Customer Reviews

Durable Goods

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have just discovered the magic that is Elizabeth Berg in the last year. I began with "Pull of the Moon" and am gliding my way through the remainder of her precious works. "Durable Good's" is her first book which is amazing when you read the stellar quality of this effort. Katie, a tender, blossoming 12 year old, steals your heart at first page and never let's go. Berg writes effectively in choppy paragraphs the feelings, the observations, the problems, the joys, the experiences of our Katie. Exactly like a child would think....darting from one subject to another without elongated deliberations. So magical and beautiful, that the more maudlin theme of this book can be digested by the reader with the hopefulness of a twelve year old girl. This is brilliant, impassioned, wise, cultured writing. Elizabeth Berg never fails to thrill me with her inventive techniques and tender stories.

Durable Goods is the story of young Katie, a pre-adolescent girl that is anxious to grow up and at the same time is dealing with things that the average teenager shouldn't have to go through. She's just lost her mother to cancer, her father beats both her and her sister Diane, and she feels often that she's all alone. She misses her mother terribly,and often envisions seeing and talking to her mother as if she had never passed away. The book is written from her point of view, so the reader learns about Katie from a more personal perspective.

The plot line in Durable Goods is thin, I thought, but the author created a very likeable character in Katie. The first half of the book builds up the character and introduces her relationships with her father (abusive) and sister (sometimes friend, sometimes enemy) and her best friend CherylAnne, who is two years older and is very wise and womanly for her age.

Katie is a strong person for her young years, and that is what makes her so likeable. Dealing with the death of her mother and her confrontations with her father show how strong she really is. Whereas Dianne tries to escape from her problems, katie tries to deal with them.

This is Elizabeth Berg's first novel, but it was not the first novel of hers that I've read. I think it was an impressive first novel and would be a good place to start for anyone new to her books. Other books I'd highly recommend is Joy School, which continues the saga of katie, and What We Keep, a story about an older woman who is trying to deal with her past.

Berg focuses on a transitional period in the life of a twelve-year old (going on thirteen), Katie Nash. Her mother recently died from cancer and Katie lives with eighteen-year old sister, Diane, in a delicate emotional balance, avoiding the father, who has a volatile temper and frequently hits the girls. The violence is nothing new. Even when their mother was alive, the father took out his aggression on his daughters. Army brats, their lives are constantly in flux, moving whenever the father is posted to another base.

The father's rage is a fact of life for his daughters, the family's constant preoccupation with appeasement common behavior, especially when the mother's death leaves each of them hollow with grief. Katie's best friend lives next door, a girl two years older who guides Katie through feminine mysteries and rituals defined by glossy magazines, endless grooming details that insure success with the opposite sex.

Katie finds solace in her role models, sister and best friend, but has begun a solitary journey of self-discovery that is made more piquant by the inevitable yearning for her mother at this critical time in her young life. The best friend is predictable, but sister Diane is ready to break away from a life controlled by their father's narrow constraints and senseless rules. The sisters make a fateful decision, but it is tempered by Katie's shifting loyalties, her inability to make appropriate choices, given her vulnerability and immaturity. Grasping the familiar, Katie finds a new perspective on letting go and the chimerical nature of loss, that some things stay even when they're gone.

Berg's plain-spoken narrative navigates an adolescent passage into the real world, where even forgiveness is possible and change hovers on the horizon. The simple prose belies the impact of grief and the complications of growing up, the profound juxtaposed with the mundane. If there is a flaw in Durable Goods, it is the dissonance of the father's habitual violence and his passive acceptance of changes wrought by his daughters' actions. That Katie clings to her father is natural enough, but his brutality is a serious issue. The victim returns willingly to her abuser, desperate for any emotional connection in lieu of none at all. Grief is no excuse: is the brute not still a brute? Luan Gaines/2005.

Throughout the novel Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg, Katie, a typical twelve year old girl, tries to find herself in the great big world in which she lives. She struggles during her developmental years without the help of her mother who has died of cancer. She dreams of falling in love, having a father who is not abusive, and for something exciting to happen on the boring Texas army base in which she lives. In her relationships with her older sister Diane, her dearest friend Cherylanne and her father, Katie discovers the qualities she likes and dislikes about these people. As she grows more mature, she realizes the kind of person she would like to become as an adult. This is when Katie creates a new person, herself. From this point on, Katie becomes more confident in herself and handles life calmly and better than ever! I would highly recommend this well written novel for anyone who strives for comfort and support during his or her teenage years. I feel that I have captured all the special moments of Katie's life and will savor the advice given to Katie during her difficult times. Durable Goods is an unforgettable tale of a girl just like all of us.

Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors. I have read many other books by her and loved each one of them; this one was neither an exception nor a disappointment. This story is twelve-year-old Katie's, and Elizabeth's voice is so convincing that it is hard to believe it was written by an adult. Katie lives in a rural Texas army base with her older sister Diane and their abusive father. I wanted to cry when Katie talked about her mother's death, due to cancer, and I laughed out loud at her confused attempts to keep up with her fourteen-year-old best friend Cheryl. The book brought back memories of myself at almost-teenhood, and it is a very convincing portrait of a young girl's life. Every small but important aspect is covered: Katie's infatuation with her sister's boyfriend, her daydreams of having her own boyfriend, her first period, her curious peekings at the will-be-breasts that are first starting to appear.

Katie's voice is so real and her thoughts so explained that I would become totally lost in the story and come out it a while later to realize that I really wasn't in her world. Elizabeth Berg's Joy School is the sequel to Durable Goods, and I read that one first. However, Durable Goods was still a great book and I recommend it even for those who have already read Joy School. Pick up Durable Goods and join Katie in her fresh, exciting world.

Durable Goods is a story of a young girl named Katie who is anxious to grow up and at the same time is dealing with problems that the average teenager should not have to go through. She's just lost her mother to cancer, her father beats both her and her sister Diane, and she often feels lost and alone. She misses her mother very much and often envisions seeing and talking to her under her bed.

I thought the author created a very likeable character in Katie. The first half of the book builds the character and introduces her relationships with her father, who is abusive; her sister-who is kind to her sometimes and mean other times; and her best friend CherylAnne-who is two years older and is very wise and womanly for her age.

atie is a strong person for being so young, and that is what makes her so likeable. Dealing with the death of her mother and her father's abusive actions show how strong she really is. Whereas Dianne tries to escape from her problems by running away to Mexico with her boyfriend, Katie confronts them.

Since the book was written from Katie's point of view, I got a more personal perspective. Of Elizabeth Berg's books, this is the first one that I have read. I think it was an excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading short yet intriguing books.

This little book packs a pretty big wallop. It's basically a 100-page novelette spread over 192 pages through a printer's trick of wide margins, but it delivers plenty. Moods that other authors would have taken pages to create were drawn with sparse words, yet were rich with atmosphere. I could see myself as the protagonist, twelve year old Katie. The author cleverly set the time with social and cultural clues, and she nailed it. I liked the book.

Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors. I have read many other books by her and loved each one of them; this one was neither an exception nor a disappointment. This story is twelve-year-old Katie's, and Elizabeth's voice is so convincing that it is hard to believe it was written by an adult. Katie lives in a rural Texas army base with her older sister Diane and their abusive father. I wanted to cry when Katie talked about her mother's death, due to cancer, and I laughed out loud at her confused attempts to keep up with her fourteen-year-old best friend Cheryl. The book brought back memories of myself at almost-teenhood, and it is a very convincing portrait of a young girl's life. Every small but important aspect is covered: Katie's infatuation with her sister's boyfriend, her daydreams of having her own boyfriend, her first period, her curious peekings at the will-be-breasts that are first starting to appear.

Katie's voice is so real and her thoughts so explained that I would become totally lost in the story and come out it a while later to realize that I really wasn't in her world.

Elizabeth Berg's Joy School is the sequel to Durable Goods, and I read that one first. However, Durable Goods was still a great book and I recommend it even for those who have already read Joy School. Pick up Durable Goods and join Katie in her fresh, exciting world.

Although I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Berg's, I'm not sure whether or not I liked this book, which had a very choppy presentation as it moved from scene to scene. It certainly moved me greatly, but I'm left with a very heavy heart, a blanket of sadness for this motherless child, who is the same age as my own daughters, having to endure the awkwardness of adolscence with an emotionally distant and abusive father. It was very hard to endure the scenes where he hit her and her sister. I hoped Diane would follow through with her idea to report her father's abuse, although I sensed that she never would. I was touched by the interactions between Katie and her friend Cherylanne's mother, and by the kindness of Diane's boyfriend Dickie. I found myself cheering for the children in their attempt to escape this oppresive lifestyle.

I'm glad there are two follow-up books (Joy School and True To Form) because I am left very empty not knowing what happened to them all

As a big Elizabeth Berg fan, I was surprised to discover that I had not yet read this book. So I was delighted to be able to spend a few fast hours one day this week in reliving the angst of childhood in this bittersweet novel. This spare book is a delight and the author's skill in fully developing a memorable character comes shining through. This is a heroine that the reader immediately cares for and wants to root for as she travels the byroads of youth all alone. The only regrettable aspect of this book is that there is no sequel. I would love to know how she grew into a fully grown and loveable woman. This is a book that I would recommend for anyone who has a young daughter, niece, cousin, or friend on the threshold of adolescence. Share this book, discuss it and help another young lady become the woman she is meant to be.