Open House by elizabeth berg

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

(3.5) When her husband leaves, Sam goes off the rails in minor and amusing ways: accepting a rotating cast of housemates, taking temp jobs at a laundromat and in telesales, and getting back onto the dating scene. I didn’t find Sam’s voice as fresh and funny as Berg probably thought it is, but this is as readable as any other Oprah’s Book Club selection and kept me entertained on a plane ride back from America and a car trip up to York. It’s about finding joy in the everyday and not defining yourself by your relationships.

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AlyfoxLP

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I cannot make up my mind about Samantha Moore. She’s had the life of a pampered, self-conscious housewife to a very wealthy man until, at 42, her husband blindsides her with a divorce request. At one point, her new roommate, the kind 80-year-old Lydia Fitch, asks, “Did you think life would be easy all the time?” Eventually, Sam answers, “I really didn’t think it would be easy all the time. I just didn’t know how weak I was.”

This being a novel for affluent White women, the moral of the novel is, of course, that Sam is much stronger than she thinks herself (which Lydia, of course, has pointed out). My Cuban mamá taught me better than to say anything like this out loud (poor but polite, that was us!), but I can’t help but think that Sam could not appreciate her good luck, even when she got it in reduced portions. She and her son Travis remain in their fancy home; the ex makes sure she doesn’t lack for money; Travis doesn’t have to change schools or make new friends. Sam’s forays into work are more of a lark than a necessity.

On the other hand, I feel for Sam. One of the hardest lessons of life is that you can love someone with all your being without them loving you back. It was a hard lesson at 18; I can’t imagine learning it at 42. You’re willing to do anything, no matter how humiliating, to make them love you in return. You torture yourself nonstop: What went wrong? What did I do wrong? What could I change to reverse course, to bring him back? Nothing is out of the question, even though, in hindsight, you realize it was futile. She has spent so much of her life being what she thought her ex wanted that she can’t even welcome a chance to be herself.

So how do I feel about Open House’s Sam Moore? Like Sam, I don’t know the answer myself.

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fabishi

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Open House is one of my all-time favourite books. This is probably the fifth or sixth time I've read it, and it never gets old.

On its surface, it seems like a familiar story: husband abandons wife, wife is crushed, her circumstances and responsibility to her child force her to pick herself up and eventually embrace life again.

But Berg's writing is heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant, her characters so real and funny and likeable. Berg can move me to tears and make me laugh, often in the same sentence. She's so good that reading her books makes me want to throw my hands in the air and say, "I give up!" when it comes to my own writing.

For example, to show tenderness and love, she has a man take off a woman's glasses, clean them for her, and gently replace them. Who but Berg would think of that? I seriously have savoured every line in this novel.

It's how she never fails to make ordinary life extraordinary, and how she connects seemingly disconnected things. Not to mention she tells a damn good story. I highly, highly recommend this book.

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Broombroom27

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

The book was just ok until Page 73, where I came across this line: “I sit in the middle of the floor and rock like an autistic.” I’m sorry, WTF did you just say? On what planet is that ok for an author, editor, or publisher to approve of that line? As the mom of two kids with autism, I don’t consider myself particularly sensitive, and certainly not overly sensitive. But I’m not cool with calling people autistics, just like we don’t refer to people as “retards” anymore, even if they have mental retardation. It’s also not cool to make stereotypes based on narrow-minded assumptions, especially about groups of people with disabilities.

I was so completely turned off (ok, disgusted) by the ignorance, that someone would not have even the slightest hint in the back of their mind that they should pick another analogy to use in a book. I stopped reading because, to be honest, the book wasn’t that good anyway, but I can also say that I’ll never pick up another book by this author. Complete trash.

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PinkAntartic

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

True to form, Elizabeth Berg sucks again.

What do I care about a dumpy, depressed, middle-aged divorcee who spends her evenings reading Oprah book club selections and chowing down chocolate bars?

On the up-side, it made me feel thin and accomplished.

