Looking Back - Joy School

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Joy School by Elizabeth Berg
Katie Nash Trilogy #2
Fiction
1997 Random House
Finished on August 26, 1997
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In this exquisite new novel by bestselling writer Elizabeth Berg, a young woman falls in love -- and learns how sorrow can lead to an understanding of joy.

Katie, the narrator, has relocated to Missouri with her distant, occasionally abusive father, and she feels very much alone: her much-loved mother is dead; her new school is unaccepting of her; and her only friends fall far short of being ideal companions. When she accidentally falls through the ice while skating, she meets Jimmy. He is handsome, far older than she, and married, but she is entranced. As their relationship unfolds, so too does Katie's awareness of the pain and intensity first love can bring.

Beautifully written in Berg's irresistible voice, Joy School portrays the soaring happiness of real love, the deep despair one can feel when it goes unrequited, and the stubbornness of hope that will not let us let go. Here also is recognition that love can come in many forms and offer many different things. Joy School illuminates, too, how the things that hurt the most can sometimes teach us the lessons that really matter.

About Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg's first novel, Andre Dubus said, "Elizabeth Berg writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, loneliness, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems." The same will be said of Joy School, Elizabeth Berg's most luminous novel to date.

My Original Notes (1997):

What an enjoyable novel! I loved the story and couldn't put it down. Berg is a wonderful writer and I've enjoyed so many of her other books, especially Talk Before Sleep. I'll look forward to reading these both again in a few years.

My Current Thoughts:

I don't know if I ever reread this or not, but it looks like it only took me a couple of days to read it the first time around, so I may give it another go. I'll read Durable Goods again, though, since that's the first in the Katie Nash trilogy.