Elizabeth Berg

After sending their men off to fight in the war, sisters Kitty and Louise Heaney join their flirtatious younger sister, Tish, in writing letters to servicemen overseas, in a study of life during World War II from the perspective of the young men on the battlefield and the women left behind on the home front. 150,000 first printing.

A Novel

Dream when You're Feeling Blue

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Set in Chicago during WWII, this is the story of the Heaney family. The Heaney's are an Irish family of 8 (3 boys and 3 girls). The story focuses almost entirely on the 3 sisters, with the eldest, Kitty, being the main character. The novel opens with Kitty snd her sister Louise sending their beaux off to the war. Louise is newly engaged to Michael and Kitty pines for a ring from Julian but Julian doesn't seem inclined to put any permanance to their relationship. The third sister, Tish, seems content to play the field, party at USO dances, and collect serviceman pen pals. This is mainly a story of the relationship between the members of the family and in particular, between the sisters.

I have read several of Berg's books and enjoyed most of them. She is able to stuff a lot of content and character into her books despite the fact that most are relatively short. In this case, I think she did a very nice job with developing the Heaney family as well as the sisters' love interests into full-fledged, believeable people. I enjoyed the details she included about life on the homefront during the war - I think it made the story more believeable and authentic.

I really liked the story up until the end. I won't include any spoilers here, but I found Kittys sacrifice at the end to strain credibility. Also, it was left unexplained. We understand some of Kitty's motivations, but there are other people involved and the reader has no clue as to why they go along with things. The ending felt rushed and incomplete and was such an abrupt turnabout that it left me scratching my head. When I came to the epilogue, I was relieved because I thought that would explain things a bit more but it didn't. It merely provided a snapshot of two of the sister's lives in their golden years with little reference to what they had done over the past 50 or 60 years.

All in all, a nice, enjoyable story about relationships with an unfortunate ending.

Nancy Regina

After sending their men off to fight in the war, sisters Kitty and Louise Heaney join their flirtatious younger sister, Tish, in writing letters to servicemen overseas, in a study of life during World War II from the perspective of the young men on the battlefield and the women left behind on the home front. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

Dream when You're Feeling Blue A Novel

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