Deus Ex Machina, Part the Second (Now with Spoilers!)

Oops, She Did It Again
I said in the review that I’d give the writers another chance, so last week I picked up Berg’s latest novel, Dream When You’re Feeling Blue, from the library. It describes three sisters during World War II, and I loved it. Berg is a talented novelist: the dialogue, the descriptions of wartime life, the characterizations—all resonated with me. Everything in the novel pointed to Kitty, the oldest sister, marrying the man she loves—except she doesn’t.

[SPOILER ALERT—I have to gripe about this, and it doesn’t make sense if I don’t tell the ending. Sorry; at least I’m not ruining Harry Potter for you. You know I wouldn’t do that, right?]

For three days the ending bugged me. I had to admit Berg hadn’t used a bolt out of the blue (there are hints before the end that Kitty and her man might not want the same things) but I did find it hard to believe that a guy who loved her would give her up so easily when she (apparently: the breakup is not depicted) tells him they need to go their separate ways. He marries her sister (her sister! Dude, you don’t just DO that) who does want a cozy domestic life, who in fact needs it to survive, and Kitty never begrudges them. In fact, she’s planned the whole thing—she sacrifices her love for him and never admits she still loves him, even sixty years later.

Maybe that’s the part I found hard to swallow. Human beings aren’t willing to give up a chance for true love that easily. At least that’s what this romantic reader wants to believe.