Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

We Are All Welcome Here

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 4,680 ratings · 517 reviews

Elizabeth Berg, bestselling author of The Art of Mending and The Year of Pleasures, has a rare talent for revealing her characters’ hearts and minds in a manner that makes us empathize completely. Her new novel, We Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom.

It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississip...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published April 17th 2007 by Ballantine Books (first published 2006)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 11, 2013 Reese rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Flannery O'Connor's "A Circle in the Fire," Mrs. Pritchard tries to engage Mrs. Cope in a conversation about "that woman that had that baby in that iron lung"(THE COMPLETE STORIES 175). She justifies her freakish interest in the unusual birth and in the deaths of both mother and baby by mentioning that she and the woman were related --"sixth or seventh cousin[s] by marriage"(175). Later in that conversation, which can more aptly be described as "parallel talking," Mrs. Pritchard delivers one...more In Flannery O'Connor's "A Circle in the Fire," Mrs. Pritchard tries to engage Mrs. Cope in a conversation about "that woman that had that baby in that iron lung"(THE COMPLETE STORIES 175). She justifies her freakish interest in the unusual birth and in the deaths of both mother and baby by mentioning that she and the woman were related --"sixth or seventh cousin[s] by marriage"(175). Later in that conversation, which can more aptly be described as "parallel talking," Mrs. Pritchard delivers one of the many priceless lines that spring from the mouths of O'Connor's characters: "I know if I was in an iron lung there would be some things I wouldn't do"(178).

Mrs. Pritchard is no Paige Dunn. For Elizabeth Berg's Paige Dunn,who --in the ninth month of pregnancy -- was stricken by polio, there is no "if"; and there are no limits other than those imposed by a body that cannot move below the neck. She was supposed to die. She didn't. Diana, the daughter born to this woman in an iron lung, was supposed to die. She didn't. They're alive -- what then? Abandoned by her husband, Paige was told what ordinary people figured she was supposed to do -- allow her daughter to be adopted (as Paige herself had been). She didn't.

Dismiss WE ARE ALL WELCOME HERE as "chick lit" -- your loss. Label it a fairy tale or a parable. I wouldn't. It's fascinating, unsettling, uplifting, and more. It's not "The Little Engine That Could" or "Jack and the Beanstalk." It's powerful fiction that was inspired by the lives of the two women to whom the work is dedicated. The most important characters are courageous and vulnerable -- heroes with flaws that I certainly couldn't ignore. Their experiences confirm the truth that we are NOT all welcome here -- still. Most of the novel is set in the early 1960s, but anti-discrimination laws have obviously not yet created a "welcoming here" for those who are "different."

Lately, it seems as if books that I should read keep finding me at just the right time. As I struggle to deal with what I regret about my part in relationships with important people who have left this world, I happened to take WE ARE ALL WELCOME HERE off of my to-read shelf. Upon reaching the end of the novel [NO SPOILER AHEAD], I felt that there was nothing accidental in my having chosen to read this work, this month, this year. Surely I am only one of many thousands who have wept or will have wept after they read / hear the final words of Berg's daughter-narrator because they, too, fervently hope(d) that somehow they will someday have the chance to tell their dead
mothers: "You were right -- much more often than I knew."

Five stars for WE ARE ALL WELCOME HERE. I'll forget giving too many stars. I'll regret giving too few. (less)

8 likes · like · see review

Feb 19, 2010 Laurel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

The best part of this book is the opening Author's Notes. In it, Berg describes the woman who inspired the novel and how Berg came to learn about her.

The book is fictionalized, but based on an actual person named Pat Reming who was left completely paralyzed from the effects of polio. The only part of her body she was able to move was her head. She was also the first woman to give birth while in an iron lung. Determined to raise her child on her own despite her circumstances, she refused her husb...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 03, 2008 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book much more than I though I would. Written in memoir style; this books tells the story of polio victim and her 13-year-old daughter living in Tupelo, Miss., during the summer of 1964. Having contracted polio at 22 while pregnant, Paige Dunn delivers her baby from an iron lung, and ends up raising her daughter, Diana, alone after her husband divorces her. Able to move only her head, Paige requires round-the-clock nursing care that social services barely cover. Now 13, Diana has ta...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 07, 2012 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is maybe my fifth or sixth Elizabeth Berg novel and, despite the fact that it was missing a characteristically laugh-out-loud moment that I've come to look forward to in Berg's work, this might just be my favorite.

