I Should Have Been Cleaning

Today, I spent much of the day reading, instead of cleaning. Sadly, I should have been cleaning. I finished Elizabeth Berg's book, Range of Motion. I picked up this book at a Barnes and Nobles for only a buck (who knows how long ago). I suppose I'm glad I didn't spend any more on it. I think perhaps I bought it because I have a friend whose last name is Berg and have noticed other titles at the library by Elizabeth Berg, but never read anything by her. The reviewers inside the cover stated that it was "a story so compelling ... you wish it would never end" and "hard to put down and impossible to forget." One reviewer recommended that you read it this year and next year re-read it again. It is the story of a woman whose husband has been tragically hit by a falling piece of ice and has fallen into a coma. The main character continues to interact with him by bringing things from home and the familiar scent of spices to his bedside. She is determined in her belief that he will awaken and she is bouyed in her spirits by the friendship of her neighbor, who has some of her own issues. The single thing driving me on to finish the book was the nagging plot question of "will he or will he not awaken from the coma?" But, after a while, I started to think to myself, "I won't be satisfied with either ending. If it ends tragically, I'll feel depressed that she held so strongly to her belief and made so many efforts to draw him back. If it ends favorably, then I'll feel like it was a too-tidy ending ... too happy to be believable, I guess. Well, I won't tell you how it ended (just in case you want to read the book), but I was disappointed. I was also bothered by the fact that the author chose to intrude on the story from time to time with vulgarities (little side stories of things that would be shocking, merely for the sake of shock value - I don't think these little vulgarities added anything to the story). I can't say that I'll be picking up another Elizabeth Berg book in 2008 or recommending this one either.