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Open House: Summary and book reviews of Open House by Elizabeth Berg, plus links to an excerpt from Open House and a biography of Elizabeth Berg.

Open House

Open House
by Elizabeth Berg
Hardcover: Jul 2000,
256 pages.
Paperback: May 2001,
272 pages.

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Reading Guide
Reader Reviews

Author Biography
Author Interview
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Critics' Opinion:   good
Readers' Rating:  4.5 Stars
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BOOK SUMMARY

In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart.

Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember--and reclaim--the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. Open House is a love story about what can blossom between a man and a woman, and within a woman herself.

BOOK REVIEWS

Media Reviews

Average  Kirkus Reviews
The eighth effortless novel from soft-pedaling specialist Berg is an emotional slurpee/comedy featuring the newly separated mother of a near-teenaged son who finds the man of her dreams in spite of herself .... Skillfully crafted, with a fluidity and snap that will delight Berg's fans but, when all is said and done, a distressingly familiar story.

Good  Library Journal
Berg writes with clarity, accurately capturing the aftermath of an adjustment of the heart. Her characters are true to life, with diverse and complex emotional reactions to real-life situations.

Good  Publishers Weekly
Berg once again refreshes a well-worn plot with knowing domestic detail, an understanding of familiar--sometimes conflicting--female emotions and an infectious sentimental optimism.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Becca
Beauty andGrace
I have read Open House only once, and I can not find words that express quite what I feel about this novel. Here are some though. Hearfelt. Breathtaking. truthful. This book is so powerful and real that I would recommend it to anyone, young, old,...   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Kat
I am a senior in High School and I choose to read Open House on a whim for an assignment over two months. I picked the book at first because the prolouge seemed readable. Little did I know that I would finish the book in three days!(I still...   Read More

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