The Pull of The Moon

And the character of Nan walked right into my head. I knew immediately who she was and why she would buy such a journal. This novel seemed to strike a chord with menopausal women, and I guess that was no surprise. What did surprise me was how many younger women and older ones, too resonated to it. A few men told me they read this book to understand their wives better, bless their hearts.

And more than a few men were poked the ribs as they lay in bed trying to read their book while their wife read The Pull of the Moon. I don't mean any of it to be against you.

Or even about you. I have felt for so long like I am drowning. And we are so fixed in our ways I couldn't begin to tell you all that has happened inside me. It was like this: Paperback , pages. Published February 5th by Arrow Books first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Pull of The Moon , please sign up.

Would you consider going on a road trip like this? Meg I did this more than once in my 20's. It was scary but also enlightening! See 1 question about The Pull of The Moon…. Lists with This Book. May 22, midnightfaerie rated it it was amazing Shelves: My aunt is a renowned doctor living in Memphis. She was one of the first women breast surgeons and her and her husband founded the Mroz-Baier clinic for breast cancer in Memphis. They are innovators and have made great strides towards the cure of breast cancer. I have a box full of newspaper clippings and pictures of them with prominent people like President Clinton and Barbara Bush.

My Aunt is someone who I look up to and admire greatly.

So when she sent this book to me, and told me she had rea My aunt is a renowned doctor living in Memphis. So when she sent this book to me, and told me she had read it several times and it was one of her favorites, I had to give it a try. Labeled Chick Lit I hate that name, it makes it sound sappy , my stack of Elizabeth Berg books was ever growing, but still unread. I knew she had to have some merit, no one writes that many books and doesn't have some sort of impact, but again, they looked like typical woman's literature, and I hesitated.

So my Aunt sending me one, finally made me pick one up. Now my Aunt belongs to my Dad's family, the side that grew up on my Grandfather's farm. Stoic, hardworking, and not very open about their thoughts or feelings, sometimes it's hard to get a read on them. This book opened up a whole new world of wonder about my Aunt, and as I sat underlining or highlighting every other word, I hoped that someday my thoughts written in this dusty little paperwork, would open up a whole new world of insight to my children who might read it.

I had a boss once who was talking about why he chose a particular book as his favorite. He said it wasn't the deepest book out there, but it spoke to him, and described very well the thoughts he sometimes had. That's how I feel about Pull of the Moon. Berg has a simple way to describe what this woman, Nan, is feeling as she takes off from her everyday life, for a road trip and to "find" herself. A monotonous marriage and the fear of getting older is what drives her, but she learns so much more about herself than she knew.

From meeting new people, and attempting new experiences, to trying to get over her fear of the dark by sleeping in the forest alone at night, she pushes the boundaries of the rules she's lived the last 50 years by. You'll think, Oh well, all right. You'll have come to a certain kind of appreciation that moves beyond all the definitions of love you've ever had. You stop listening so I seize up, or I seize up so you stop listening, I'm not sure I remember him and his wife sitting there, talking to us and saying, as he smiled gently at his wife, "I kind of see marriage as two rocks with a lot of rough edges.

You bang against each other over and over and eventually the edges are smoothed out. I feel like I'm fluctuating between the "Why won't you listen to me more? On life's regrets she writes It's like a robe that is too heavy, weighing down my shoulders, dragging up dirt as it follows along behind me. I thought I'd escaped something. The epistolary format was a brilliant move, because it makes us feel like Nan is our friend, just another woman trying to understand her life.

There is something in this book for all women. I can't imagine there's a woman out there that can't relate to at least a little of what Nan is experiencing. I loved this book. Perhaps it's because I'm coming up on 40 and am starting to feel it or maybe it's because this September I celebrate my ten year anniversary with my husband, I'm not sure.

But this book really touched me and for now, it's become one of my favorites. Not a classic by any means, but an enjoyable read, especially for a women who feels alone, to know there are many other women out there that have the same thoughts. View all 13 comments.

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Jun 18, Michelle rated it did not like it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Pull Of The Moon is about a woman having a mid-life crises who runs away from her husband to "find herself". I became sympathetic instead towards her husband who seemed kind of sweet for the most part, never really having done anything very hurtful to her.

There were a few parts where we were supposed to feel sorry for her The Pull Of The Moon is about a woman having a mid-life crises who runs away from her husband to "find herself". There were a few parts where we were supposed to feel sorry for her because of his indifference, but she just seemed so overly dramatic and impossible to satisfy that I couldn't muster up the compassion. Instead I found myself thinking, "He's probably doing his best. She seemed to meet everyone with such a condescending shallowness, and yet she herself was upset about not being seen.?

She stereotypes each person she encounters by their outward appearance coming up with her own made up prejudice details of who they are and what they do. An elderly man strikes up a friendly conversation with her and she is bored with him deciding that he's the type of guy who wears cheap socks and doesn't change them frequently.

