Sometimes even for very different people at very different points in their lives, there is a shared experience. In this book, that shared experience is loneliness. The book begins in a cemetery. Maddy, a lonely teenaged girl, is there on her lunch hour to visit her mother’s grave. Arthur Moses is there – as he is every day – to have lunch with his wife, who is also buried there. The two see each other many times, but don’t talk, each in their own closed experience of sadness. We learn about each in turn, how Maddy feels like she has no place with her peers and even her own father exists on the other side of a very large chasm. Arthur’s life is pretty quiet, and all he has in it is his cat now that his wife has passed. Both are sad, and both feel like they’ve been shut out from the life those around them are so easily a part of.
But one day that changes when they finally meet. It’s raining, and Arthur invites Maddy to come back to his house to warm up. Things don’t change instantly for either of them, but this interaction is the seed from which a friendship will, over time, begin to flourish. But first Maddy has to experience heartbreak and leave home, and Arthur has to finally connect with someone – his neighbour Lucille. In her turn, Lucille also has to experience a loss. All this ends with Maddy being alone and pregnant, with a plan in place for her future, but a gap between now and that future beginning. Arthur has realized that maybe his life would be better with people in it. And Lucille is finding that living alone is not as perfect as she had though. And so a sort of family begins to form.
I won’t say any more than that, because I don’t want to give anything away. I came to love each of the characters in this book as I got to know them. But more than that, I came to love how they were together. How they helped one another, protected each other, and made each other feel useful. I loved how the difference in ages, though acknowledged, is no hindrance to people who have found common ground. And I loved how it’s never too late to find some of the things that were missing from life, if only you can be open to them coming in a different way than you expected.
I really enjoyed this book. It doesn’t shy away from life’s devastation, nor does it sidestep people’s difficult aspects. But it also manages to show how we are all more than the things that happen to us, and that even though we have quirks and personality traits that can be difficult for others to deal with, we still deserve to be accepted with all our flaws and loved in spite of them. I loved how each person in this story is given the chance to find a way forward, even when it seemed there wasn’t one. And each is able to follow something that gives them joy and fulfillment.
I don’t think I’ll be continuing with this series because I don’t think the next books follow the same characters, and it was these characters I loved. But I might return to this book at some point in the future when I need a reminder that life isn’t over until it’s over, and that friendship is out there if you’re open to finding it.
A beautiful, life-affirming novel about a remarkably loving man who creates for himself and others second chances at happiness.
A moving novel about three people who find their way back from loss and loneliness to a different kind of happiness. Arthur, a widow, meets Maddy, a troubled teenage girl who is avoiding school by hiding out at the cemetery, where Arthur goes every day for lunch to have imaginary conversations with his late wife, and think about the lives of others. The two strike up a friendship that draws them out of isolation. Maddy gives Arthur the name Truluv, for his loving and positive responses to every outrageous thing she says or does. With Arthur’s nosy neighbor Lucille, they create a loving and unconventional family, proving that life’s most precious moments are sweeter when shared. – Goodreads
Book Title:Â The Story of Arthur Truluv
Author:Â Elizabeth Berg
Series: Yes – Mason #1
Edition:Â Audiobook
Published By:Â Random House
Released:Â November 21, 2017
Genre: Fiction, Loneliness, Loss, Friendship/Found Family, Intergenerational
Pages:Â 240
Date Read:Â June 27-July 4, 2024
Rating: 7/10
Average Goodreads Rating:Â 4.17/5 (47,487 ratings)
