In this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into remarkable moments in the lives of women, when memories and events come together to create a sense of coherence, understanding, and change. In “Ordinary Life,” Mavis McPherson locks herself in the bathroom for a week, shutting out her husband and the realities of their life together—and, no, she isn’t contemplating a divorce. She just needs some time to think, to take stock of her life, and to arrive, finally, at a surprising conclusion.
In “White Dwarf” and “Martin’s Letter to Nan,” the secrets of a marriage are revealed with the sensitivity and “brilliant insights about the human condition” (Detroit Free Press) that have become a trademark of Berg’s writing. The Charlotte Observer has said, “Berg captures the way women think as well as any writer.” Those qualities of wisdom and insight are everywhere present in Ordinary Life.
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“Berg has been writing about the rock-bottom realities of life…with fidelity, empathy, and awe over the course of nine deeply moving novels…Her short stories, collected here for the first time, cover the same territory with the same sensitivity and imagination, and their conciseness serves to intensify the lucent beauty of Berg’s prose, the verity of her insights, and the tenderness of her regard for her fellow human beings. The relentless misunderstandings between men and women are a particular forte, and Berg approaches the battle between the sexes with graceful inventiveness in several remarkable stories…The title story, a portrait of a longtime marriage, is so radiant and wise it feels like a benediction.”
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Booklist