The Pull of the Moon

by Elizabeth Berg

The Pull of the Moon

published

February 5th 2004 (first published 1996) by Arrow

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binding

Paperback, 224 pages

isbn

0099451743 (isbn13: 9780099451747)

description

When was the last time you dreamed about running away? In this luminous novel from bestselling author Elizabeth Berg, fifty-year-old Nan leaves behind...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 864)

All ratings | 5 stars (185) | 4 stars (254) | 3 stars (214) | 2 stars (48) | 1 star (9) | avg 3.83

all | this edition

Marie

Marie rated it:

07/06/08

Read in July, 2008

I absolutely loved this book. It is a book about a woman who is 50 and takes a road trip by herself. She writes letters home to her husband and keeps a journal. Berg says a lot of things that most women just think about. I would recommend this book to women in their 50's and to younger just married women too. I think it would be an eye-opener to men too.
This is a quick read - I watched it during the Men's Finals at Wimbeldon - and was done before the fifth set started

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Julie

Julie rated it:

(review of isbn 0515120898)

01/07/08

Read in January, 1997

Elizabeth Berg writes seamlessly in this story. Her ability to turn a phrase is truly a gift. What would take me a million words and a thousand hand gestures to relate, she can do in a simple phrase. I did lack a bit of sympathy for the main character though. Running away in a BMW did not gather any boo-hoo's from me. Although the people she meets on her journey are true and fascinating.

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terry

terry rated it:

04/13/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

I love Berg's writing. . .
This book reminded me of Anne Tyler's "Breathing Lessons".
The "voice" is very strong. . .
If you read this book you must read "Martin's Letter to Nan". . .a short story in Ordinary Lives by Berg. It's a follow up and gives a wonderful "male" perspective.

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Sara

Sara rated it:

01/23/08

Read in January, 2008

This book gave me a lot to think about. It was different, because it is just a woman writing in her journal and writing to her husband, but it was very thought provoking. This novel made me think about my life now and in the future.

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Gabriella

Gabriella rated it:

02/26/07

recommends it for: women and the men who love them and desire to be more compassionate toward their experience

I read it every year just to keep myself centered, just to be reminded never to lose myself.

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1 comments

Kellie

Kellie rated it:

09/15/08

bookshelves: 2006-reads, bookring-bookray

This book is similar to “Ladder of Years” By Anne Tyler which I read last year and liked a lot. This one was OK. Although I am going to make a note here to read this book in about 10 years. The book had some really funny parts that I found myself chuckling to. But, the plot is a bit week. It basically moves from a narrative by the main character to letters she is writing to her husband on her travels. This books shows true honesty and vulnerability of a 50 year old woman who is uncomfo...more

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Zinta

Zinta rated it:

11/04/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in February, 2007

When I enjoyed this slim change-of-life novel, I enjoyed it very much. When I did not, well, it was a sore disappointment. Berg's work has, in the past, rated high on my fiction likes, but unfortunately I won't be adding this novel to my Berg favorites.

And still. There was, as I stated earlier, much that I did enjoy about it. "The Pull of the Moon" is about Nan, apparently a financially well-off woman (because it is one of the lackings in this story that Nan does what she does wit...more When I enjoyed this slim change-of-life novel, I enjoyed it very much. When I did not, well, it was a sore disappointment. Berg's work has, in the past, rated high on my fiction likes, but unfortunately I won't be adding this novel to my Berg favorites.

And still. There was, as I stated earlier, much that I did enjoy about it. "The Pull of the Moon" is about Nan, apparently a financially well-off woman (because it is one of the lackings in this story that Nan does what she does with such carefree extravagance with nary a care about how to pull such things off in the "real world" most of us live in), turning 50 and not quite ready for it. This is the story of her midlife crisis. Maybe not so much a crisis to her, though, as one wonders if it might seem so to Martin, the husband she leaves behind as she suddenly takes off on a cross-country road trip to find herself at midlife. We never do find out how Martin feels about this. The book consists merely of Nan's letters back to him, one would assume posted and mailed, and the tone is usually one of "here I am, having these fine adventures without you, I'll fill you in when it suits me to return home." Nor does it ever seem to occur to her that Martin may not so readily welcome her home.

Okay, so it's an interesting journey. And Nan fulfills perhaps several fantasies of the aging woman. Taking off into the wild blue yonder with no apron strings attached. Ah, yes. If only. She travels where whim leads her, and en route has occasion to contemplate her life backwards and forwards. Many of us in the same age range, I'm sure, will identify with Nan's musings and meditations on a woman at this stage. The restlessness, the eagerness to throw off the old to embrace the new, to understand the process of aging as a woman in a society that is not particularly forgiving of it, to check our priorities, what belongs, and what deserves discarding. We hear you, Nan! She speaks of a renewed "preoccupation with the body" in the 50ish woman, only it has a different flavor now than in youth. One observes, winces, wonders, longs with melancholy, but then, ah enlightenment, realizes... not so bad. This process of crossing another threshold, it has its costs but it also has its delicious payoffs.

"I just wish I could cross over a little faster," writes Nan in another letter home to confidant Martin. Even as she observes the "formidable camaraderie" of older woman, wearing glasses as they read menus on gatherings in restaurants, self consciousness at long last abandoned, enjoying each other's company, embracing life more fully than ever.

