What do You think about Until The Real Thing Comes Along (2003)?
From the book jacket: What do you do when your life isn’t living up to your dreams? When the man you love is unavailable, and yet you long for a family, a home? What is the cost of compromising until the real thing comes along?My reactionsI really wanted to like this. I’ve read a number of Berg’s books and liked them all. She has a gift for dialogue and for letting the reader into her character’s lives and motivations. But …Patty’s constant wishy-washy attitudes, her complete inability to move on with her life just irritate the heck out of me. I didn’t care what happened to her in her sad little life. I WAS interested in the story with her parents, and wish Berg had explored that storyline rather than Patty’s non-existent fantasy love life.
—Book Concierge
Patty's biological clock is ticking. She has only ever wanted to be with the love of her life, to be a wife, a mother, and to live in a cozy house. She has had several relationships, but none of the men are THE ONE. In fact, she has already found THE ONE...she found him back in sixth grade, fell in love with him, and no one measures up to him. THE ONE is Ethan.Patty and Ethan were friends, then dated, and even became engaged; but Ethan had to call it off. He is gay. (I couldn't figure out, how after all the years of knowing Ethan, that Patty didn't figure this out for herself.) Now, with each passing year, Patty is desperate for the happiness she wants and is willing to have Ethan's baby even if it means not having Ethan.I really didn't like Patty. She was selfish and her desperation to "make it work" with Ethan was humiliating for her and for Ethan. And yet, the raw pain that she felt was so well done. While I was frustrated with her and embarrassed for her, I felt her ache as if it were my own.I really didn't like Ethan. He couldn't love Patty the way she needed/wanted to be loved and yet he led her on, or at the very least, kept her hanging on to hope. In the end, it may have been intended for him to be a stand up guy, but I didn't think so. His decision may have been, in the end, the best for Patty, but I didn't think he made that decision out of any kind of love for her.Ok. I didn't like the characters. But I really liked the book. The raw emotion made it real and painful to read because it seemed so real. The characters, unlikeable as they were,were well-developed and seemed to play out their story right in my own living room. (I wanted to shake them both, that's how real they were.)
—Margaret
This book fits into the "too close for comfort" shelf so well I had to create one just for it. Now, I may not have a gay best friend that I'm in love with, or do a ridiculously poor job of selling houses, but the baby-craving to absurd levels (as in "maybe you should stop staring at other people's children before someone calls the cops on you" levels)? Hell yeah: I'm right there. And Berg is one of my favorite authors, and she tackles the subject maybe a little bit too well, because the book made me uncomfortable. I did not want to find out how Patty solved her problems, mostly because I knew it would not be a solution applicable to my problems. Also, Patty's ability to shield herself from things she doesn't want to recognize (they are too long and spoiler-ish to list here, but trust me, as a reader you see them coming from miles away & a few of those plot points were also uncomfortably close to my own experiences dealing with family and friends) was, perhaps, also a little bit too close to the bone for me. Usually, seeing characters I can relate to is what reading is all about for me, but, as much as I enjoy Berg's writing style and her ability to describe things in concise and apt ways - "I always thought I'd have five or six children, and I have imagined so many lovely domestic scenes featuring me and my offspring. Here we are outside on a hot summer day, running through the sprinkler, The children wear bright fluorescent bathing suits in pink and green and yellow; I wear cutoffs and a T-shirt. There is fruit salad in the refrigerator. Later, I will let the older ones squirt whipped cream for the younger ones; then, if they pester me enough in the right way, I'll let them squirt it into their mouths - and mine." - I almost couldn't finish the book, it was that bad. Melancholy mood to begin with, add a dose of (much too realistic) fiction, and even one of my favorite authors gets a bad rating, unfortunately.
—NTE
