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knuckledown 's review for:
Dream When You're Feeling Blue
by Elizabeth Berg
Apparently June 2008 was World War II month for me. I read The Atonement, immediately followed by this. It was interesting to compare British versus American perspectives. I love Berg's vivid characters and carefully chosen details applied to a historical context. Her style is more intimate and less epic than McEwan's, which was totally appropriate to the kind of story she was trying to tell. I was especially fascinated by the Heaney sisters' nightly ritual of writing letters to their men and reading aloud replies. Very romantic and hard to fathom in the digital age.
Strangely, while I loved most of the book's characters, I never grew too fond of the narrator Kitty. Even Berg herself said in an interview that the parents were her favorite characters. If a novel is going to be driven by the main character, she needs to be flawed and make mistakes. It would be a different story if told by reserved Louise or flirtacious Tish. Would I have liked it any better? Probably not. Kitty could be selfish and harsh, but a big part of the novel was her growing out of that.
Strangely, while I loved most of the book's characters, I never grew too fond of the narrator Kitty. Even Berg herself said in an interview that the parents were her favorite characters. If a novel is going to be driven by the main character, she needs to be flawed and make mistakes. It would be a different story if told by reserved Louise or flirtacious Tish. Would I have liked it any better? Probably not. Kitty could be selfish and harsh, but a big part of the novel was her growing out of that.