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Reville_

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

In this book, Samantha, a woman in her forties with an eleven year old son, must face her grief, helplessness, and frustration when her husband leaves her. She ends up renting rooms in her house and taking temporary jobs to make ends meet. Through these, she meets characters who help her boost her confidence and build a new life. I love Elizabeth Berg's writing and the way she develops realistic characters, so the only reason I gave the book less than 5 stars was because I felt Samantha was a little pathetic and weak.

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KohiChan

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I finished this book in a matter of days, and though the story was engaging enough it was more because I had been slogging through some heavy non-fiction for a month prior to this read. I think my brain just sucked up the words greedily like a kid with candy on Halloween because it was easier fare.

This is my first Berg book and I have seen her work touted all about the book blogosphere. She does have a way with making everyday simple actions, settings and emotions quite remarkable and relatable to her readers. This story opens with a woman feeling the sucker punch of being left by her husband for reasons she doesn't quite understand. She is lost and a bit of a mess - except for her 11 year old son. She has an odd fascination with Martha Stewart, has humorous and continual incorrect internal assumptions about those she meets, and struggles to find her way earning a living. She takes in roommates to help with the mortgage and they also help to mend her heart.

It is a fairly predictable tale, one that I have read in several variations with the same general result a few times over the last year. So the plot itself is nothing outstanding, but the way that Berg shares the private thoughts and emotions of her main character is very touching. Right from the beginning your are on her side, nodding your head all the way through in support of her stumbles and eventual discoveries of confidence and self-worth.

The characters are vibrant, the plot is flat. A nice book to spend a few days with - especially to offset those that require lots of study.

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kieter13

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

That this novel is on the NYT best-seller list is an embarrassment to our country. Cliché storyline, poorly written, and a pathetic main character. I gave it an extra star because it was a light, easy read and there were a few times I chuckled. Other than that, there was nothing to like. Unless you like pure drivel, half considered.

First, this woman, Sam, was just about as sorry a character as I've ever heard. She had no life outside of her husband and son. Apparently she was a swinging single in the "early '70s", lead singer in a rock band, sleeping with 9 different men... and yet we find her a dowdy housewife, wandering aimlessly around in her bathrobe, eating candy bars, bored with TV, pining for her absent husband (whom she's not even sure she loved; obviously she just needs the distraction from her bland life that he gave her), obsessing over her son, calling strangers for no reason, and generally making bad decisions like drinking too much when she should be staying in control. She has no core, no fiber; she's petty, splattering her anger recklessly like paint flung from a wet brush, hitting anyone nearby. And worst of all, she's cruel at times to those who genuinely care for her.

Are there parents out there who are still trying to set up their 40-something-year-old children? Are there parents who can't let their pre-teens grow up? I don't know any of these people, but I keep reading about them in novels and seeing them in TV movies. Do they even exist? If not, can everyone just stop using them as props to move a story forward? It's lazy. And it's boring. And annoying. And while you're at it, drop the woman-who's-done-nothing-all-her-adult-life-but- be-a-housewife-and-mother-and-now-finds-herself-alone-with-no-life-skills. That flew for a while in the '80s and maybe the '90s, but come on! How many of those relics are still around? (And who was still wearing panty hose in 2000?!)

I assumed, judging from the events that were taking place, that at least 6 months had transpired since her husband had left: a period of just herself and her son, roommates coming and going, getting a job (several jobs), establishing a new friendship, the holidays... and then suddenly she's pregnant. After indicating that it had been some time, even while they were together, since she and her husband had had sex. And yet she still had time for an abortion. What?! How did this happen??? Well, it couldn't. The whole thing just fell apart at that point, and it continued downhill. As expected, her husband wants back: "I made a mistake!" [hard eye roll] and though up to this point we're still having to endure the drama of her loss, she's instantly strong enough to reject him. And of course, she hooks up with the nice, quiet guy who was there all along, who just happens to be losing all that unattractive weight and turning into a real hottie. And her friends all come 'round, and her son decides her place is pretty cool and fun after all. And they all lived happily ever after. Yeah, right. Dream on, lady.

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Open House

elizabeth berg

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