Review by Booklist Review
This prequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv (2017) brings Arthur Moses' young adult years to the forefront. As Arthur nears the end of his life, his solitary thoughts turn to his youth. Mentally stepping back decades in time, he relives the highs and lows of his teens and early adulthood in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the small town of Mason, Missouri, the setting for several of prolific author Berg's previous novels. Arthur remembers meeting the love of his life, losing a family member, and learning to see his parents in a new light. Capturing timeless issues of fickle friendships, unrequited love, and parental expectations, Berg's latest novel will appeal to fans of Catherine Ryan Hyde, Anna Quindlen, and Erica Bauermeister. Her treatment of teenage love is especially poignant, as Arthur weighs the pros and cons of professing his love for the object of his affection, Nola, versus maintaining their deep, stable friendship. Berg's latest novel is a charming and heartwarming glimpse of an elderly man's earliest days.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Berg revisits the protagonist of her 2017 novel The Story of Arthur Truluv with this gentle coming-of-age. In 1947 Missouri, 16-year-old Arthur Moses has a crush on Nola McCollum, but she has her eyes on Arthur's older brother, Frank, a high school senior. Frank, though, has been secretly dating the new, young English teacher Mary Anker. He also bears the brunt of their father, Eugene's rages, sparked partly by Eugene's frustration over his declining milk delivery business. Taking advice from Frank, Arthur works up the nerve to ask Nola to the movies, only to have their date called off when a tornado rips through town. More complications, including another boy swooping in to take credit for Arthur's gift of flowers, stymie him further. Frank, meanwhile, learns Mary is pregnant, upending his hopes of becoming a writer. The stakes generally feel pretty low--Berg homes in on the family's everyday moments, as Arthur picks up wisdom from older neighbors and Eugene lands a new job--so when a freak accident involving Frank arrives, it feels a bit jarring. Still, Berg does a nice job tending to the slow-burn romance between Arthur and Nola, which readers of the earlier book know will lead to a lifelong marriage. The author's fans ought to be satisfied. Agent: Suzanne Guck, WME. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Berg calls back to her 2017 novel The Story of Arthur Truluv in this sweet and sad story that stands on its own. It explores the early life of Arthur (who is an octogenarian in the 2017 novel) and what turned him into the kind and sensitive man who so many readers fell in love with. This new novel is set in 1947, with Arthur as a 16-year-old growing up in small-town Missouri. Awkward and sweet, with a deep love of trees and the natural world, his other deep love is Nola--one of the prettiest girls in school, and way out of his league. Arthur relies on his handsome, charismatic older brother Frank to guide him in his patient effort to conquer Nola's heart. Frank has his own issues, including his and Arthur's overbearing and sometimes scary father. Frank has also fallen in love with his gorgeous young English teacher and impresses her with his vibrant writing, to the point that they're secretly planning to start a new life together once Frank graduates. Then a terrible tragedy hits the Truluv family, changing Arthur forever. VERDICT Berg continues to channel her own version of Fannie Flagg with her small-town Southern tale that goes back in time to fill in the details of a memorable character's life.--Beth Liebman Gibbs
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A coming-of-age story about two brothers supporting each other through life's twists and turns in Mason, Missouri. It is the spring of 1947, and 16-year-old Arthur Moses is in love. Not the fleeting puppy love of his peers, but a deep, all-consuming love that he's certain is real. The only problem is that Nola McCollum doesn't look his way, and when she finally does, it's to ask Arthur to pass her number on to his older brother, Frank. Arthur says he will but instead hides the note in his desk and asks Frank for his advice on how to win Nola over. Frank needs advice for his own troubles, and Berg's narration of the two young men whispering to each other at night in their shared bedroom lends a profound sweetness to the novel even as the boys deal with the harsh realities of their lives such as an abusive father. Despite his lack of success wooing Nola, Arthur, who loves trees and his hometown and treats everyone he meets with gentle kindness, soldiers on with calm resolve, certain that someday his brother's advice will lead Nola to him. But when a gut-wrenching tragedy hits the Moses household, Arthur is not sure he can or should ever try to be happy again. While the relationship between the brothers is the novel's crowning jewel, Berg's ability to create characters--even some we meet for only a few scenes--with rich inner lives cannot be overpraised: "But he knew that now he would be seeing her in an altogether different way. There she would be, standing fierce on her stoop, but behind her would be a lot of other hers, younger hers, wearing a polka-dotted dress or a red wool suit, or the cotton-print robe she'd had to cut extra-careful to keep whole the wings of the big white birds." A poignant tale of love, grief, and the resiliency of the human spirit. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.