I loved the point of view of the 13 year old, whom I so identified with. I cringe to think of my narcissistic, naive, 13 year old self and I believe Berg captured this painfully unaware stage of life really well. I enjoyed watching the drama of her mother's "romance" unfold from D...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 Eliza Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s 1964. Segregation is in place. Racial tension is in the air. African-Americans are kept out of voting precincts but they are fighting back, because this is the summer of freedom. Or so they say. Diana lives in Tupelo, Elvis Presley’s birthplace. She lives in squalor with her sick mother, living off of her neighbors’ charity. Donated curtains, donated sheets, money, free groceries. They cheat the system, telling their social worker that Diana’s mother, Paige Dunn, has 24-hour help so they ca...more

like · see review

Oct 08, 2010 Sjcapanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

I got the suggestion for this book from an Amazon "Customers who bought this book also bought ..." I believe the suggestion was on the Amazon page for The Help, which I loved and was looking for suggestions of similar books. Elizabeth Berg is always good for a nice, sweet story, one that is light but doesn't insult your intelligence. (Ditto Ann Tyler. They may, in fact, be the same person.)

This book, based on a true story suggested to Berg by a reader, is about a woman who contracts polio while...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2010 Cara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, fun-or-frivolity

Audio back and forth to/from Johnstown. This is the book that, by virtue of being divided into 99 tracks per disc, rendered the shuffle feature on my iPod useless, and now I can't get it back off due to accepting a faulty upgrade to iTunes. Thanks, Apple!

After hearing many, many out-of-context snippets of this book interspersed with my music, I really didn't want to hear the story. The main character's voice is often whiny, shrill, and argumentative, and overall I fervently wished I had never se...more

like · see review

Apr 06, 2013 Lynn G. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2013, bound-together-selections, civil-rights-in-america, contemporary-fiction, family, fiction, friendship, medicine-psychology, southern-fiction, women

We Are All Welcome Here

is my favorite Elizabeth Berg novel to date. Taking place in Tupelo, Mississippi it is a poignant story of a 13-year-old girl, Diana Dunn, and her quadraplegic mother, Paige Dunn, along with caretaker Peacie and her boyfriend LaRue. Dad is nowhere in the picture, having walked out on his wife and infant daughter when the reality of caring for Paige, as well as the demands of a baby, were more than he had signed on for.

In many ways this is a coming of age story even thou...more

like · see review

May 26, 2009 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is 1964, in Tupelo, Mississippi, and a young mother, Paige Dunn – paralyzed by polio while pregnant with her daughter Diana – lives a life limited by her condition and as a single mother. But because of her inner strength and determination, she is raising her daughter, now entering her teens. Paige’s in-home help (she is a quadriplegic) consists of a young black woman (Peacie) who comes in the daytime, and another helper who comes for part of each night.

Against this backdrop, Peacie and her...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Jen A. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, kindle

An interesting story of a young girl and her mother, Paige, who despite being completely paralyzed by polio chose to raise her daughter on her own. Berg does a fine job of narrating from the perspective of Diana, the daughter, capturing all of her innocence, outrage, selfishness and selflessness perfectly. The setting, a segregated Mississippi, provides some weight as the primary caregiver is a black nurse named Peacie.

What I found intriguing is that a reader wrote to Berg to request that she (...more An interesting story of a young girl and her mother, Paige, who despite being completely paralyzed by polio chose to raise her daughter on her own. Berg does a fine job of narrating from the perspective of Diana, the daughter, capturing all of her innocence, outrage, selfishness and selflessness perfectly. The setting, a segregated Mississippi, provides some weight as the primary caregiver is a black nurse named Peacie.

