The Art of Mending, by Elizabeth Berg
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The Art of Mending, by Elizabeth Berg
Free Ebook Online The Art of Mending, by Elizabeth Berg
It begins with the sudden revelation of astonishing secrets ― secrets that have shaped the personalities and fates of three siblings, and now threaten to tear them apart. In renowned author Elizabeth Berg’s moving new novel, unearthed truths force one seemingly ordinary family to reexamine their disparate lives and to ask themselves: Is it too late to mend the hurts of the past? Laura Bartone anticipates her annual family reunion in Minnesota with a mixture of excitement and wariness. Yet this year’s gathering will prove to be much more trying than either she or her siblings imagined. As soon as she arrives, Laura realizes that something is not right with her sister. Forever wrapped up in events of long ago, Caroline is the family’s restless black sheep. When Caroline confronts Laura and their brother, Steve, with devastating allegations about their mother, the three have a difficult time reconciling their varying experiences in the same house. But a sudden misfortune will lead them all to face the past, their own culpability, and their common need for love and forgiveness.
The Art of Mending, by Elizabeth Berg- Published on: 2015-09-22
- Formats: Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.75" h x .50" w x 5.25" l,
- Running time: 6 Hours
- Binding: MP3 CD
From Publishers Weekly Bestselling novelist Berg (Talk Before Sleep; Open House ) explores memory, love and forgiveness in her flawed but moving 12th novel. At her annual family reunion, Laura Bartone, a 50-something "quilt artist," is forced to confront the secrets that have long haunted her family. Her emotionally unstable sister, Caroline, tells Laura and their brother, Steve, that their mother abused her as a child. As Laura and Steve-whose own childhoods were reasonably happy-struggle to make sense of Caroline's accusations and wonder how they could've been oblivious to or complicit in what happened, their father dies. This could be the stuff of melodrama, but Berg generally manages to avoid it. Her prose is often luminous and buoyant, and her insights can be penetrating. Her big ideas, though, are too frequently interrupted by the sort of domestic-detail overdoses that belong in less ambitious novels ("I hung up, flipped the turkey burgers for the last time, dumped the oven-baked French fries into a basket and salted them, sliced tomatoes, drained the water off the ears of corn..."). Other shortcomings include a few gender stereotypes and a husband and children for Laura who seem too good to be true ("Sometimes it seemed like I was making it up," Laura thinks). But Laura's thornier relationships with her mother and siblings are carefully rendered and compelling. Berg has written a nuanced account of a family's implosion, with enough ambiguity and drama to give book clubs-the book's likely audience-"plenty to discuss and to keep any reader intrigued, right up to the fittingly redemptive ending.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist The prolific Berg (Say When [BKL Ap 1 03]) is unafraid of tackling gritty domestic issues such as aging and illness; in her latest, she takes on the question of why a mother would be so caring with two of her children but treat the third with great cruelty. Although Berg never answers that question satisfactorily, she does offer a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a flawed family. Fifty-four-year-old Laura Bartone, the happily married mother of two, is looking forward to her annual family reunion in Minnesota. But her vacation plans are marred when her father is felled by a stroke, and her sister, Caroline, at the urging of a therapist, confronts Laura and her brother with disturbing information about her relationship with their mother. As she details the verbal and physical abuse she was subjected to, Laura and her brother are tempted to write Caroline's confidences off as just another example of her histrionics. Because if what she says is true, what would that mean about their complicity in the family dynamics? Although Berg proffers a number of reasons for the mother's singular treatment of Caroline, none of them is totally convincing. Berg is much better at detailing Laura's childhood impatience with her gloomy sister and her inability to fully comprehend the cause of her sister's moodiness. This is a skillful popular treatment of a troubling family issue. Joanne WilkinsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review "* 'Berg oozes warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit. Her writing is quite brilliant, as soft as a kiss, as sharp as a knife. An American Maeve Binchy, a modern-day Jane Austen, whatever praise you heap on Elizabeth Berg, she probably deserves it.' Anna Maxted * 'Berg knows her characters intimately-she gets under their skin and leaves the reader with an indelible impression of lives challenged and changed.' The Seattle Times * 'Heartwrenching and hilarious. Berg sits somewhere between Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman.' Chicago Sun-Times * 'Maybe Freud didn't know the answer to what women want, but Elizabeth Berg certainly does.' USA Today"
