Dream When You're Feeling Blue

by: Elizabeth Berg

Published by: Random House

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

When Elizabeth Berg has a new book published, I rush to purchase it. I have long admired her ability to create rich, three-dimension characters since I picked up her third novel, Talk Before Sleep.

Dream When You’re Feeling Blue is Berg’s 19th book. She has been an Oprah choice and even this venture reached The New York Times Best Seller List. I’ve noticed that the deepness of character development has waned with the last four or five books and takes a major nosedive in this latest tale.

This story is somewhat of a departure for Berg in that it is more historical fiction than any of her others. Dream When You’re Feeling Blue takes place in 1943 and 1944 Chicago and centers around the three Heaney sisters. Kitty and Louise have sent their guys to war. The youngest sister Tish didn’t have a steady beau to send to fight the Nazis. To help on the homefront, the sisters volunteer at the USO. Each night before they go to bed, they sit at the kitchen and write letters to their men and those they’ve met at the USO. While Kitty struggles to find something to say to her almost-fiancee, Julian, Louise writes of the lives she and her fiancee Michael will have when he comes home. It’s almost a guarantee that one of them will be killed, but which one always keeps the reader guessing. Tish writes with ease to all the fellows who write her.

There is no doubt that Berg did her research for this novel. The idioms of the day are right on. The character development is rather redundant but still not as well-rounded as her early books. What ticked me off about this book is the ending. I had to read the beginning of the next to last chapter at least five times before I could understand plot twist. No explanation, nothing. It just happened And after the last chapter, I wanted to throw the book against the wall and strangle Berg. Seasoned writers should know better than this. But when you have fools like me who continue to buy her work in hard cover, well, I guess drivel will be all I can expect from this talented writer who doesn’t appear to be trying anymore.

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