What I found intriguing is that a reader wrote to Berg to request that she (Berg) tell her mother's story. Initially intending to say no, Berg was captivated by the enclosed photo and agreed to write a fictional story about the woman and her mother, using some details provided by the letter-writer. The book opens with a letter from Berg, explaining the request, her reaction, and why she finally chose to write something at all.

I liked some of the situations Berg threw her characters into: Diana and her friend Suralee putting on plays for the adults in town; the "relationships" that Diana's mother had with Brooks and Dell; Peacie struggling between wanting to help keep Diana innocent and wanting her to understand the reality of the situation and truly, how lucky Diana and her mother are to have her working for them; LaRue and his pride in reading, writing and standing up for the freedom of "his people"; the neighbor being on stand-by "for emergencies only"; the social worker and her relationship to the situation; Paige's attitude toward poverty, making the best of an awful situation, her observations of other people, and her understanding of the racial attitudes of Mississippi during that time.

There are scenes that will make you feel a bit uncomfortable, but overall Berg lends a great deal of reality, of gravitas, to a very unusual situation marked by an extraordinary character -- this woman with polio who lived in an iron lung for three years. I'd be curious to read a companion biography on the real woman that this book was based on.

The only thing that I wasn't sure about was the inclusion of Elvis in the story. That one point alone definitely put this into the realm of fiction for me, bringing about an almost fairy tale aspect to it. (To clarify, the inclusion of Elvis as a character didn't ruin the book for me, it just ruined my suspension of disbelief and reminded me that these characters didn't exist as written.)(less)

like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Suze rated it 3 of 5 stars

We Are All Welcome Here was my first Elizabeth Berg novel, and I look forward to reading another. Set in Tupelo, Miss., during the summer of 1964, it centers on 13-year-old Diana Dunn and her mother, Paige, a beautiful and lively woman who contracted polio and gave birth to her daughter in an iron lung. As a young teen, Diana struggles to balance her growing desire for independence and normalcy with her loyalty to a mother she loves and who, despite being paralyzed from the neck down, still has...more

like · see review

Jan 15, 2010 Rosina Lippi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed-here

Domestic drama like this can easily sink into the melodramatic abyss. You've got a quadriplegic woman struggling to keep afloat financially; her husband left her when she came down with polio -- at nine months pregnant -- and the only help he offered was to get the baby adopted. A real peach of a guy.

The daughter (Diana) narrates. She's thirteen at as the novel opens, so this is a coming of age story. Her relationship with her mother, with Peacie, the black woman who has cared for them both sinc...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 01, 2010 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Paige Dunn was pregnant in 1950 when she was struck with polio and paralyzed from the neck down. So she was in an iron lung when her daughtr Diana was born. Now Diana is fourteen (1964) and she and her still-paralyzed mother live in Tupelo, Mississippi. Paige is taken care of by Peacie, a non-nonsense black lady from Shakerag, the black community in town, during the day and Diana at night. They only have enough money to get by if they don't hire a caregiver at night, which is a violation of the...more

like · see review

Jul 06, 2009 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was just a coincidence that I started reading this book after I went to Memphis for the first time. While I was there, I learned more history about the South during the ‘60s than I ever learned in school, especially the race and social issues that occurred at that time. This book was the perfect tie-in to that trip. The story of Diana Dunn growing up in Tupelo at that time, dreaming of Elvis, taking care of her mom with the help of their maid Peacie, and trying to understand why blacks and wh...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 23, 2011 Dawn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

As the author writes in her “Author’s Note”, this book was very loosely based on a real woman who contracted polio when 8 months pregnant, gave birth to her baby while in an iron lung, and then opted to raise her daughter as a single mother, after her husband decides that a quadriplegic wife and baby daughter are too much for him to handle. Aside from those details, the story is pure fiction. The story takes place in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1964, about 14 years after Paige gives birth to her daug...more

like · see review

May 17, 2010 chucklesthescot rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, chick-lit

14 year old Diana is used to doing her share of looking after her mother Paige, who has been left badly disabled by polio,with help only from Peacie,the daytime caregiver who Diana has a strained relationship with. Diana and her friend both have dreams of fame and a better life,so when a handsome man moves into the town,both girls want him to date their single mothers. This rivalry leads to a terrible change in the lives of Paige,Diana and Peacie.
This book couldn't make up its mind what it want...more

like · see review

Nov 10, 2012 Nancy Dryden rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This very moving novel is based on the true story Pat Ramming and her daughter, Marianne, who, in the book are portrayed as Paige and Diana Dunn.

