an old high school flame returns to her life in the form of Chip Reardon. This is a book I didn't want to finish because it's so beautifully written. Elizabeth Berg knows how to put the words together. To the very last page there is poetry and beauty in this book. I highly recommend this book. Peace
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Summary: Touching and Beautiful
Review: I laughed, I cried, but most of all I didn't want this book to end. I have read many books by Elizabeth Berg before and she has yet to dissapoint me. This book is about 51 year old nurse Myra Lipinsky, who has never married and her dog Frank is the only family she has. She is truly dedicated to her career and her patients and she has made a comfortable living for herself. The one problem is she suffers from loneliness and she dreams of having a real family.
That all changes when she is assigned a new patient Chip Reardon, who happens to be an old high school friend that she had a crush on and he is dying. He teaches Myra how to open up and except love and he also shows her how much she means to the people in her life. This was a very beautiful love story and I thought it was well written. I highly recommend reading this book or any other book by Ms. Berg.
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Summary: So many levels...
Review: I love Berg, because she can take a bore like Myra Lipinsky and make her interesting. She can take a homely, unpopular, loner and create a world where she can become beautiful. Myra is a 51 year old nurse who lives with her dog. She seems satisfyed to stay that way until one of her "home visits" happens to be the gorgeous, popular, sensational football player of her old high school, Chip, who by the way, never noticed that she existed, (since she was dim and unpopular)
Until now.... This book is about two people who would have never met under normal circumstances. A loney,solitary woman. A man with a deadly brain tumor. But Berg allows love to enter in, hope, dreams. And we all adore when the ugly duckling is beautiful in the eyes of the quarterback! Myra needs Chip as much as he needs her. And even if time is limited, they take the hours they are given.
Only if we could all live like that!
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Summary: sappy and not credible
Review: I really hate stories that hook the part of me that cries over sentimental muck. Which is exactly what this novel did.
There are little descriptive gems throughout Berg's writing (an extra star for that) but the characters in this story were mostly cliches--one-dimensional and an insult to intelligent readers.
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Summary: Elizabeth Berg Rules!!!
Review: Myra Lipinski is 51 and single. She's plain, introverted, and her one great passion is her job as a nurse. Although she's not exactly discontent, Myra has resigned herself the fact that the rest of her life will be fairly uneventful. Yet then her former high school crush comes back into her life-the handsome, impossibly accomplished Chip Reardon. But Chip is no longer the perfect specimen he was. He is dying from a brain tumor, and Myra becomes his nurse. Then, their relationship deepens and they are both forced to confront horrifying, enormous, and unbelievably profound ideas about dying, death, the meaning of life, and falling in love. Okay, you can stop rolling your eyes now! Admittedly, in the hands of a lesser author, "Never Change" would become a weepy, soap-operaish mess. Elizabeth Berg, on the other hand, has the intelligence, piericingly superb writing skills, and keen sense of character necessary to pull off such a tough subject. What really makes "Never Change" such an unforgettable and deeply enjoyable read is Myra. From the the first chapter in which Berg effortlessly and precisely captures Myra's remembrance of longing to go her high school prom, she makes her character shine. And it's not that Myra shines because she is unique or unusually intelligent or accomplished-she is a memorable character because she is NONE of those things. Instead, throughout "Never Change" Myra's longings, wishes, thoughts, and perspectives resonate because of the deep truth that lurks behind their normalcy. I also loved this novel because it never pretended to have all of the answers about dying. It showed the horribly grotesque and hideously frightening side of being terminally ill and brought up an endless of number of hard questions about the issue. Indeed, "Never Change" even ends with a somewhat nebulous stance on how a life should be lived after it has been touched by another's death. But this seeming wishy-washyness and lack of clear-cut opinions about death is genius. It is truly realistic, since who really know what death is like? Also, by allowing her characters (mainly Myra) to ponder aspects of death and dying without coming up with many answers, Berg takes her readers on a thoughtful "journey" and allows them to perhaps make up their own mind on the issues. Finally, I relished the secondary characters included in the book. Since Myra is a traveling nurse who visits patients in their home, she comes into contact with an eclectic spectrum of humanity. All of these many patients-from a wounded drug dealer to a lonely yet intelligent elderly woman in a retirement facility-add new angles of insight and enjoyment to the story and are cleverly created to influence Myra in unique and "fun to read" ways. Yes, it could have been a horrible book. And yes, the idea of Myra falling in love, over 35 years after last seeing him, with her dying high school crush sounds like a bit too much to swallow. But with her lovely characters, compassionate prose, and satisfyingly deft writing, Elizabeth Berg makes it so you wouldn't want to change a thing about this book.
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