True to Form, by Elizabeth Berg, Simon & Schuster, 2002, 214 pages.
Popular novelist Elizabeth Berg, author of "Open House" and "Never Change," holds a magnifying glass up to ordinary people and places.
In her 10th novel, "True to Form," the narrator is 13-year-old Katie, who is beginning the summer thinking of her first job. She envisions working at a pool and getting to know lifeguards, but her stern military father gives her no choices.
He has found not only one, but two positions for her: She is to baby-sit the three rambunctious Wexler boys, and when not doing that, she is to help a neighbor, Mr. Randolph, care for his elderly, bedridden wife. This is not the type of job opportunity Katie longs for. But her father gives her no recourse in this mater or in anything else. Her mother has died some time before and her father has remarried Ginger, not your usual stepmother, but a very pleasant, agreeable woman.
To make matters worse, Katie is not among the popular at her school. Due to her father constantly being transferred, she has moved many times.
She and her best friend Cynthia consider themselves members of the losers' club, which Cynthia's stepmother makes worse when she announces that she has become a Girl Scout leader and expects both Katie and Cynthia to camp out with her troop in (of all places) her living room.
The girls are mortified!
But as the summer progresses, Katie comes to like the Wexler boys, and even feels sorry for them when their mother leaves.
She also finds that the Randolphs are lovely, wise people about whom she really comes to care.
Mr. Randolph was formerly a teacher at a private girls' school and, realizing Katie's potential, he procures a scholarship for her there.
But everything goes wrong when Katie, trying to impress friends at the new school, sacrifices her friendship with Cynthia.
Another interesting, pitiful, but humorous character is Katie's former best friend from Texas, Cherylanne. Slightly older than Katie, she is fashionable, popular and always giving advice. But when Katie goes back to Texas to visit her, she finds that they have gone in different directions.
Cherylanne's advice just doesn't ring true anymore. "One thing men do not enjoy is a woman with too many brains," she tells Katie. "Their feminine allure is sucked right out of them, and they often have bad breath." Cherylanne soon finds herself in the family way and has to marry at a most tender age.
As the summer months progress, Katie's whole world is turned upside down, and the reader follows alongside her, becoming immersed in her problems.
This is the forte of Elizabeth Berg. Her seemingly small characters, with their everyday problems, become very real and very important to her readers. Her books can become light and frothy at times, but her characters grow in importance as the work progresses.
In "True to Form," the only one who consistently stays true to form is Katie's father.
Toward the end of the novel, Katie blames this on his early upbringing. Katie doesn't want to go to the new private school, but as usual, her father gives her no recourse. His summer jobs worked out quite well in the end.
Who knows about Katie's new school?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 26 2002 |