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful. The sins of the past... (3 1/2 stars) By Diane Moore I usually don't give half stars, but I feel that it was almost good enough to be a 4, but not quite.Elizabeth Berg can always be counted on to discuss the deeper issues in life, and describe them in a way, that makes you want to drink in her writing. She touches on alleged abuse, the makeup of families, and even death in this story. Her books are always quick, I can usually finish them off in no more than 3 or 4 sittings.It starts out with a memory of three siblings: Steve, Laura, and Caroline. The year is 1960, and they are going to the fair. This short chapter was describing how Laura and her sister were not really close, no one is really close to Caroline. She is too hard to understand. She is a "brownnoser," someone who is always giving their mother gifts.Fast forward forty years. Out of nowhere, Caroline wants to talk to Laura and Steve, about some things that have happened in the past, things that have been bothering her. These are things that their mother may have done. Both Laura and Steve are dumbfounded, because they weren't aware of anything in the past that was less than pleasant.As the story unfolds, we realize that there may have been abuse that went on with Caroline and their mom. Even though they start remembering things that do not fit perfectly with their sugar-coated memories, Caroline is still Caroline. Who do you believe? The woman who loved and cared for you all of these years, or your dramatic and difficult sister? As the secrets unfold, you realize who is telling the truth, and who wants to hide from the past.Even though I wasn't that satisfied with the way the book ended, I am always pleased with Berg's style. Though others have described her as "too wordy," I feel that, that is the most beautiful part of her works. The pieces that pull you into the story and these character's lives. I recall one paragraph,"...Maybe it was the tender irony of the way that we, blind ourselves, offer our arm to others, hoping to ease the crossing. Maybe it was the odd surges of love one can feel for an absolute stranger. Or maybe it was the way we give so little when it's in us always to give so much more. Thomas Merton wrote about feeling a sudden awareness of a profound connection to others, understanding that 'they were mine and I theirs.' I loved reading things like that, things that pointed to our oneness and, by extension, our responsibility to others."It's the fact that she is my magnifying glass to the beauty in life, the armchair philosopher, full of wisdom, that keeps me coming back.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Give this book a chance By BookwormLD I think other reviewers are unnecessarily harsh in their reviews of this book. One of my definitions of a good book is one that makes me think. A quote: "As for mending, I think it's good to take the time to fix something rather than throw it away. It's an antidote to wastefulness and to the need for immediate gratification. You get to see a whole process through, beginning to end, nothing abstract about it. You'll always notice the fabric scar, of course, but there's an art to mending: If you're careful, the repair can actually add to the beauty of the thing, because it is testimony to its worth." (14) This book is about a family's decision whether or not to repair (mend) their relationships after there has been a great tear through the fabric of their lives. It makes you think about whether there are relationships in your life that need mending.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Thoughtful and provocative By I Love Books I liked this book, maybe because I felt more personally drawn to the characters than the person who wrote the Amazon.com review. It's interesting that they found the "domestic details" to be interruptive and overdosing. To me, they emphasize that life goes on, even in the face of overwhelmingly adversity. I liked that Laura was able to wait to get married until the right guy for her came along. I liked that she tried to be loving and kind to her children. I imagine that some parents are actually like that. I was drawn to the conflict and yet repelled by it, like the scene of an accident. I was fearful of the personal demons that the book might force me to examine, but at the same time I was thirsty to examine the author's solution.I enjoyed the ending, partly because it was ambiguous and partly because it was clear that everyone acknowledged their own part in the drama and was willing to accept responsibility, forgive and move on. I guess in real life, that doesn't really happen most of the time. Usually at least one of the people is in denial about their own culpability. But when I read a book I like a satisfying ending, and this book gave me that.I liked the symbolic themes of Laura and her quilting passion, how she takes scraps and rags and forms them into something beautiful and appealing.This book led me to think about people and how different we all are and how we all deal with the same situations in different ways. I thought about how much I would have liked to have been a different kind of parent, but how I couldn't because I didn't know how. We all bring a piece of ourselves to the books we read and take away different things. I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who finds benefit in occasionally examining themselves from within.5 stars.
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