In Earth’s
the Right Place for Love, Elizabeth
Berg has written a poignant, emotionally powerful novel about the formative
years in the life of 16-year-old Arthur Moses in the late 1940s.
Arthur--and
those in his orbit--has been featured in three other Berg novels set in Mason,
Missouri: The
Story of Arthur Truluv, Night of Miracles and The
Confession Club. In this novel, 85-year-old Arthur
looks back on his life as a high school sophomore. Back then, in 1947, he was
greatly influenced by--and looked up to--his dashing older brother, Frank, a
charming heartthrob who often locked horns with their father, a brash man with
a drinking problem. Young Arthur--kind, gentle and shy--had a crush on his cheerleader
classmate, Nola McCollum, who actually had romantic designs on Frank. When
Arthur learned of this, he secretly settled on building a friendship with Nola
instead. However, when a sudden, devastating tragedy befalls the Moses family,
Arthur and Nola become confidantes who help each other to grow through changes
and challenges into young adulthood. Will Nola ever realize how much Arthur truly
loves her? And will she ever love him back?
Love stories that probe the human condition are what Berg
(I’ll Be Seeing You) does best, and
this stand-alone story of Arthur’s early life shines with a refreshingly
wholesome, 20th-century sensibility. Well-drawn characters and sensitively
drawn scenes are what consistently endear readers to Berg’s exquisite
storytelling. This novel adds to--and further deepens--the enriching appeal of that
continuum.
Earth’s
the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg
Random House, $27.99
hardcover, 9780593446799, 288 pages
Publishing Date: March 21, 2023
To order
this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE
NOTE: This review
is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 24, 2023), link HERE