Reviews for Auld Licht Idylls

The average rating for Auld Licht Idylls based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-10 00:00:00 Charles Kohl Reading Elizabeth Berg is kinda like eating apple pie a la mode: while you enjoy the flavor and guilty pleasure and rationalize that because it has apples it is nutritious, deep down inside you know you should be partaking of something more substantive. Nonetheless, we all need some dessert sometimes. This collection of short stories made me laugh out loud - particularly the title story, which should be read by anyone who ever tried to diet or "cut back" or went to Weight Watchers. (And there is the companion piece, "The Day I Ate Nothing I Even Remotely Wanted," which is also a day that many of us have tortured ourselves with.) There are touching stories here, too - a pair of elderly female friends battling choices of old age, a middle-aged married woman who fantasizes about reuniting with the man who got away - and enough of a sense of irony, self-deprecatory humor, and sarcasm to keep things from being icky sweet. "How to Make An Apple Pie" is narrated in a strong, true voice and has good advice about both pie and life. Yes, it's true that Berg's stuff is a pretty thin slice of a very particular type of life pie- white, middle to upper class, heterosexual, middle-aged, abled, mostly female, and very little deep pain. But this is why she makes for a nice treat when one wants a break from entrees of beefy nonfiction, postmodernism, and angst.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-04-19 00:00:00 Jill Swanston I am not a fan of the short story genre. I don't like becoming emotionally invested in characters only to have them leave me a few pages later. (No, I do not have abandonment issues.) But, heck, I'd read the back of a cereal box if it was written by Elizabeth Berg. Fortunately, I was not disappointed and only a bit miffed at the brief time spent with her characters. This is most definitely a women's book but it is NOT chick lit. The collection of stories are not light, romantic fluff. Rather they expound on the experience of women, not the club-hopping mini-skirt clad twenty and thirty-somethings but more mature women with wrinkles, a few extra pounds, grown children, and the weariness and wisdom that comes from life experience. I like these women, identify with these women, know these women. They are me, despite the differences in age, marital status, and life circumstances. At times Berg displays the dry wit for which I love her. There is also plenty of nostalgia, charm, and grit. I enjoyed all of the stories from the very first from which the title is drawn, to The Day I Ate Nothing I Even Remotely Wanted to Full Count. I was especially fond of How To Make An Apple Pie, written in letter format from an elderly woman to her former neighbor. Berg is prone to repetition. I notice many similarities that pop up over and over again in her writing. But I do not mind this. It makes me feel as though I know her personally, recognize the bits of her that she sprinkles throughout her writing, a nod to an old friend. Granted, I am a re-reader. Many of my favorite books have enjoyed multiple readings and I've no doubt this will be one I'll visit again.