#7 - Dream When you're Feeling Blue

Book No: 7
Title: Dream When You’re Feeling Blue
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2007
Obtained: 2007/Paperbackswap
Completed: 2/05/08
No. of Pages: 276
Rating: 2.5/5*****

Whenever I start a Berg book I am always a bit excited, because as an author that I have come to love, I wonder how she can always create such wonderful characters that you care so much about. I am sorry to say that did not happen here.

Dream While You’re Feeling blue centers on a little over a year in the life of the Heaney sisters. Kitty, Louise and Tish live in Chicago and when the book opens it is 1943, the height of WWII. Louise and Kitty have sent their respective boyfriends off to war, and younger sister Tish has a bevy of ‘friends’ she writes to every night, as her sisters write to their men and other boys they come to know at the weekly USO dances. Through these girls lives at home, and the letters thry write and receive we get glimpses of both the home front and the war front.

I just didn’t care for this book. It seemed like a paint by the numbers version of a WWII book. Ration Coupons, check; girls left behind while the boys go off to war, check; women taking factory jobs, check; Blue Star and Gold Star flags, check; the list goes on and on. At no time did this seem to flow through the story with any authenticity, it didn’t feel genuine. I didn’t care too much for the three main characters. Louise was too saintly in her demeanor (although she is hiding a big secret); Tish is very immature and doesn’t seem to change much and Kitty, who is the main focus of the book, is the only one who shows any growth but still seems rather a chilly personality. The one character I really liked was Margaret Heaney, the girl’s mother; unfortunately we only get small glimpses of her. Her story is one I’d really like to get to know. The biggest flaw in the book is the ending, which is delivered in a startling rush and had me re-reading three times to make sure I understood correctly. The ending left me angry and feeling very shortchanged and extremely disappointed. I truly hope Berg goes back to her more contemporary works and leaves the past to others.