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The moment I saw the opening quote from Tori Amos's song "China," I had a
feeling I was going to like Elizabeth Berg's latest novel, WHAT WE KEEP. Maybe that was a
bit presumptuous, but after having read the book it turned out to be true.
Imagine yourself in an airplane flying to California to see the mother who abandoned you
35 years ago. That is the opening sequence in this captivating and touching story. Ginny
Young, a woman with a family of her own, is traveling across the country to visit her
mother and sister. During the long flight, Ginny loses herself in a long reverie about the
summer of 1958, before her mother left.
This is no ordinary frame novel, Ginny goes back and forth --- contemplating the soft
clouds that graze her airplane window one moment, and in the next, traveling back to the
scalding summer days in Clear Falls, Wisconsin the summer she turned twelve and her whole
life changed. The how and the why about her mother's sudden departure is what Ginny wants
to figure out. So with only brief pauses in the present --- long enough for a gulp of
stale airplane air --- she dives into the past.
With her affinity for detail, Ginny recalls every feeling, thought, and word. Her story is
believable. You can see Ginny and her sister Sharla snooping in their neighbor's house,
bickering in their backyard, and watching their parent's marriage crumble. Then, only
pages later, you easily return to the airplane with the adult Ginny who is closely
observing the two children sitting nearby. Although the "time travel" may be
distracting at first, Berg accomplishes this difficult feat with ease and grace. You don't
even feel the turbulence.
The best thing about this book is the ending. It just feels so right. Years of bitterness
and rage soften but do not disappear in this revealing account of a reunion that almost
didn't happen.
---Reviewed by Dana H. Schwartz
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