Ordinary Life

by Elizabeth Berg

A collection of short stories, mostly focusing on relationships.

I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg's work, Open House, being on of the most recent that I enjoyed. Her short stories in this book are like looking into someone else's diary. You get a quick, in-depth view of the characters and are left wondering what will happen to them. I mean that in a good way. "Caretaking" tells of a woman's realization that her mother cannot continue to live alone. She goes back and forth between the woman's childhood memories of her mother taking care of her to today, where she struggles to know what to do for her mother. "What Stays" is a story of a young girl whose mother is sent to an institution and her fierce loyalty to the lessons her mother taught her. The title story "Ordinary Life" shows us Mavis, who locks herself in the bathroom for a vacation and some time to think.

The thing I like best about these stories is that they are real. I see myself in each of the stories and see how I could easily be in these situations. And her characters are real. They make mistakes, they say the wrong things, they wish for things that they shouldn't. They often find themselves wondering how they got where they are today. They are all living, quite honestly, ordinary lives.