Review: Life: A Love Story

Life: A Love Story by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Laugh, Love, Cry.

What a wonderful celebration of a life well lived. This book reads a bit like a fictional biography, if you can understand what I mean.

Florence (Flo) Greene has lived to 92 and is seeing her long life come to an end. She has had a wonderful ( for the most part) marriage, but no children; the only person who is very close to her is a long-ago neighbor's child, with whom Flo has remained good friends. Flo leaves her home and belongings to her, along with a long letter that gives us an account of her life, the meanings behind the items she has kept, and a very shocking secret.

We see through Flo's eyes the last days/weeks of her life and how she affects several more people around her. She teaches them about love.

I would have loved to see more of a reaction from Ruth, and I was a little disappointed that Ruth didn't really do Flo's memories justice.

This would be a wonderful book club read because it bridges many generations. However, I really do recommend this more to an older reader like me who is also on the downhill side of things.

*ARC Supplied by the publisher Penguin Random House, the author, and NetGalley.

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SUMMARY: "In this warm, intimate novel, a woman celebrates the joy she finds in the ordinary things in life and discovers it’s never too late to start new adventures. By the New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Open House

Florence “Flo” Greene is nearing the end of her life, and she decides to leave her house and an account of her life for Ruthie, the younger woman who grew up next door, moved away, and still is like a surrogate daughter. As Flo writes to Ruthie about the meaning of beloved things in her home and about events in her past, she also tries new adventures of her own. She intervenes in the lives of friends in her neighborhood.

Flo's project has been to encourage Teresa, a wise but unconfident woman, to open her heart to romance. Flo goes to the library to get advice from Mimi, a librarian. She encourages Ruthie, who is contemplating divorce, to try again with her husband, by sharing a startling secret long buried about Flo’s own seemingly perfect husband and marriage.

In her final weeks, Flo leaves an indelible mark on others, as this moving novel celebrates life, change, and ways to discover new happiness, friendship, and love."