Durable Goods

 

Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg

Katie Nash #1

Fiction

1993

Finished on January 7, 2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

"Sometimes life is so hard and then, bingo, it's like happiness is pushing at your back, waiting to come out your front..."

In the sweltering heat of a Southwestern summer, on a small army base in rural Texas, Katie waits impatiently for her life to change. These are uncertain times--a mix of pleasure and pain, of girlish confusion and adult discovery. Though battered by the recent death of her mother--and by a distant, abusive father driven to near madness by inner pain and rage--Katie's spirit remains miraculously strong. For she knows one day soon she'll be a woman. One day soon she'll understand.

I have now read this debut novel by Elizabeth Berg three times! I was organizing one of my bookcases and realized that I have more than a dozen of Berg's books, most of which I read back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The author's books are comfort reads filled with scenes of everyday life and engaging dialogue. I zipped through Durable Goods in two nights, and enjoyed it even better than the first two times I read it. I guess I'll put it back on my "keeper" bookcase.

Click here to read my previous thoughts on Durable Goods.

Below are links & ratings of all of Berg's books that I've read to date (2026):

Talk Before Sleep (4/5)

Range of Motion (4/5)

The Pull of the Moon (4/5) and (5/5)

Joy School (4/5)

What We Keep (4.5/5)

Until the Real Thing Comes Along (4/5)

Open House (5/5)

Ordinary Life (4.5/5)

Never Change (4.5/5)

True to Form (4/5)

Say When (4.5/5)

The Art of Mending (4/5)

A Year of Pleasures (5/5)

We Are All Welcome Here (3/5)

Dream When You're Feeling Blue (2.5/5)

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted (3.5/5)

Home Safe (4.5/5)

The Last Time I Saw You (2.5/5)

Once Upon a Time, There Was You (2.5/5)

The Story of Arthur Truluv (4/5)

Night of Miracles (5/5)

The Confession Club (2/5)

The Handmaid and the Carpenter (DNF)