Then there are those moments that Nan starts to resemble the cliche midlife man in his crisis of red convertibles and young eye candy seduced into affairs. She writes, oh yes, home to her husband, how she has always longed for beards on the men in her life, had wanted him to grow one (he did not), and now encounters a young bearded man, recently widowed, ever so sad, and in soothing his grief, ends up pulling him into her on-the-road bedroom -- to sleep innocently beside her (after some lush and lingering kisses) through the night. I'd love to hear Martin's response to this one.

Nan goes home to Martin. One is left to assume Martin opens the door. But one is not sure why this assumption is warranted. Here Berg fails, for many of us may long, many of us may fantasize, many of us may love a manly bearded cheek to brush against. But most of us do not abandon our faithful life partners to feed such whims, fewer partners would tolerate it, most of us couldn't afford it anyway, and perhaps none of us should expect such forgiveness for doing so. Am I being too harsh? I have followed many whims, after all, in my own life, some of them pretty wild. The difference may be, though, that all of those times have carried a cost. That, I think, is the bite of reality. ...less

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Jessica

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0425176487)

11/12/08

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Jessica by: BC1
recommends it for: Mom

I really liked this book. I think every woman has thought of just getting in the car and running away...some of us more often than others...I've wanted to do it a few times this past month. I like the detail and which she describes things, as simple as someone she saw in a grocery store. I have the same level of detailed thoughts and it's nice to read them on the page. The part with her in the woods was weird...that was the only part that I rolled my eyes at. I love her letters back to her ...more

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Mary

Mary rated it:

07/21/08

Recommended to me by my librarian as a book every women should read I was curious. The style used by the author was interesting and well thought out to convey all she had to in the book. But...the whiney voice at times and the total inept nature of the heroine made it hard for me to relate to her most of the time.

As for the message I totally understood what the librarian was talking about and at some times, this author so perfectly conveyed what I have thought in my life that I swear she h...more

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3 comments

Generic

Generic rated it:

02/11/08

Read in February, 2008

This is an easy-to-read little book I've been working my way through when I want something light and simple. It's about a woman named Nan who calls herself a "fifty-year-old runaway." She is going through menopause, so her hormones and emotions are making her emotional and reflective. She takes off on a road trip, meeting people along the way and staying in little towns. Every day she writes a letter to her husband and also makes a journal entry. The book alternates between the tw...more

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Laura

Laura rated it:

08/13/08

Read in January, 1999

I read this book quite awhile ago, but it still seems to be one I love..it is what many women think of doing, just being able to leave your world, your obligations and to go and do what you would like to do. She would write letters to her husband and in her journal so that is how you got to know her. It was wonderful as I said..enjoy!!

I just had to add that 5 of my friendsd and myself got to the wonderful opportunity to go see this book made into a play put on in a very tiny theater in Berwy...more

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Anne

Anne rated it:

11/11/08

Quick read about a woman reflecting on her life (past, present, and future) at 50 years old as she takes a literal journey of self-discovery.

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Mimi

Mimi rated it:

10/23/08

Read in January, 2005

I really enjoyed and identified with this book at the time that I read it. This book spoke to my own struggles of midlife and purpose. Alas, a library book, I don't own and couldn't underline! Favorite quote "My mind was in my heart anchored like a bright kite in a safe place."

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Barbara

Barbara rated it:

10/17/08

Read in October, 2008

A mid-life long-married woman's restlessness and terror of aging presented in a dual format: journal entries and letters to her husband as she takes a "runaway" road trip. Berg captures very well the way that women submerge themselves and become part of a man's life rather than living their own life, and the resentment the woman feels when she's old enough to understand what she's done to herself. But for all that insightfulness, I still got a little bored because it's all interior mon...more

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Sarah

Sarah rated it:

01/02/08

Read in January, 2003

I LOVED this! I think I am a 50 year old woman at heart. This was fabulous. She sees the journal and thinks that if she purchases it she will have to run away. The journal is so fantastic that she doesn't want to put her boring life on it's pages. Of course she does, but writes to her confused husband along the way... very interesting. Berg is great at understanding the quirky ways of human nature.

The follow up to this is in one of her short stories books - it's the RESPONSE by her husband -...more

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Donna

Donna rated it:

11/16/08

A quick read for mid-life women feeling restless. Keep a stone on your bedside table.

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Wendy

Wendy rated it:

09/26/08

You have to love it if you are a woman of a certain age and all you want to do is escape for a while and think your own thoughts. The book flips back and forth between her personal journal and the letters she writes her husband. It is wry at times, heart-breaking little slips, the poignancy of a marriage with someone to depend on and yet....those little misunderstandings that break a woman's heart when she wants to be authentically herself.

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Anna

Anna rated it:

10/03/08

I think Elizabeth Berg is an amazing writer. She manages to make you feel like you are inside the head of the main character. She explores the multitude of emotions the character goes through in an honest and humurous way without being self-involved or cliche.
Loved it!

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Megan

Megan rated it:

11/10/08

Read in November, 2008

I really liked this book. I liked the writing style. The character was so easily relatable. I saw so many of my own thoughts and experiences in her. It was simple and intimate.

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Kathy

Kathy added it

11/13/08

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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 3.83 (703 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 3.82 (625 ratings)
number of reviews: 82

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quote

"Well, most women are full to the brim, that's all...We are, most of us, ready to explode, especially when our children are small and we are so weary with the demands for love and attention and the kind of service that makes you feel you should be wearing a uniform with "Mommy" embroidered over the left breast, over the heart...If a stranger had come up to me and said, "Do you want to talk about it? I have time to listen," I think I might have burst into tears at the relief of it. p 38 " more quotes »