Finished audio 2-24-12, rating 3.25/5, fiction, pub. 2004
Unabridged audio read by Joyce Bean. 6 hours.
Laura and her family of four make the annual trip back to her hometown in Minnesota and to the fair that draws her brother and sister too. This year, Laura’s sister Caroline, asks that Laura and their brother Steve meet with her away from their parent’s home, and they do without enthusiasm since Caroline has always been full of drama. What she tells them is shocking, she claims that she was mistreated by their mother all throughout her childhood.
I am an only child, so I like to live vicariously through novels about complicated sibling relationships and this one did not disappoint. Laura and Caroline had never been close, but they were sisters and when Caroline’s confession coincides with a family tragedy Laura wasn’t all that receptive to Caroline. For most of the book I found Laura too cool and dismissive of her sister to really like her, but as she worked to come to terms with this new vision of her mother I started to warm to her.
I love reading (or listening to) Elizabeth Berg novels, most of them are slice of life stories that are insightful and have the familiarity of talking to a friend. This was a good story about how three kids living in a house can have such different feelings and memories about their childhood. I liked it even if it fell a bit short of expectations for me. I think it could have delved a little deeper and adding a few more chapters wouldn’t have hurt. It was still a solid story.
This audio was checked out of the library.
Stacy's Books 
Glad to see you enjoyed it. I’ve only read one Berg novel, Open House, and it was so long ago that I don’t remember anything about it. I’ll have to revisit this author at some point.
I’ve enjoyed some of Berg’s books and this is another that I’d like to read. Siblings and their different childhood experiences is a great topic for a novel
Great review! Ive read one of this authors books, and have another one on my shelf that I would like to read.
Her books are really interesting!
Excellent review! I always wanted to be an only child. I have a brother and apparently our experiences were quite different from each other. I would probably enjoy this book. Thanks!
I read this one with my book club quite some time ago, but most of us felt the same way about this book. We liked it, but it was just missing something.
This does sound interesting! I like to read about family relationships too.
I have this one in iTunes ready to listen to!
Relationships among adult siblings is already fertile ground for drama, but add that shocking twist and this should be complicated and intense. Right now I’m thinking of my brothers, sister, and I and seriously pondering how different are the perspectives of our shared childhoods.
I want to say that I read this but am now questioning myself!! I usually enjoy Berg’s books too and it’s too bad that she didn’t go a bit deeper in to the whole sibling relationship!!!
I feel the same way about Elizabeth Berg’s books. I’ll have to find this one.
I’m pretty sure I read this. I read a lot of Berg books but I sometimes get mixed up which ones I read. This sounds familiar though.
I read this years ago. Coming from a large family I know there are various perspectives of the same events. Sometimes those translate into challenging adult sibling relationships. Talk about fertile ground for a novel!
Not my sort of thing but then again I lived on the edge of something similar when my cousins had a similar fight. One cousin accused another of abusing her, not something you resolve easily, and it divided the four siblings down the middle. Was tough as I didn’t really know the accused (he was a lot older then me) but I did know the accuser and it’s not something she would have made up. It went on for several years before they resolved it.
I’ve only read Open House of her works but enjoyed it. I like characters who fall apart and pull themselves together – with humor and humility.
I’ve read a few of Bergs books but didn’t really enjoy the last one that much. I’ll have to give this one a try sometime.