Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Genre: General Fiction
Copyright: September 2009
Pages: 260
Book Source: Library borrow

Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit. Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, meddling in her life and offering unsolicited advice. Then Helen is shocked to discover that her mild-mannered and seemingly loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. When a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery, both mother and daughter reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.

This was my first Elizabeth Berg novel and while I enjoyed much of it, I can't say I was captivated. I'd heard such good things about the author's work, that I can only assume Home Safe wasn't her best?

When Helen's husband suddenly dies, the 59 year old writer finds herself ill-equipped to cope with day-to-day life; she has been completely dependent on Dan for everything from paying bills to changing a lightbulb and her writing has ground to a halt while she deals with her grief. Helen's relationship with her daughter Tessa is not one I can identify with but it was nice to see the growth and change in both these characters by the end of the novel. The character I  liked the most was actually Helen's best friend Midge, her insight and honesty with Helen was a refreshing and necessary inclusion, providing some comic relief.

When Helen takes a job teaching a writing class to a diverse group of people, her sense of helplessness begins to subside (making her a little more likeable) and via her students the reader experiences the interesting stories within this story. This is actually the part of the book I enjoyed the most. My observations here may seem a little harsh, I certainly understand grief on a personal level and how incapacitating it can be, but when the 'successful writer' calls police for a leak in her ceiling, empathy for the character dissolved along with plausability.

This was certainly a quick, easy read and I'm not adverse to trying another book by this author, any suggestions? There were some lovely quotes about books, like this one "Books don't take time away from us, ... they give it back" and a particularly beautiful paragraph that will stay with me. I might leave you with it:

She sits down and puts her hand to her chest and rocks. Thinks of all she has lost and will lose. All she has had and will have. It seems to her that life is like gathering berries into an apron with a hole. Why do we keep on? Because the berries are beautiful, and we must eat to survive. We catch what we can. We walk past what we lose for the promise of more, just ahead.

Visit Elizabeth Berg's website to find out more about the author and her work.

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.