By Elizabeth Berg
I’m not a huge fan of short story collections. For me, they can be annoying because as soon as I get caught up in characters and a plot, the story is suddenly over. In other words, to me short stories usually feel too, well, short.
When I picked up this latest offering from Elizabeth Berg, an irresistible sentence on the back of the book caught my eye: “What would you do, if nobody was looking?” In each of the stories in this collection, people do something unexpected or unconventional. A woman on Weight Watchers takes a vacation from her diet and for one day, she indulges all of her cravings, beginning with an entire box of Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and ending with a mouth watering steak dinner. In another, a lonely older woman treats herself to a wonderful shopping spree followed by a trip to Vegas.
I wanted to like these stories and I usually enjoy Elizabeth Berg’s writing (What We Keep, Open House, Until the Real Thing Comes Along), but I didn’t think this collection of everyday tales was up to par compared to her previous work. While I appreciated how the stories were uplifting in some way, I found most of them a little bit boring.
I wanted to like these stories and I usually enjoy Elizabeth Berg’s writing (What We Keep, Open House, Until the Real Thing Comes Along), but I didn’t think this collection of everyday tales was up to par compared to her previous work. While I appreciated how the stories were uplifting in some way, I found most of them a little bit boring.
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