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