What We Keep [Paperback]

Elizabeth Berg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2004

Ginny Young is on a plane, en route to see her mother, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to for thirty-five years. She thinks back to the summer of 1958, when she and her sister, Sharla, were young girls. At that time, a series of dramatic events - beginning with the arrival of a mysterious and sensual next-door neighbour - divided the family, separating the sisters from their mother. Moving back and forth in time between the girl she once was and the woman she's become, Ginny at last confronts painful choices that occur in almost any woman's life, and learns surprising truths about the people she thought she knew best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I don't like my mother. She's not a good person." So declares Ginny Young on a trip to California to visit her mother, Marion, whom she hasn't seen in 35 years. Ginny is only making the trip as a favor to her sister, Sharla, who has called to say she's awaiting the results of a cancer test. In flashback, Berg (Talk Before Sleep) revisits the events of the girls' childhood and the moments when their mother's problems began to reveal themselves. One night, Ginny and Sharla overhear their mother screaming at their father about her unhappiness and telling him that she never wanted children. Then she walks out with no explanations, returning briefly a few months later to explain that she's not coming back. The following years bring occasional visits that are impossibly painful for all concerned and so full of buried anger that the girls decide to curtail them altogether. When Sharla meets Ginny (now a mother herself) at the airport, and the two see their mother again, there are surprises in store, but not especially shocking ones. The reader, in fact, may feel there is less here than meets the eye: Marion's flight is never made psychologically credible. Berg's customary skill in rendering domestic details is intact, but the story seems stitched together. Crucial scenes feel highlighted rather than fleshed out, and Ginny's bitterness disappears into thin air as she reaches a facile, sentimental conclusion about her mother's needs. BOMC selection; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Berg (Joy School, LJ 12/96) excels at writing novels about the close personal relationships between women. As this new work opens, Ginny is flying to California to join her sister in a meeting with their mother, whom neither daughter has seen for 35 years. Ginny uses her travel time to reflect upon her memories of the summer when her mother withdrew from the family and became an outsider in her daughters' lives. Berg's precise, evocative descriptions create vivid images of Ginny's physical world, while Berg's understanding and perception are an eloquent testimony to Ginny's emotional turmoil. Berg cleverly examines the roles and relationships of mothers and daughters and reveals how truth, forgiveness, and understanding are possible in healing intergenerational rifts between women. Highly recommended and sure to be popular.
-?Caroline M. Hallsworth, Cambrian Coll., Ontario
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (September 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099451778
• ISBN-13: 978-0099451778
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,137,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth Berg won the NEBA Award for fiction for her body of work, and was a finalist for the ABBY for Talk Before Steep. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the New York Times Magazine. She has also taught a writing workshop at Radcliffe College. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of Mothers and Daughters!, August 12, 2000

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What We Keep: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

As a daughter and mother of a daughter, I am always intrigued by the thought of a book which explores the nuances of these relationships. But if I was looking for a sweet read depicting mother knows best and daughter is listeneing, I should have read something else. For in What we Keep, the author relates the story of a mother and her two daughters in an overwhelmingly sad story.

The opening pages of this book begin on an airplane ride as Ginny, Marion's younger daughter and sister of Sharla, explains to another passenger the nature of her trip West. Ginny is meeting up with her sister to visit the mother they haven't seen in 35 years. Then in a series of Ginny's reflections throughout the plane ride, we learn the how and why Marion left her daughters when they were only 14 and 12. Naturally thoughout the book we hear and feel Ginny's struggles with this trip, her recollections of their family life and how she will ultimately feel about her mother.

I found this to be one of Berg's more difficult books for me to read perhaps because I had such a wonderful bond with my mother. And I found msyelf dragging through the book not because I didn't want it to end but because it was so painful for me to think about what Marion did despite the fact that I somewhat understood her actions. And at the end I was waiting for parts of the puzzle to be solved and it finally left me wondering why this happened and what the future held for these three women after this meeting.

I did find this book evoked some of the same feelings I found in other books by Elizabeth Berg like Durable Goods which explored feelings among siblings and Joy School which described the painfgul days of a first love. And sections of it detailing what its like for a woman to grow older and what we expect from mothers were so beautifully written that I found myself crying.

Although this wasn't one of my favorite books written by Elizabeth Berg, pleae do read it and decide for yourself. Even a book by Berg which I liked less than her others is still a most worthwhile read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story of a mother-daughter relationship, October 13, 2000

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What We Keep: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

WHAT WE KEEP was the story of a woman (Ginny Young ) who is about to meet her mother for the first time after being apart for 35 years. During the flight to California, she remembers the events that lead up to her mother's departure. Ginny was 12 years old when she last sees her mother, and we see the events through Ginny's 12 year old eyes. And although the 12 year old Ginny does not fully understand why things happened the way they did, the reader will note things that the young inexperienced Ginny could not understand. The adult Ginny finally is able to understand, and it takes the reunion with Ginny, older sister Sharla, and their mother Marion to help her realize why her mother left them all those years ago.

This was the first time I read a book by Elizabeth Berg and I was very pleased. I found it to be a fast read. Her descriptions were so vivid that I could imagine the characters as if watching a movie. I also found her characters to be interesting and real. I could relate to them and understand them. I am looking forward to reading more by Elizabeth Berg.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars youth makes us see things that are not really there, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What We Keep (Hardcover)

This book gives a good example of how the world looks through a child's eyes. It also shows that as we mature, we still do not always understand what was really happening during our childhood. Ginny lived for 35 years still believing that her mother was completely responsible for her parents divorce, when really her father was as much to blame. I found What We Keep to be interesting throughout, and not as predictable as I thought. An important lesson is learned; it is never too late to reconcile with a loved one, you may be just as wrong as you believe the other person to be. I enjoyed this book, even though it is not action-packed. I would encourage everyone to give it a try.