Rating: 
Summary: A quick but poignant read
Review: This new book by Elizabeth Berg is written in her easy style. It kept me up late into the night this past Saturday (I started it at around 10:00 PM - finished by 12:30 AM). It moves quickly, and is both funny and sad at times. Myra is an unmarried woman in her early fifties who has established a life working as a nurse. She discovers herself (perhaps for the first time in her life) when she renews a relationship with a former high school friend, Chip, who is now her patient dying of cancer. Facing his own mortality, Chip shows Myra her worth as both a friend and as a woman. The story is touching - and it has popped into my mind several times since I finished it. Although not quite a literary masterpiece, it is a thought provoking read.
Rating: 
Summary: A TOUCHING STORY
Review: Women will weep; women will love it. Elizabeth Berg's novel centers around a middle aged woman with an "unfortunate" face. She's unattractive in contemporary America where beauty is the ne plus ultra. She is also lonely. Once again Ms. Berg adroitly offers a less than sanguine protagonist who's getting along by getting along. Myra Lipsinsky is 51, unmarried, and convinced she never will be. She has devoted herself to her career as a visiting nurse, and to the care and well being of her dog, Frank. Myra describes her youthful self as "the one everybody liked but no one wanted to be with." Things haven't changed much over the years - that is until Chip Reardon, the love of Myra's life in high school, returns to town. But Chip has come back home for a tragic reason - he is dying, and Myra becomes his nurse. Of course, his death is inevitable but there are lessons to be learned here and Myra learns them well. Skillful author that she is Ms. Berg paints their relationship with insight and depth while reminding readers that in endings there are often beginnings. - Gail Cooke
| 
