Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel
by Elizabeth Berg
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth BergEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-29
ISBN: 0345487540
Number of pages: 287
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel
Book Review: pointless drudgery read. Really.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was pointless. And it took a long time getting there.
I was really, really disappointed because the back cover made it seem like this was going to be a great, heartwarming tale of three women on the homefront and the men fighting in the war by using their letters to each other. The back cover lied.
First off, there's really only 1 main character-Kitty-a self-centered, shallow girl (supposedly she's a mid-twenties woman, but you'd never know it by how she thinks and acts). Kitty was a pretty unsympathetic character, who whined through most of the book. I was sick and tired of her attitude by the twentieth page, but thought maybe the author was going to have her grow up and mature through the book. Nope. She was exactly the same through the whole thing, though the author SAID she had changed in the last ten pages of the book. But,no, she hadn't. The only changes Kitty went through was that the home and family she'd been dreaming about through the entire book suddenly weren't what she wanted.
The real problem with this book was that it didn't have a story. The author tried really hard to give you the feeling of the forties (constantly giving the names of certain fashions, using slang (though some of the slang was more fifties than forties), giving the names of popular songs, etc) the problem was, she tried so hard it went over the top and felt really fake. I mean, how many times can you name the latest blouse's style name?
The book just plodded along with no real purpose for most of the book. The author tried to interject several modern thoughts and issues into the book which just didn't jell with the times. And a lot of things just didn't make any sense. For instance, Kitty goes to get a job at a defense factory. It's made out to be a horrible thing, with neighbors thinking she's 'fast', with no men giving up their seat to her because she's wearing pants, with the men at the factory harrassing her in various ways, etc. The thing is...women were enouraged to go to work in the factories because it freed up men to fight. They weren't thought less of! I'm sure there was some incidences of things like that happening, but most of the factories tried to accomodate women-starting up fabulous day cares and things of that nature. Women workers were thought of as patriots, doing their part on the homefront-talk to a grandparent, they'll tell you.
Kitty complained about the factory work for the entire book until suddenly, in the last few pages she loved the work and wanted to become a career woman. Huh? She also decided that she didn't really like children and didn't want any of her own-something she tells her new boyfriend, who, up to that point had been the radical voice in the book (he being a conscientious objector). The boyfriend does a complete about face and decides he wants a traditional home and family. It was very odd. And then, to top it off......spoiler here!.....the boyfriend suddenly marries Kitty's umarried sister who just had a baby. I actually had to go back and re-read several pages to figure out that one. It still eludes me.
The whole book was a mess. When I close a good book, I do it with a smile and feeling that I've taken in something worthwhile. When I closed this one, I couldn't help but think of the hours of my life I could never get back....Skip this one.
Summary of Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes us to Chicago at the time of World War II in this wonderful story about three sisters, their lively Irish family, and the men they love.As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters?Louise to her fiancé, Kitty to the man she wishes fervently would propose, and Tish to an ever-changing group of men she meets at USO dances. In the letters the sisters send and receive are intimate glimpses of life both on the battlefront and at home. For Kitty, a confident, headstrong young woman, the departure of her boyfriend and the lessons she learns about love, resilience, and war will bring a surprise and a secret, and will lead her to a radical action for those she loves. The lifelong consequences of the choices the Heaney sisters make are at the heart of this superb novel about the power of love and the enduring strength of family.
From the Hardcover edition.
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