"Never Change" by Elizabeth Berg is a story about a 51 year old man dying of a brain tumor and his nurse. They were high school classmates and hadn't seen each other in all those years until he became one of her patients. This story is of the final weeks of his life and how facing his death changes them both. There is also an underlying theme of euthanasia.
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The review of this Book prepared by Barbara Ashworth
Elizabeth Berg
Pocket, Jun 2001, 23.95, 224 pp.
ISBN: 0743411323
Even as a child Myra Lipinsky had no friends and failed to connect with anyone. She sold the tickets to the prom, but no male asked her to go with him. As an adult, she had become a visiting nurse. Her occupation is her only satisfaction as she is content with her solitary status especially since her dog Frank provides her with companionship.
At fifty-one, her high school secret crush Chip Reardon returns into her life when he is dying from an inoperable brain tumor. Chip refuses to accept chemo or radiation that will grant him a few more months to live, but at a dramatically reduced style of life. Chip moves into Myra's home where he teaches her to live and she teaches him to love.
Elizabeth Berg has written a beautiful and poignant love story centering on a person accepting his fate and living what time he has left in life to the fullest. Chip's gift to Myra is helping her to open up to her feelings even as she provides him with the nurturing and the support he needs at the end. NEVER CHANGE is a five-tissue box novel, for the tears that flow not out of sorrow, but out of living. Elizabeth berg has written one of the most dramatic and beautiful books of her career, one that celebrates life to the fullest despite the death sentence hanging over the hero's head.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
