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Helen Ames--recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her--is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen's problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. The Ameses had painstakingly saved for a happy retirement, but that money disappeared in several large withdrawals made by Helen's husband before he died. In order to support herself and garner a measure of much needed independence, Helen takes an unusual job that ends up offering far more than she had anticipated. And then a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery that causes both mother and daughter to reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.… (more)
kitkeller: I didn't expect to finish this book -- I had convinced myself it was trite, maybe Christian-fiction. So I tried a couple of times to just put it down and move on to another book. But I *kept coming back* until I finally acknowledged, I like this book, and I really want to know what happens to these people. I recommend it -- you will care what happens. It's well-written and NOT trite and NOT Christian-fiction.… (more)
This is not a book that I would recommend. The author just seemed to go on and on after a number of places which seemed like the climax to the story. I kept wondering if she was going to get to the point. ( )
Patrons at the library recommend books all the time, but I rarely respond to their suggestions. However, in the case of the Home Safe, I had this weird feeling that the patron who recommended it to me was like an older version of me, so of course I had to read what future-me was reading.
And Home Safe is totally what future-me wants to read. A warm, cozy, intelligent, emotional story about a 59-year-old woman who is adjusting to life after the death of her husband. Like a more optimistic Anne Tyler. ( )
Rounding from 2.5. Author narrated the audiobook. I often like to hear an author read her own work, but this one didn't work for me. "Mom. Mom. Mom!" was repeated seemingly endlessly. This book just wasn't much. Not much plot. Characters who weren't super interesting. A whole lot of "should I or shouldn't I" with a resolution that I wound up not really even caring that much about anyway. ( )
Found at a library sale, HOME SAFE (2009) was definitely a bargain and a delightful read, if a bit predictable after a certain point. But that's okay. Elizabeth Berg books are a secret vice. Comfort reading for this old man. This time she's writing about a recently widowed successful Chicago writer with writer's block, who is generally worried about her adult daughter, her aging parents and a more immediate problem of what did her late husband do with most of their million dollar retirement fund. In fact this woman appears to be so wealthy, it was a bit hard to relate. But no matter. She fills her time by teaching a writing class full of interesting types at her local library, the mystery is solved and a possible new love enters her life. As in most of Elizabeth Berg's books, everything works out well in the end, like a Hallmark movie, but with an infinitely better script and more interesting characters. This used book was an in-between read, and was, in that role, nearly perfect. Bless you, Elizabeth.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )
If we look at the path, we do not see the sky. We are earth people on a spiritual journey to the stars. Our quest, our earth walk, is to look within, to know who we are, to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only in the mind. --Native American, source unknown
You get the hovering gray of early morning, or late afternoon-- the hours of yearning.
There's the wind and the rain
And the mercy of the fallen. . .
There's the weak and the strong
And the many stars that guide us
We have some of them inside us
--Dar Williams
"The Mercy of the Fallen"
Again the pyrocanthus berries redden in the rain, as if return were return. It is not. The familiar is not the thing it reminds of.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer.
Dedication
For Jean-Isabel NcNutt
For those who have gone before us.
For Pat Raming and Marianne Raming Burke
For women with cancer who have found their fire, and for those who are still searching.
For Jennifer Sarene Berg and Julie Marin Krintzman
For my father, Arthur P. Hoff, who taught me the meaning of true courage and good character.
First words
Dear Martin, I know you think I keep that green rock by my bed because I like its color.
I had been right to want to drive to the midwest, taking only the back roads.
Oftentimes on summer evenings, I would sit outside with my mother and look at the constellations.
This morning, before I came to Ruth's house, I made yet another casserole for my husband and my daughter.
You know before you know, of course. You are bending over the dryer, pulling out the still-warm sheets, and the knowledge walks up your backbone. You stare at the man you love and you are staring at nothing; he is gone before he is gone
One Saturday when she was nine years old, Helen Ames went into the basement, sat at the card table her mother used for folding laundry, and began writing.
Well, I have broken the toilet.
It was Kitty's turn to sleep with her head at the foot of the bed.
Quotations
Sex is so shaky and mysterious. I will never unravel it.
…it had put them on the fast track for being comfortable with each other. As they were, ever after. Always comfortable in a way that Dan described as home safe.
I do not believe the army is a good idea for people with regular human hearts.
Without her husband or the practice of laying out words on a page, she feels that she spends her days rattling around inside herself; that, whereas she used to be a whole and happy woman, now she is many pieces of battered self, slung together in a sack of skin.
What she feels, suddenly, is that she has come to see Dan. He is not here, but here he is.
A friend of hers … once described such acts of kindness as hold knots on life’s climbing rope..
Helen turns to face her friend. “You know, sometimes you just don’t get it. I know you think I’ve had enough time to grieve. But I’m not like you, Midge. I feel things more deeply. I –“ “Okay,” Midge says. “Let me tell you something, Miss I-Feel-the-Pea. I feel the pea, too! All of us feel the pea! The difference is what each of us chooses to do about it! Or has to do about it!”
She sees her table, set for one: a plate, a glass, a knife, a fork, and a spoon, its little metal bowl reflecting whatever comes down to it, up. It is this image that will shape the way the woman will come into the bookstore, the way she will unknot her scarf and slide our of her coat, then begin walking the aisles, searching for something she is bound to find.
She didn't look at him, either; nor did she speak again until they got to the house, where Louise stood at the open door, smiling, waiting for them both.
Helen Ames--recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her--is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen's problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. The Ameses had painstakingly saved for a happy retirement, but that money disappeared in several large withdrawals made by Helen's husband before he died. In order to support herself and garner a measure of much needed independence, Helen takes an unusual job that ends up offering far more than she had anticipated. And then a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery that causes both mother and daughter to reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.
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Book description
Contains: The day I ate whatever I wanted -- Returns and exchanges -- The party -- Over the hill and into the woods -- Full count -- Rain -- The day I ate nothing I even remotely wanted -- Mrs. Ethel Menafee and Mrs. Birdie Stoltz -- Double diet -- The only one of millions just like him -- Truth or dare -- How to make an apple pie -- Sin City.
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