Customer Reviews

Home Safe: A Novel

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

After finishing Home Safe, I sat for the longest time looking out the window thinking about books and writing and stories and how lucky we are to have someone like Berg who is such a beautiful and insightful writer, a writer who, as her character Helen says, wants to "make a family of the world." I am sure having Berg's ability to go under the skin, to feel things as deeply as she does, cannot always be easy. But she always manages to find the beauty. I loved this book which is a celebration of the art of writing as well as a great story. The ending is one of the most perfect endings I have ever read. It's stunning.

I turned a colleague on to Elizabeth Berg when I recommended The Year of Pleasures" to her, my favorite Berg book. My colleague was so happy that she bought this title opening day, read and lent it to me.

As so many others, I had 'reader high hopes' - the curse of a past-excellence creating author, I'm sure. This book was as if the editor kept calling to make some money off her and this is what she came up with.

Main character Helen is irritating, and I would not even want to be her friend - I have never said that about any other work from Elizabeth Berg - I've raved. The one point I appreciated was Helen coming to the realization that her dead husband was NOT a perfect mate. So often, after the death of a loved one, we put them on a pedestal during the mourning, and that is normal, but true healing does not happen until we can acknowledge their flaws without feeling guilty about it.

'Home Safe' does not have the open-door, come on in warm feeling of most other Elizabeth Berg books. I should have read The Year of Pleasures again instead. :)

Helen is a middle aged woman who is suffering the loss of her husband, the loss of control of her adult daughter, and her ability to write fiction. I never connected with this character, and her daughter was just barely tolerable. I felt the writing was lacking here, as I never felt they were real. The plot had a lot of potential but was never grounded enough for me to feel that any of it was believable. The saving grace to this book was that it was extremely easy to read, which makes perfect bedtime reading for me.

I was looking forward to reading Elizabeth Berg's latest novel, but if I had not known that it was written by her, I would have thought the author was someone far less talented. What I found curious was that, in the novel, the writings of her students (which, of course, she wrote) were actually more interesting than her own writing. The plot was predictable and boring -- a crazy best friend, a husband who built her a dream home before he died, and a handsome widower (an architect, no less) who is in love with her -- I thought I was reading a paperback romance novel.

I am more than half way through this book and not sure I will finish. I can tell you, as a former teacher, I've worked with 10 year olds with more common sense than Helen. I have read a few of the authors other books and while she's not one of my "must read" authors, I have enjoyed some of her other work. Helen's relationship with her daughter makes me wonder why Tessa isn't applying for jobs in Mozambique. Helen is so pathetically inept that she strains credibility. Just about the time you begin to wonder if she can brush her teeth without directions, she ADMITS she often doesn't!

I have enjoyed Elizabeth Berg's other novels so I kept at this book waiting for it to capture me. I finished it before that happened. Don't let this one steer you from her other works as she is far better than this one!

I love Elizabeth Berg, and have read many of her books, but this book really strained credulity. What 50-something woman who has worked all her life would not be outraged to find that her deceased husband has made a sweeping, unilateral decision about her future without her help or input? And not only that - but he was totally uninvolved in carrying through the details of the decision, but left it all to a stranger! I don't want to put any spoilers into this review, but a good marriage is a partnership, and this is nothing more than a betrayal! The financial aspects of this story and its ending make absolutely no sense either. Also, look for a bunch of stock characters - I felt like her students were straight out of Mayberry. Look to another Elizabeth Berg book for a much better read.

I do not understand why your financial analyst would wait a year to tell you that your account is practacally empty or that an individual would not open their monthly statements to look at their balance after their spouse died?

That being said I did enjoy the dialogue between Helen and her daughter. It was realistic and did give the reader a clear picture of their mother/daughter relationship.
But why would her husband withdraw nearly all of their retirement money to build a dream house 2000 miles away without telling his wife? I thought that was odd and what about the fact that there would be very little money for them to live on? It just did not make sense. And he furnished it without her?

I did like the story line regarding the student authors and I felt their work was very interesting. I think the book would have been better served if the author had spent more time on that aspect rather than the dream home and the handsome architect who just happened to be single.

I have always enjoyed E. Berg but this- why ever published? It is so dull- so slow, and a really dreadful read-.The story line could have been in a 100 page book. It is repetative, as though the author was just desperate to get a book out. But more surprising is the author reads on the audio and she should NEVER EVER do that again. She has the worst slow, whiny,voice. I was stuck in the car on a long drive w/ only this audio book- so had to finish-- . I wonder why in this economy an editor would accept this book-just because she is known author? I won't again till I see Berg as a best seller-for along stint.AND Ms Berg should never ever read on audio books!

The book's description made it seem so promising, but the book is boring and poorly written. When I say poorly written I mean that in the sense that the story lacks luster, but also the grammar is flat-out bad. I had to keep re-reading sentences to understand what she was saying -- she loves the misplaced modifier.