Book Reviews of We Are All Welcome Here

I read everything Elizabeth Berg writes, and I wouldn't say this is her finest, but the writing has her usual luminous quality and is a pleasure to read. This is written thrugh the eyes of a young teen girl, in the early 1960s, in Tupelo MS, who lives with her beautiful young mother who was crippled by polio when pregnant. The father has deserted, and they are able to live independently, although in poverty, only with round the clock care for the mom, most notably provided by a black woman named Peacie, whose man friend has become active in the civil rights movement. There is a constant threat, not only of civil unrest, but of the state caseworker deciding to institutionalize the mom and put the girl in foster care, for lack of proper caretakers available. The ending is way too 'pat' and easy, but the family and the times they lived in are beautifully rendered.

Not one of Berg's best books, but it's a good read. It moves a bit slow early on, but picks up a lot. I liked that it was based on a reader's story. I thought it was nice of the author to take a reader's story and turn it into a fictional novel.

A quick read, hard to put down story about a girl dealing with her mother's polio.

Never read anything bad by Elizabeth Berg..another great book

Quick read with great intertwining, interesting, believable characters. Loosley based on a true story with a guest appearance by Elvis. Great for book club discussion, too.

Set against the backdrop of the civil right movement in 1964, comes a story of 3 women who are struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom.

very good

Elizabeth Berg, bestselling author of The Art of Mending and The Year of Pleasures, has a rare talent for revealing her characters'hearts and minds in a manner that makes us empathize completely. Her new nove, We Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against over-whelming odds for her own kind of freedom.

It is the summer of 1964.In Tupelo,Mississippi, the town of Elvis's birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring more frequently-and violently-across the state. But in Paige Dunn's small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy,Paige in nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter,Diana, in the way she sees fit- with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie.
Diana is trying in her won fashion to live a normal life. As a fourteen-year-old, she wants to make money for clothes and magazines,to slough off the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her town. What she can never escape, however, is the way her life is markedly different from others'.Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother. Paige Dunn is attractive,charming,intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great- and relentless.
As summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home.Despite the difficulties thrust upon them,each of the women will find her own path to independence,understanding, and peace. And Diana's mother,so mightily compromised,will end giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match.

Had waited for sooo long- went and bought it--SHE JUST AMAZES ME WITH EACH NOVEL

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