The Last Time I Saw You, by Elizabeth Berg
Two Stars
I picked this book up from the lending bookcase at the faculty lounge of the community college where I teach and was surprised to find Elizabeth Berg is a NYTimes bestseller because I’d never heard of her. Since the plot revolves around a 40th high school reunion and mine was two years ago (missed it to my disappointment), I thought it would be worth reading, but I wasn’t taken with this novel. I definitely enjoy well-written genre fiction, and with the right plot and characters, the forumla elements of genre novels recede in the hands of a good writer who knows how to tell a tale. But as Berg introduced her characters, I ticked them off a mental checklist: weird unpopular girl, nice but overlooked boy, class queen, class king, popular but jealous girl… And their now incarnations also could be checked off: bitter divorcee looking for a new man, businessman who regrets trading in longtime wife for a newer model, unfulfilled wife facing mortal illness, still-sorrow-filled widower “happy” with his limited life… Berg’s characters were well-drawn but clearly types, and I knew how they’d end up as soon as they were introduced. The requisite happy endings — and some not so happy but resigned — were all there and believably portrayed, but there was no emotional payoff for me because I mostly didn’t care about the characters since I felt my buttons being pushed the whole way. In addition, the characters seemed to be from a different generation, an older generation. They all seemed to be characters still living with the expectations of the 1950s. One woman had a career and the rest were mostly homemakers or working inconsequential non-breadwinner jobs. They did not comport with the reality of women in my generation, many of whom sought or found their way into careers. The best genre fiction on the NYTimes list rises above formula to deliver a captivating story, but in this outing, Berg didn’t deliver, so in future, I’ll leave her titles on the lending shelf for others to enjoy.