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Read Ordinary Life: Stories (2003)

Ordinary Life: Stories (2003)

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Rating
3.93 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0812968131 (ISBN13: 9780812968132)
Language
English
Publisher
ballantine books

Ordinary Life: Stories (2003) - Plot & Excerpts

Series of short stories - most of them quite good. One of my favorite stories is a letter from Martin to Nan; who has taken a sabbatical of sorts from her marriage. Martin's perspective is interesting. Couldn't there be some benevolent intention that graced some lives?Martin to Nan: Nan you're worrying about the wrong things. Instead of your thighs, worry about the fact that you've lost your sense of sexual self-assurance. When will you women understand that what turns men on isn't what you think? Sure, I look at the beautiful girls who walk past our tables.- Don't you know that I'd take a lusty happy, overweight fifty year old woman over one of those skinny miserable navel gazing twenty year olds anytime? I don't know if all men are like this, but I think most of them are; what we want is someone who likes herslef, who finds herself attractive. It gives us ideas. Makes us think maybe we ought to like her and find her attractive too. Mother to daughter: What sight is better than a baby elephant holding on to its mother's tail? Daughter: Me holding on to you?Mother: No; me holding onto you. Girl looking into a microscope: I was astounded. Living in the water that I had imagined was crystal clear were forms of life that were disgusting to behold. It came to me that there was no place on earth that was pure. No person, either. In all of us was this mix of things, and the trick was to focus on the better parts. I could feel hope run free in me again.

This is a collection of short stories. No story is longer than 12 pages, and most are significantly shorter. But typical of Elizabeth Berg, she packs a great deal of honesty and emotion into each of her stories. Three stories in the beginning are shadowed by cancer. "Departure from Normal" gives a realistic description of how surreal a cancer diagnosis feels. Many of the stories are about marriages -- how they endure and survive in the midst of the tediousness of daily life. The stories from the husband's points of view ("Martin's Letter to Nan" and "White "Dwarf") made me consider how much consideration I give my own husband/marriage (not enough). The opening story ("Ordinary Life: A Love Story") illustrates that each us needs our own space at times, but that ultimately we are created for relationships that are committed and enduring.

What do You think about Ordinary Life: Stories (2003)?

Elizabeth Berg makes me cry. Logically, I understand that my emotional responses are irrational and out of proportion to the stories at hand. In reality, I haven't read an Elizabeth Berg novel in 15 years, since before I had children, since my early-20s. I just don't remember them making me cry this much, and it's been a long enough time, several years, since I've had to stop reading a book partway through. Had to. Stop. Also: I hate short stories. But I don't think I could have handled more of a lot of these characters anyway. Five stars for emotional response, and I'm taking a break from Elizabeth Berg, despite the fact that I took out two library books at once. I'll just return the other and try again later.
—Liza

This was a beautifully written collection of stories. Each one independent of the other, but all focusing on the theme of the daily struggles people face. Some parts were laugh out loud funny. I especially loved Mavis' and Al's story, in which Mavis stays in the bathroom for week as a sort of vacation and her husband having to 'understand' why she feels compelled to do it (and no Al she's not going crazy). Also the story of the woman asking her husband to take a magazine quiz and how that seemingly simple thing backfires on her. "Martin's Letter to Nan" was great too, laughed out loud a lot to that one. So many good stories, it's hard to pick just one.
—Amber

There were several good stories in this collection, but my favourite was Martin’s Letter to Nan. This short story was written in response to readers who had read The Pull of the Moon, and wondered, as I did, how Martin felt when menopausal Nan suddenly took off on a trip by herself, leaving Martin a note to say she didn’t know when she’d be back. As his wife never let him know where she was, The Pull of the Moon was one-sided in its focus on Nan’s letters to Martin, and the journal entries she makes throughout the novel. I would recommend Ordinary Life for this one story alone. Perhaps some men might not find it realistic; I’d be curious to know. But for me, it struck a chord so deep, I read it several times. I found much truth in what Martin had to say; truth that wasn’t always easy to accept. And once you’ve read that story, you’ll want to read and enjoy the rest of Ordinary Life.
—Bonnie

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