elizabeth berg the story of arthur truluv

Savannah, it turns out, is catatonic, and before the suicide attempt had completely assumed the identity of a dead friend-the implication being that she couldn't stand being a Wingo anymore. When he hears that his fierce, beautiful twin sister Savannah, a well-known New York poet, has once again attempted suicide, he escapes his present emasculation by flying north to meet Savannah's comely psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein. Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. Psychological realism sacrificed on the altar of niceness.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. In this small town, truisms prevail over truth every time. She never acknowledges the contradictions-or the opportunities-presented by Iris’ strange compulsion to forgive Ed, Lucille’s devil-may-care attitude toward buttercream, the weight issues Tiny and Monica share, and the fact that the person with the healthiest diet gets cancer. We long for more substance as Berg touches on, but does not really engage, topics like aging, mortality, and America’s obsession with appearance. Link, short for Lincoln, Lucille’s neighbor, is raised by vegetarians and must be disabused of such scruples by Lucille, who babysits for him while his mother, Abby, receives treatment for leukemia. The deepest dives are into Lucille’s sugar- and fat-laden creations-no diabetes fears here.

Seeking distraction, Iris answers Lucille’s call for an assistant. Iris’ decision was compelled by her ex-husband, Ed, now remarried-with child!-whence her flight to a small town. Iris and Lucille share a longing for the children each, for different reasons, never had.

The Henhouse is the site of one major subplot: Iris, a well-off resale maven from Boston, notices that Monica, a waitress, and Tiny, a regular, appear to have a crush on each other but are each too shy to act. For the nonce, however, Lucille’s baking talent has led to a popular class hosted in her kitchen, and her cakes are hotly sought after by Polly’s Henhouse, a local diner. Lucille is the central figure of this installment, although, judging from her dream visitations by the angel of death, it won’t be long before she follows Arthur and her own late beloved, Frank, into the afterlife.

Maddy inherited Arthur’s Mason, Missouri, home, now occupied rent-free by Lucille, his elderly former neighbor. When the saintly Arthur Moses, dubbed “Truluv” by his de facto ward, Maddy, dies, he leaves behind a legacy of kindness. Berg’s sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv (2017) checks in with Arthur’s friends, neighbors, and beneficiaries.

Elizabeth berg the story of arthur truluv