Paige Dunn is married and pregnant when she contracts polio and delivers her baby, Diana, in an iron lung. Her husband leaves her and, after three years in an iron lung in the hospital, she returns home to the care of two caregivers in order to raise her daughter, who is 13 when the story begins. The time is 1964 and the story is set in Tupelo, Mississ...more

like · see review

Aug 17, 2012 Erikka rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 6-1-12-to-6-1-13

My mother recommended this title to me, so I was ready to dismiss this as the usual bland, chick lit she prefers to read. I was surprised that while it was chick lit, Berg is a strong writer. She had some beautiful images and phrases that flowed throughout the story and her characters were so vivid and believable, even her 13 year old narrator. Of course, every woman was once a 13 year old girl, but writing from that perspective as an adult is a challenge. Berg succeeded at doing it without over...more

like · see review

Oct 21, 2012 Lianne added it · review of another edition

A small book with a large impact. The novel is set in Tupelo Mississippi during the height of the civil rights era. It is a variation of a coming of age story told from the point of view of 14-year old Diana Dunn. Her mother, Paige is a polio patient who is confined at home in an iron lung. Diana's father took off years ago, and Diana takes care of her mother alone at night when the caregiver, a black woman named Piecie finishes the day shift. Paine is strong willed in spite of her disability an...more

like · see review

Aug 24, 2009 Stacey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If she doesn't already, Elizabeth Berg should write movies for Lifetime (Television for Idiots). Her other two books I read/listened to starred a divorced woman and a widowed woman. This one stars a woman with polio who can only move her head. I moved mine to roll my eyes and sigh a lot.
Oh, brother, is this schmaltzy. It's narrated by her pre-teen daughter who she's raising in the 1950's with the help of (of course) a Sassy Black Lady, the ultimate insulting stereotype. Also, if you know your G...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 31, 2011 Nicki M rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american, chicklit, library-book, relationships, elizabeth-berg

I'd prefer to give this 2.5 stars as I nearly liked it. I loved the writing but I really didn't warm to any of the characters. Diana was a moody teenager who I didn't like at all, Peacie seemed very mean and Paige herself wasn't really involved that much. Its a hard story of a hard life, set in hard times.

1 like · like · see review

May 09, 2010 willaful rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: any mother or daughter

Shelves: audio

This is a wonderful reading. The long stretch at the beginning in which it's just the narrator speaking gets a little monotonous, but after other characters come in, it kept my interest completely. I was intrigued at the end to discover that it was an author reading, because the many different voices -- different ages, sexes, accents -- were so perfectly realized.

It's also a really good story. I agree with other reviewers that, plotwise, it's a bit heavy on the deus ex machina. But that seems li...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 10, 2009 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Elizabeth Berg's newest is hot off the presses and I wasn't disappointed. I don't think I've ever read a Berg novel that I didn't thoroughly enjoy and this was no different.

"It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis's birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently-and violently-across the state. But in Paige Dunn's small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contract...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was given to me as a gift from a friend. It is a wonderful story about a mother-daughter relationship and how they lived their lives when the mother had polio and was paralyzed from the neck down since she was 9 months pregnant. Based on a true story, told as fiction, it is really powerful.