The most laughable though was when the main character drives up to a trailer park and meets a woman with lots of black eyeliner, smokers breath, with a laundry basket on her hip. She is invited in for lunch only to be surprised it actually looks like a clean home instead of being covered with dirty dishes like she expected. She brings this unrealistic, outrageously stereotyped woman to the mall to buy her something and of course all the lady wants to buy is some trashy on sale clothes and a potato peeler while the main character, of course, buys some books.

I found the entire book from start to finish filled with this same condescending tone. She was self centered and unable to deal with things in a mature manner. In the end, there was little forgiveness, but more of an "I'm-going-to-run-the-show-now" type mentality. It was ironic too because the main character seemed to think she was having some deep transcendent experience. But all of her supposed depth came across to me as very shallow. To be fair to the author, I think I will read another one of her books because I have heard such great things about her.

The Pull of The Moon

As I read through other reviews of this book, I saw many people say it was not nearly as good as her other works. They too found the main character difficult to relate to. View all 4 comments. Jul 06, Marie rated it it was amazing. 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. Jul 10, Barbara Mader rated it it was ok. I'd give it one star but for the moments of good writing. The protagonist, Nan, seemed to be a navel-gazing, rather shallow bore of a woman who gets mad at her husband, men in general, and the world at large when she is soooo unfairly subjected to aging like everyone else.

She runs away from home, and the book consists of letters to her husband and entries in a journal. By the end of the book it seems to me she hasn't changed at all except to take a tiny bit more responsibility for he Meh. By the end of the book it seems to me she hasn't changed at all except to take a tiny bit more responsibility for her own life and feelings, though unfortunately she also seems to plan on taking charge of her husband's life as well--this is what I want, my way or the highway--and we never get to see anything from this guy's point of view at all.

Really, Nan mostly wants to stay in her bubble of money, youth, and beauty, and does seem completely clueless about how other people live. Her purported "interest" in the little people she comes across on her travels is a sad, condescending joke. Very readable despite the lack of any real energy in the book. Took a few hours, maybe. Pull of the Moon made me wonder why. I remembered as I read this latest book that her novels are the sort I gulp down, written with beautifully crafted thoughts in a simple way. I also remembered that she often wrote as if echoing my thoughts.

Overly watchful of change. The time of losses is upon me. I saw Kotex in the drugstore the other day and began to weep. Then I saw a mother with a very little girl, helping her pick out crayons, and this, too, undid me. I had to leave without buying what I came for. Some of the observations Nan makes about being a young mother are pitch perfect. And I had to be there no matter the cost. I picked out her toys and clothes. I took her to school every day, I pulled her shades down for her naps, I took her to the doctor, I braided her hair and buckled her shoes, and mounted her artwork on the refrigerator.

And I wanted to.

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg

She touches on the subject of gender roles, how a certain freedom is lost once girls reach puberty, how women both anxiously await and then loathe their periods, and how when that time of their lives is over, they grieve it. This particularly rang true: Dec 02, Antof9 rated it liked it Shelves: This was a fascinating book!

It definitely had a lot of melancholy, but I wasn't filled with despair or depression while reading it. I just wrote on another thing I read recently that lately I require "hope" in my reading. This is the oldest character Berg has written yet that I've read, and although she didn't disappoint, I find myself prefering her younger characters. Re the beauty shop scene -- I know I would have stood up and shouted, "Brava! One of the things I like so mu This was a fascinating book! One of the things I like so much about Elizabeth Berg is that she writes things that have actually happened to me.

Not the entire story and plot, per se, but the way she describes things is just spot-on. For example, "I pulled over and I wept so hard the car was shaking And oddly, one of the things I noticed after crying for a while was that the car was shaking. This is real, and only those people who have done this would know it. And then further down the same page, such a poetic piece of writing. She's describing something upsetting: I found this part rather thought-provoking. Enough to mark the page, anyway: New furniture, fashions, etc.

So that we can sit out on our new deck in the summer and drink vodka and tonics out of vodka-and-tonic glasses with limes that have been cut with the new lime cutter? It's always bothered me, what we lost when we stopped being able to fit our things into the trunk of our car. I don't want to be poor. I just want to be appreciative.

You will see this in mothers of small children: Everything else is in danger of peanut butter. It's almost a slogan. I turned 40 the year I read this, so it's interesting to think about things like menopause, getting older, becoming part of the scenery, how menopause was for my mother I made her life miserable , etc. This was a good book to read at this time in my life, and it made me rather introspective. It's possibly the deepest Berg I've read yet, too. Jun 09, Wendy Welch rated it it was amazing. NOW we're talking functional dysfunction! This is such a nice take on the woman-comes-of-age-in-second-childhood theme - which we have about 4, of in our bookstore.

It takes a gifted writer with some insight to make a plot that stands out. The biggest difference between Berg's and the also-rans seems to be that in this book, not everything is the man's fault, and she still LOVES her husband. And she understands that. Self-aware angst is very refreshing. Also some tongue NOW we're talking functional dysfunction! Also some tongue in cheek humor and some great archetypal moments of women connecting.

