Open House: A Novel by Elizabeth
Berg
Real Life, Real People
Oprah Book Club® Selection, August 2000: The narrator of Elizabeth
Bergs Open House calls divorce a series of internal earthquakes ... one
after the other. She ought to know. Samantha is abandoned by her
husband in the opening pages of this three-handkerchief special, and the
resultant tremors keep her off-balance for most of the novel. There are
practical problems aplenty, of course, including a shortage of money and
an 11-year-old son to raise. But Sams sense of emotional bereavement is
far worse, despite the fact that her husband had been giving her the
conjugal cold shoulder for years: I miss David so much, yes I do, I miss
the presence of another person in my bed at night, even if he doesnt touch
me; the reliability of someone else being there in the morning, even if they
only shave and stare straight ahead into the mirror while you lean against
the bathroom doorjamb with your cup of coffee, chatting hopefully. The
loneliness in her as constant and as irrefutable as circulating blood, Sam
begins to rebuild her life. She finds herself a job and takes in a couple of
boarders to help meet her mortgage payments. (One of them, a depressed
student named Lavender Blue, informs her that life was nothing but one
major disappointment after the other--the sort of homily that Sam is
understandably reluctant to hear these days.) She also starts dating, with
disastrous results. Yet this comically kvetching heroine does manage to
find love in the ruins, and by the time Open House winds down, its hard not
to believe that shes much better off. Throughout, Berg alternates her
snappy and sappy registers like a real pro. And the conclusion, which most
readers will be able to spot a mile off, seems just right--the light at the end
of the post-matrimonial tunnel. --Anita Urquhart

Personal Review: Open House: A Novel by Elizabeth Berg
Elizabeth Berg always gets into the hearts of her characters--real people,
real situations in fiction. In Open House Samantha's husband of many
years leaves her, heartbroken and lost. After a large spending spree at
Tiffany's, Sam faces the cold fact that she must start to reconstruct a life
for herself and her 11-year old son. To remain in the house that has been
her home, she takes in a couple of boarders. Lydia, the first boarder offers
quiet, thoughtful advice and comfort. And a new friend, King, suggests
that she get out, get going and get work. Sam begins to realize that she
has to make her own happiness and reclaim the woman she was before
she was David's wife. Berg presents fiction that contains real life lessons.
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