Thinking this was a story primarily about the rights and struggles of disability, I was pleased and surprised as well to find it was set in the mid 1960s southern USA and includes issues about racial...more

like · see review

Mar 23, 2012 Eva Mahoney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you liked The Help or The Secret Life of Bees, you're going to like this one as well. Set in the mid 60s in Tupelo, Mississippi, 14 year old Diana Dunn tries to lead a normal life. Normal is hardly normal for her or her mother, Paige who was plagued by polio shortly after giving birth to Diane. Paige refused to give Diana up. Diana was basically raised by Peacie, the black caretaker. Even though Paige is unable to move anything other than her head, she sees the world from such a good place. A...more

like · see review

Jan 13, 2009 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-jan-2009

I like all of Elizabeth Berg's stuff. She has a way of describing simple things that make them glimmer somehow. The story is told from a 13 year-old girl's point of view, which she does a terrific job of, and takes place during the civil rights movement. Her mom contracts polio just before her birth, leaving her paralyzed, and her husband leaves her when he finds out she'll always be a quadriplegic. She is an incredibly strong woman, and so is her main caregiver, an African-American woman. There...more

like · see review

Apr 11, 2008 ☮Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very powerful, moving, and heart-wrenching story of a mother immobilized by an iron lung and her teenage daughter who has to grow up very fast in her circumstances. The mother-daughter relationship is amazing. Elizabeth Berg never lets me down.

1 like · like · see review

Jan 12, 2010 bookczuk rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ho-hum, bookcrossing

The Author's Note and the first bit of this book were brilliant -- the end a bit far-fetched, but hopeful. The bits in between okay, but a little like one of those movies on the Hallmark channel. But it was a quick read, written in a memoir style, and an interesting tie in (in my mind) to my recent reading of The Help. It also called to mind An American Summer, by Frank Deford, which I read a while back and liked. I think I'd hoped for more, but at least was able to get some bits and pieces out...more

like · see review

Sep 04, 2011 Kathie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: elizabeth-berg

Quite an enjoyable "read" (I listened to the audiobook). I thought this story was unique - it focused on a 13-yr old girl named Diana Dunn who was born to a mother that was stricken w/polio and gave birth in an iron lung. Her mother decides to raise Diana on her own despite advice to give her up - she is helped by Peacie, a black caretaker with a tough exterior but the softest of hearts. It was set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement - although this was more of a backdrop. Diana was...more

like · see review

Nov 12, 2011 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Diane Dunn has helped take care of her quadriplegic mother her whole life. Since she was 10 she has been the only night help her mother has. They don't have much money, are checked on by a social worker, and live in the south in the 50's. Diane's mother, Paige had polio during her pregnancy. Her husband left her and Diane and has nothing to do with them. Paige has tried to raise Diane to be able to fend for herself, but has sheltered her from the main issue of the day - the beginnings of the civ...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (19)

More editions...

Genres

Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

19 users

Historical Fiction

13 users

Book Club

13 users

Contemporary

10 users

Adult Fiction

10 users

Novels

8 users

Womens Fiction

7 users

Adult

6 users

Drama

6 users

Literature > American

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Blue Water
by A. Manette Ansay
Object Lessons
by Anna Quindlen
Isabel's Daughter
by Judi Hendricks
The Marrowbone Marble Company
by M. Glenn Taylor
Made in the U.S.A
by Billie Letts

About Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including We Are All Welcome Here, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year, and Talk Before Sleep was short-listed for the ABBY Award in 1996. The w...more

More about Elizabeth Berg...

Books by Elizabeth Berg

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About We Are All Welcom...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from We Are All Welcome Here

“I wondered what my father had looked like that day, how he had felt, marrying the lively and beautiful girl who was my mother. I wondered what his life was like now. Did he ever think of us? I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't; I didn't know him well enough. Instead, I wondered about him occasionally, with a confused kind of longing. There was a place inside me carved out for him; I didn't want it to be there, but it was. Once, at the hardware store, Brooks had shown me how to use a drill. I'd made a tiny hole that went deep. The place for my father was like that.” — 15 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: We Are All Welcome Here
avg rating	preview: We Are All Welcome Here Goodreads rating: 3.77 (4680 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127388.We_Are_All_Welcome_Here?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320417410l/127388.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127388.We_Are_All_Welcome_Here?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg[/url]

We Are All Welcome Here

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website