Joy School - Hardcover

Berg, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679449434 ISBN 13: 9780679449430

Publisher: Random House, 1997

Synopsis

In this exquisite new novel by bestselling writer Elizabeth Berg, a young woman falls in love -- and learns how sorrow can lead to an understanding of joy.

Katie, the narrator, has relocated to Missouri with her distant, occasionally abusive father, and she feels very much alone: her much-loved mother is dead; her new school is unaccepting of her; and her only friends fall far short of being ideal companions. When she accidentally falls through the ice while skating, she meets Jimmy. He is handsome, far older than she, and married, but she is entranced. As their relationship unfolds, so too does Katie's awareness of the pain and intensity first love can bring.

Beautifully written in Berg's irresistible voice, Joy School portrays the soaring happiness of real love, the deep despair one can feel when it goes unrequited, and the stubbornness of hope that will not let us let go. Here also is recognition that love can come in many forms and offer many different things. Joy School illuminates, too, how the things that hurt the most can sometimes teach us the lessons that really matter.

About Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg's first novel, Andre Dubus said, "Elizabeth Berg writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, loneliness, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems." The same will be said of Joy School, Elizabeth Berg's most luminous novel to date.

About this title

Review:

Elizabeth Berg's previous novels about the feminine experience in its various stages of girlhood, adolescence, and adulthood have won her a loyal following for their emotional accuracy and powerful voices. In Joy School, Berg's newest book, young Katie's first experience of intense romantic love--with a much older man--becomes not just a crucible for the lessons of love in its various guises, but a rite of passage.

From the Publisher:

About Range of Motion:

"The day you open this book you will miss all your appointments because ... you will read it straight through ... Berg's writing is to literature what Chopin's etudes are to music -- measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until their completion."
-- Entertainment Weekly

About Pull of the Moon:

"Pull of the Moon should be read by anyone who has ever (even for the slightest second) threatened to run away from home. It is wise and witty, thoughtful and exhilarating. It leaves the reader observing life with great hope and satisfaction."
-- Jill McCorkle

About Talk Before Sleep:

"Truth rings forth clearly from every page. Berg captures the way women think -- and especially the way they talk to other women -- as well as any writer I can think of ... you'll want to give a copy to every good woman friend you have."
-- The Charlotte Observer

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679449434
• ISBN 13: 9780679449430
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208