Audiobook Review: Say When by Elizabeth Berg

Say When
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Publisher: Atria
Published: June 1, 2003
Audiobook: 7 discs
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 1.5 stars


Synopsis (from goodreads.com): Griffin is a happy man. Settled comfortably in a Chicago suburb, he adores his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, and his wife, Ellen - shy, bookish Ellen, who is as dependable as she is dependent on him for his stability and his talent for gently controlling the world they inhabit. But when he wakes one morning to hear of his wife's love affair with another man and her request for a divorce, Griffin's view of life is irrevocably altered. Overnight he goes from being Ellen's husband to being her roommate, from a lover to a man denied passion and companionship. Now he must either move on or fight for his marriage, forgive his wife or condemn her for her betrayal, deny or face up to his part in the sudden undoing of his seemingly perfect life. 


My Thoughts: I had really high expectations for this book since I just listened to another Elizabeth Berg novel and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this book was one of the worst that I have ever read (or listened to, in this case). The characters were flat and boring, there wasn't much of a plot, and the whole thing just dragged from beginning to end. If I was reading this book, I probably would have stopped, but kept listening to it, hoping that it would pick up. The narrator is Griffin, who just discovered that his wife, Ellen, wants to divorce him. While it would seem like a fresh take on a married couple separating, Griffin isn't much of a narrator. He tells you what is going on, but there isn't much that he offers to move the story along. His wife, Ellen, is just annoying. She's constantly whining and I wanted to scream, "Grow up!" She is not a well-written character. Their daughter, Zoe, is eight years old, but talks like a 32 year old. It just became too much. All of these characters together made it a big sap fest and left me thinking, "You all need to grow up." While I enjoyed Berg's other books, this book makes me leary of reading anything else of hers for awhile.