The Year of Pleasures: A Novel

Nice accounting of emotions after life changing event.

This is one of my favorite Elizabeth Berg titles. What I love most about her novels is their ability to lure me into loving introspection, to open a doorway into a profound realization about life - its glories and foibles, and to immerse me in mundane moments that the author has transformed into something glorious. During reading of one of her books - and for days afterward, I find myself more fully experiencing the magic of the moments around me. I talk to people differently, and seem to more intimately connect with them - whether it is a close friend, or the lady checking me out at the grocery store. Reading an Elizabeth Berg novel is a sort of "zen awakening" experience for me. I do not know why. But I tend to read her books with a notebook and pen nearby, because I am often inspired to write down thoughts, to create poetry, and to explore my own perceptions and memories. Her books are as soothing to my soul as eating chocolate cookies fresh from the oven, or listening to Van Morrison sing "Into the Mystic". I am sure that many people would have a different experience reading her books, but I know there are others who would share my joy. I am writing this for them. In Year of Pleasures, Berg addresses the inevitability and profundity of loss. She opens the Pandora's box of grief, and bids us take a look inside. Then, she helps us discover for ourselves whether the beauty is worth the pain. For me, there is a journey of self-discovery in every one of her books. And the destination becomes secondary to the passing scenery and the insight I experience as the words roll past.

I must say first of all--Elizabeth Berg is my girlfriend!I have read everything by her and usually cannot wait for her next novel to appear on the book shelves.I shall read every book she writes--even if she is not up to her usual insightful, humorous, delicious self!"The Years of Pleasures" was interesting. It had many of Berg's unique observations--the observations all of us girls delight in--especially when she writes about issues we can all relate to-- such as her relationship with her old girlfriends--the beautiful movie star girlfriend, who at 50, still has a body like a young thing OR the girlfriend who takes the main character under her wing after her husband dies.Berg is one of us. But "The Year of Pleasures" does not have that 'something extra' that Berg usually gives us; that something, we as women, wrap around ourselves, because she is saying what we feel, what we want, and who we are.I would have liked Berg to emphasise more about the relationships between the main character and her girlfriends--the bond they possess--the things they talk about--the wild women they were as young girls--not as much information about the husband that dies. I cared more about the female ties that hold us all together.But--I still love Berg--I still wait for her novels about women--such as "The Pull of the Moon" and "Talk Before Sleep." These are the novels I die for!

Don't worry, you'll understand the title of my review once you reach the end of this poignant and delicious novel. Elizabeth Berg writes for us...unapologetically. She shares the simple and the complex in the same sentence and offers a meal for the hungry. My appetite was well and full quenched. I did cry deeply a few times and I laughed alot. I loved these characters and I even liked a few, which is an altogether different thing to love. Just read it. Or devour it. Or both.

I just love Elizabeth Berg's writing. I never want her books to end. It is so refreshing to read a book that has depth and story without foul language. I'm really not a prude; I just don't like reading it. My friend and I talk about how it takes a thinking mind to create emotion without reaching for the nearest f-bomb. It also takes talent and presence - both of which Elizabeth Berg has an abundance. If you haven't read this one - go ahead and get it. And then read everything else she has written. Big joy.

Grief takes people to different places. In this case it takes Bette both forward and backward. Backward to old friendships and forward to shared dreams. But she can only get there by living in the present with her fears and her grief. A relatable and beautiful story.

The story of a woman who's husband dies and her journey to a life without him.Betts has lost the love of her life, John, after 35 years of marriage ... an almost perfect story book marriage. But she's lucky, she's quite well off and has the time, money, and the guiding advice John gave her before he passed.Okay, the odds of all the planets coming in to alignment this perfectly, odds 0-1, but, if that 1 happened, this is what it might look like, if you were willing to be grateful, to step out of your comfort zone, to let the reins go and let God (I'm a Christian, the author does not bring Him into play) take control.Yes, you must grieve, but when does that stop and what can happen if you let it?There's was an insular marriage. Just the two of them, no children, no relatives, and no real friends, because friends had not been needed in this perfect partnership.Betts changes everything about her life within the first three months of John's death. She sells their home in Boston, moves to small town outside Chicago, buys her dream house, befriends her neighbors, reconnects with old college roommates and begins the process of rebuilding her life, from the outside in.