Customer Reviews

What We Keep

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I am amazed that the first review that pops up is incredibly negative, referring to the novel as a "disappointment." I absolutely could not put this book down. Elizabeth Berg has an incomparable way of using nostalgia, harsh realities and stories about people as they truly live to create such real situations and characaters, you think you know them and you definitely care about them. It has been many years since I have read an author who could do this so seamlessly, with such simplicity -- she is an inspiration. And as far as the book being a disappointment, I have read all of her books, and this is my favorite. If you are at all interested in mother daughter relationships, sisterly bonds, life in the fifties and sixties, you will enjoy this book. Don't listen to the professional "reviewers," this book soars.

I have just finished the most amazing book I've read this year and I can say this in February - the 2nd month of the year. But I know I will never read a book like "What We Keep" by Elizabeth Berg this year. I picked this book up on the 7th of February and finished it on the 13th. This book has been with me for a week and will remain for a long time in my memory. The book is about mothers and daughters. I know it's cliched. Many things have been written on this topic but this book is different. It bares its soul to the readers.

The narrator Ginny Young at forty-seven is out to meet her mother after thirty-five years on a call from her sister Sharla. While travelling on the air plane she narrates the past. The little incidents. The midnight escapades with Sharla and all the complexities of an eleven-year old and her older sister. While reading this book, there were many a times that I cried uncontrollably and now when I ask myself why: I know that the book made me contemplate the relationship I share with my mother and all those times we have been close and in many ways apart.

I cannot resist but include these beautiful lines from the book as excerpts:

"I suppose what I now believe is that we owe our mothers and our daughters the truth, and the truth is that my mother was forgiven in the way she was not forgotten."

What we Keep made me think of really what we do keep - memories, anger, frustration, childhood, sisterhood, joy, sadness and more than anything else no matter what the ties with a mother - the ability to forgive and forget, the ability to love again no matter what.

I would recommend this book to anyone. Everyone must read it.

What a wonderful writer Elizabeth Berg is. I've read all of her books, and thoroughly enjoyed this one. This book will have you laughing and crying, all the while examining your own relationship with your mother. Berg has a way with words that is truly remarkable. Her beautiful prose, while seemingly simplistic, is honest and refreshing. I am an avid reader, and it is not often that I stop reading in mid-chapter just to appreciate the beauty or poignancy of a single sentence, as I do with her books.

Also try Range of Motion & Talk Before Sleep. You won't be disappointed!

This book is crowded with startling happenings. Read it closely, (optimally in one or two sittings) and you are really in for a full, rich read. An invaluable lesson in remembering that perspective is everthing in life. <P... Frankly, the mother in this story gives up on her children way too soon, and that's a reoccuring theme in Ms. Berg's books I think.

I don't know why people even bother to comment on Elizabeth Berg's plots though. Her books are about one thing: relationships. We just happen in on a small slice of one or more of her characters live's, and before we know it, we've turned the last page; the thinking she inspires already begun.

Her writing is spare; her sentences so perfect for the mood she conveys. This is open, revealing writing--that also entertains. How rare is that?! Highly recommended.

I love Ms. Berg's prose and this book was no exception... but perhaps this book hits too close to home for me to be comfortable with its premise. Question: is it okay to leave your children twisting in the wind while you travel off to be an Artist? I say, NO! (And does the fact that the mother is very successful somehow "prove" she made the right decision? By the way, the chances of a woman painter being able to support herself in that manner are about the same as becoming a female astronaut... it happens, but not often.) I guess all is forgiven because nobody ended up horribly scarred, and that itself seems kind of unlikely. I have no sympathy for the mother; why can't she paint from her house? I thought the father might have been a much more sympathetic character had Ms. Berg focused on him a little more. This book really touched me on many levels and made me reflect 1. how society holds "housekeeping" in such low esteem and 2. how you don't matter unless you are "successful".

Two sisters, Sharla and Ginny, are off to meet a mother they have not seen in thirty-vie years. The book covers their childhood and a mother, Marion, who left home when the girls were young.

The message in this book is clear - everything in life is not always as it seems. The girls believe their mother left to be with her friend, Jasmine, and that the two woman were in a gay relationship. However, as the girls find out after meeting their mother, this is not true and not the reason for Marion's leaving. Marion did try to continue a relationship with her children after she left home, but the girls refused to see her. Their father remarries and the girls shift their love to a woman who is always there for them as a mother should be. One can deeply sympathize with the girls and their estranged relationship with their mother, but it is often all too easy to judge someone when you have not walked in their shoes and do not know all the facts.

"What We Keep" is one of Berg's finest books. It is an easy read but it makes the reader ponder the relationship with their own mother, regardless of whether the relationship is good or bad, and whether she is still with us or has passed on. Also recommended by Berg is another oldie, "Open House."

Once again, Elizabeth Berg has written a beautiful page-turner about the dynamics of a disfunctional family. Incredibly well-written with with meticulous attention to detail, I love the way the story was told in hindsight as Ginny reflects on her childhood during the long cross-country flight to visit her estranged mother. A truly brilliant presentation, vascillating between her adult mindset and her voice as a child!

I was puzzled by the negative reviews this book received on amazom.com, as it strongly captured my interest and pulled me into an emotional connection to the characters. I delighted in the fact that it was as much about the mother-duaghter relationship as it was about the relationship between Ginny and her sister Sharla.

Elizabeth Berg is a master at presenting relationships that make the reader think deeply and feel the sadness and pain alongside the characters.