About this title: From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "We Are All Welcome Here" and "Open House" comes Berg's superb new novel, set in the time of World War II, about the three Heaney sisters and the men they love.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781400065103ISBN:1400065100
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. A former library book with the usual identifiers in a protective glossy dust jacket covering. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780345487544ISBN:0345487540
Description: Good. Standard used condition. May have light reading or storage wear. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Description: Very Good. 1400065100 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Description: Good. 0739327127 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0739327127 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Fine. 1400065100 This is a beautiful, like-new hardback book! FIRST EDITION! FULL NUMBER LINE: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1! ! Crisp, clean pages & a super tight spine! The book itself is in great shape, but there are minor signs of shelf wear on the dust jacket--nothing major! No writing, highlighting, nothing! ! ! Close to looking like it could be on the shelf of a new bookstore! SMOKE FREE HOME! Do not settle for worn, torn, throwaways. Pay a few pennies more for a beautiful copy! ! ! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2007-05-01
ISBN-13:9781400065103ISBN:1400065100
Description: Very Good. BCE/BOMC. DJ is VG. Binding is tight and square. No names, no remainder marks, no stickers. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! Careful packaging and fast shipping. read more
"I loved this book. It was kind of slow at the start, but once it got moving, I couldn't stay away! The setting is Chicago, during WWII, in the middle of a huge Irish family. All three of the girls in the Heaney family are beautiful, so naturally each of them is writing letters to several soldiers who have gone "over there." These letters, and the details we are able to glean from them about life on the front lines of the war, serve to compliment (or contrast) the things that are going on at the home front. The details about the war itself are deeply moving - posters plastering public spaces declaring that if you talk about what you know, you may as well kill a soldier; vivid descriptions of what death in war really looks like; hushed-up accounts of Japanese internment camps. These details got my attention. But what kept my attention was the personal journeys: the relationships forming and coming apart at the edges of the war, the unfolding of long-held secrets and emotions as the characters come to grips with mortality - the soldiers as well as those who stay home, the answer to the question of just how much you would give for someone you love, and how much you can or cannot expect love to give you."
"This story was pretty good. It is set in Chicago and takes place during WWII. The story is told from the viewpoint of Kitty, the oldest of three sisters. Kitty and the next youngest sister, Louise have sent their "men" off to war. The story is about the fight on the home front--the importance of supporting the troops. Most of the story takes place around the kitchen table as the three sisters write letters of encouragement and read letters from the soldiers. They also go to the dances held weekly for the soldiers still at home. Kitty has a job in a factory that builds airplanes. She likes her job, even though it is not a traditional woman's job. She loves the feeling it gives her of contributing to the war effort, independence, and money to do as she chooses. This book brought out that WWII was not fought just by the men overseas, but by all of the women and children left behind. Some of the soldiers in this story died, as men do in war. The story didn't glamorize death or war, but talked of its necessity at times and the devastating effects it had in the lives of people who lost loved ones, or had loved ones come home wounded.
Particularly poignant was the letter that Louise's fiance Michael writes home about "how it really is in war". He talks about all the awful things, the food, the cold, the worry, writing your will because you don't know when it will be you, watching your buddy die. He also writes of the good things, appreciation of simple things like hot water to wash in, the song of a bird, and the camaraderie of your fellows. He also talks of how it is to kill a man. This one letter in the whole book was very touching, disturbing and eye-opening. The men I've known that go to war don't usually talk about such things. In fact in his letter Michael asks Louise, never to ask him these things again. It makes me wonder what experience the author had to be able to write such a vivid letter.
I enjoyed the story, until it took a bit of a twist at the end, which I disliked."
"Elizabeth Berg is a wonderful story teller. This is set in Chicago during WWII and it's an engaging story about three sisters. I couldn't put it down once I began it. I cried, and laughed, and just enjoyed the story. The only thing I didn't like about it was the ending. It seemed rushed, and a bit incongruent with the story. I liked the book a lot, and I definitely still recommend it, but I do wish the ending had been a little more satisfying."
"Four discs into an 8-disc book, I'm bailing. I gave it a lot of play, because I really like the WWII home front setting, but...
This book was TERRIBLE. It had all the character depth and dialogue truth of Nancy Drew (whom I'm not criticizing, because she is a mid-century series character written for children by multiple people), except with an eccchy Greatest Generation gloss. Every character was a stereotype and every speech was some variation on "Gee whillikers" or "It's a bird! It's a plane!" Instead of providing the living skeleton which lets the narrative drape and move over it, the historical research poked through, page after page of jarring, unnatural Facts in Action jutting out of the prose (gee whillikers).
Note: I didn't even GET to the ending that so many readers are objecting to, not least because I realized, as an impetus to ejecting the disc, that I legitimately don't care which overseas love interest dies or what the aftermath is. Also, for the reader who liked it because it's like Little Women: yeah, that will happen when you just steal the paper-doll version of the characters and stick 'em in your book. To clarify: Kitty is Jo, Louise is Meg, and Tish is Amy. Think the analogy's bad because there's no Beth? Wrong. Tommy is Beth. Jesus Christ."
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