What do You think about Dream When You're Feeling Blue (2007)?
Given to me by a friend who was cleaning her bookshelf. She was disappointed with the end of this book. So was I. Up until the last 2 chapters, I really loved it, and loved the glimpse into WWI from the home perspective. Fabulous. However, the last two chapters brought me up short-- not in a "gosh-what-a-twist" kind of way, but in a "What the hell was Berg thinking" kind of way. Louise's actions in the 2nd to last chapter are totally out of character. And if the relationship that Kitty has with her fly-boy is all about honesty and learning to talk to each other, what the heck happened?
—bookczuk
I liked this book. There needs to be a 3 1/2 star rating, because it's somewhere between "liked" and "really liked". I thought the story ended rather abruptly... you got the sudden feeling that the author suddenly tried panning out and giving the whole life perspective when she'd been progressing by days and months before that. The story, then, felt somewhat contrived, and you're left guessing on the main character's thoughts when up until that point they'd been fairly explicitly shared with you. What I really liked was the letters! I thought framing a story around the letters was great, and gave such a personal cast to World War II.
—Angela
I guess I'd really say 2-1/2 stars. A part of what I enjoyed about this book were all the Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois references. Most of the book takes place before my time, but a lot of the things mentioned were still around when I grew up there. Things like Marshall Field’s store with the Walnut Room, Berghoff, The Palmer House, Riverview Park, Peterson’s Ice Cream Parlor and more. I guess its like when you see a movie that was shot in your home town, its just kind of fun to recognize things.The story was ok. Focused around three sisters, so of course there was love, rivalry, laughter, tears, etc etc etc. Of course there was a sensible sister, a more independent, glamourous sister, and a younger sister, basically a flirt. And it was set during the war, so you knew someone was bound to be dead before the end, for realism’s sake. Lots of reading letters to each other from boyfriends and other soldiers they'd met at dances, etc, and promised to write to. Lots of talk of war and rationing and all that kind of thing. I liked parts, I disliked parts. The “twist” in the ending tho, as others have mentioned, was too sudden. The chapter before the last one was one I had to read twice, because it totally confused me, as I guess it was intended to. The last chapter made it more clear, but didn’t make it make more sense. In fact, I read the Readers Guide that was included, hoping for more of an explanation that just wasn’t there. I won’t say more, for the sake of not giving something away to anyone who is reading this book now or in the future, but while a lot of the rest of the book was really researched and meant to be as realistic as possible, that ending didn’t seem realistic to me at all. Not from what went on earlier, and not as easy as it seemed to have happened.
—Lois
