Until the Real Thing Comes Along PDF
Preview Until the Real Thing Comes Along
More praise for Elizabeth Berg and Until the Real Thing Comes Along “Berg’s writing is to literature what Chopin’s études are to music—measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until they are completed.” —Entertainment Weekly “Berg mingles the real angst of loving the wrong man with the popcorn- munching laughs of a TV sitcom.” —New Woman “Elizabeth Berg is one of those rare souls who can play with truths as if swinging across the void from one trapeze to another.” —J G OAN OULD “Berg knows the hearts of her characters intimately, showing them with compassion, humor, and an illuminating generosity.” —The Seattle Times “A warm-hearted story that gently offers insight rather than answers, Until the Real Thing Comes Along would especially appeal to those who have survived loss and crisis.” —BookPage “Outstanding … A compilation of real-life characters, hope, and great writing that entertains and engages the mind … The writing in Until the Real Thing Comes Along is to-the-bone engaging, packed with witty insights and emotional detail you can sink your teeth into.” —Metrowest Daily News “Sparkling and witty … [A] poignant and clever tale … [Berg’s] smooth transitions between tragedies and joys are punctuated with lively humor…. [An] endearing search for domestic fulfillment.” —Publishers Weekly “Engaging characters and realistic dialogue make Elizabeth Berg’s new novel a one-sitting book…. The author’s generous view of humanity is evident in her characters, who walk right off the page they are so well and truly drawn.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Flawless dialogue … Reading it is like eavesdropping on an intimate female chat.” —Showtime “Berg’s landscapes are those of the heart and soul, the journeys of her characters provisioned by a wise network of family and friends.” —Denver Post “True to reality rather than to the conventions of ‘women’s books,’ 1990s-style.” —The Washington Post “It’s curious that novels about marriage, children, and family are often labeled ‘women’s fiction,’ as if the other half of the human race were unconcerned with these matters. Perhaps someone like Patty, whose deepest longings make her feel like an anachronism in our careerist world, represents the sort of anxiety and ambivalence that is still so particular to women’s lives. Books like Until the Real Thing Comes Along offer a kind of working-through of such issues, and the possibility, if not the promise, of a happy ending.” —Chicago Tribune ALSO BY ELIZABETH BERG Dream When You’re Feeling Blue The Handmaid and the Carpenter We Are All Welcome Here The Year of Pleasures The Art of Mending Say When True to Form Ordinary Life: Stories Never Change Open House Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True What We Keep Joy School The Pull of the Moon Range of Motion Talk Before Sleep Durable Goods Family Traditions A Ballantine Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group Copyright © 1999 by Elizabeth Berg Reading group guide copyright © 2000 by Elizabeth Berg and The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Until the Real Thing Comes Along is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Reader’s Circle and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc. www.thereaderscircle.com Library of Congress Card Number: 00-190614 eISBN: 978-0-307-76342-6 This edition is published by arrangement with Random House, Inc. v3.1 For Julie Marin and Jennifer Sarene and in memory of James Allen Gagner Acknowledgments My editor, Kate Medina, and my agent, Lisa Bankoff, have been with me from the start, and I am grateful. Thanks to Jessica Treadway, who read this book in manuscript with special intelligence and sensitivity. And deepest thanks—as always—to Jean-Isabel McNutt, whose skill and perseverance I so admire. Contents Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Epilogue A Reader’s Guide Questions for Discussion About the Author
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