Men, when your female life partner is approaching 50, get her a copy of this book. And then read The Dollhouse by Ibsen. It might help, 'cause hopefully, this one is not gonna get made into a Lifetime movie. Jun 02, Susan rated it really liked it. I took this trip myself. I graduated from Law School at 42, and passed the bar in California, then had to take it in Virginia when my husband took a new job. Upon arriving in Virginia I found that my daughter needed more than a part time parent, and my husband's new job had him on the road constantly. Depending on her needs, I consulted part time, and sometimes not at all, as she wound her way through a difficult adolescence.

By , she was 19, and vacillating between pulling me too tightly in I took this trip myself. By , she was 19, and vacillating between pulling me too tightly into her life and wanting to push me off an abyss. I no longer knew who I was and what I liked after years of planning everything that the others wanted. I took a 6, mile road trip up, down and over, visiting friends from all my ages, childhood,adolescence, college, adulthood and law school.

Making friends of cousins I barely knew and searching for myself and what i liked. I drove the backroads of America, searching for the quirky and the pieces of myself going back to the town I was born in for the first time since i was 2. My husband joined me for a long weekend with friends, then went home while i continued my journey. Finally, when it was time to come home I got on the freeway and came home. I think many women need this journey of rediscovery and power when their children have grown I was glad to read of someone else's journey.

The Pull of the Moon

Oct 24, Camille rated it did not like it. This is the first book of Elizabeth Berg's that I was truly disapointed in. I have absolutely adored everything thing else of hers that I have read but this character was irritating. Nan is a spoiled, self centered woman with nothing better to do than spend way too much time feeling sorry for herself. I couldn't wait to be done with Nan, she was extremely shallow, self important, spoiled and aggravating. I also found the conversations she would have with total strangers to be unrealistic. Every woman over the age of 50 needs to read this one.

I am making my way back through all her audiobooks after reading The Story of Arthur Truluv, coming Nov Recommend the audiobook narrated by the author. May 27, Reese rated it really liked it.

Paperback Editions

Then today, while I was thinking about several other five-star books, I decided that this Berg novel doesn't belong in the group that I call tier-one books. Note to self -- never proofread your work more than four times during a major storm. Now that I have Internet access again, I'm composing a review to replace the one that Mother Nature wiped out. Although I don't play music while I'm reading, certain books make me hear it. I know I know that woman. Nan, Berg's protagonist who explores and exposes herself through the alternating letters and journal entries that make up the novel -- yeah, I know that woman.

I don't, of course, see her in my mirror; but I know what she sees in her mirror because I know what I see in mine. There is much in our lives, especially our husbands at opposite ends of an arc , that could prompt me to say, "Nan and I have little in common. Well, not strictly speaking. She's eight years younger than I am, but "menopausally speaking" Sarah P. It is an age at which many a woman says a tearful goodbye to womanhood because her ovaries are now wearing matching Rest-In-Peace rings. Her life no longer includes dreams if you don't count the frightening type.

At the beginning of seventh grade, Nan imagined Nan the writer, Nan the scientist, Nan the archeologist, Nan the "favorite teacher" -- everyone's Exciting possibilities were there for her.

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Although at fifty she refers to her age as "the age of losses" , her journal entries indicate that, like many women, the onset of menstruation is the real "age of losses. Hiding under the beauty of the arrival of womanhood is the death of dreams. As a young woman, Nan married Martin. And Nan and Martin had a child. And Nan had married a man who could be counted on. And she had married a man who could be counted on to dismiss each of her occasional proposals to take a risk -- to put her creative urges into something besides meeting her husband's and child's needs.

According to Martin, "life is by and large meaningless and dull" And he does his part to validate that belief.

See a Problem?

Nan the fifty-year-old woman -- not a writer, not an archeologist, not a biologist -- realizes that she "meant to come back" after she went "underground for twenty-five years" Once her daughter is on her own, though, she can see that "the bread crumbs got blown away" Readers familiar with "To Room Nineteen" might notice the similarity between what Berg's protagonist reveals about herself and what Doris Lessing's narrator says about Susan Rawlings: Susan Rawlings' ritualized travel "to room nineteen" of FRED'S HOTEL to sit alone, however, is nothing like Nan's uncharted journey, during which she pays close attention to both self and the big world beyond one's self.

Since most of us who imagine ourselves on solo trips to anywhere will choose close encounters only of the mental kind, I say, "Let Berg take you where you may need to go. Nan will lead the way and make the experience interesting. View all 6 comments. Oct 31, Kathie Giorgio rated it it was amazing. So I'm going to tell you a story with this review. I originally read this book when it was published, back in I was 36 years old and in a very unhappy marriage. I'd read Berg's previous books and wanted to go see her when she came through town on book tour.

My then-husband gave me permission permission!