True to Form: A Novel

by Elizabeth Berg

Overview

An act of betrayal leaves a teenaged girl in 1961 wondering if the only person she can ever truly trust is herself in the finale of the “rich...timeless” (The New Yorker) Katie Nash series.

Thirteen-year-old Katie Nash is not looking forward to her summer. Her father has enlisted her in two difficult jobs—babysitting the rambunctious Wexler children and looking after her elderly, bedridden neighbor.

Luckily, she does have something to look forward to: a trip to her Texas hometown to visit her best friend Cherylanne. But people and places change, and Katie is devastated to realize Cherylanne is no exception.

A summer of upheaval for both a young girl and the country at large, True to Form is a relatable and evocative “journey of self-discovery and personal redemption” (The Seattle Times).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668000946
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	464,748
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Berg is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestsellers True to Form, Never Change, Open House, The Story of Arthur Truluv, Night of Miracles, and The Confession Club. She lives outside of Chicago. Find out more at Elizabeth-Berg.net.

Hometown:

Chicago, Illinois

Date of Birth:

December 2, 1948

Place of Birth:

St. Paul, Minnesota

Education:

Attended the University of Minnesota; St. Mary¿s College, A.A.S.

Read an Excerpt

Katie Nash -- the beloved heroine of Elizabeth Berg's previous novels Durable Goods and Joy School -- is thirteen years old in 1961, and she's facing a summer full of conflict. Her father has enlisted her in two care-taking jobs -- baby-sitting for the rambunctious Wexler boys and, equally challenging, looking after Mrs. Randolph, her elderly, bedridden neighbor. To make matters worse, Katie has been forcibly inducted into the "loser" Girl Scout troop, compliments of her only new friend Cynthia's controlling mother. Her only saving grace is a trip to her childhood hometown in Texas, to visit her best friend Cherylanne. But people and places change -- and Cherylanne is no exception. When an act of betrayal leaves Katie wondering just what friends are really for, she learns to rely on the only one left she can trust: herself.

Full of the joys, anguish, and innocence of American adolescence, True to Form is a story sure to make readers remember and reflect on their own moments of discovery and self-definition.

Editorial Reviews

[W]ritten with great tenderness and understanding . . . [True to Form] takes readers back to their own days of awakening. . . . It flows with grace and beauty and a clarity that have not been so inspiring since some of the classicists.

The Communicator

Elizabeth Berg, as usual, explores her main character in detail. Readers develop sympathy for Katie on her journey of self-discovery and personal redemption.

The Seattle Times

In Katie, Berg has created a narrator true to adolescent form at a time when the larger world was beginning to change dramatically.

Chicago Tribune

Katie Nash is someone we can relate to, especially if we are of an age to be nostalgic about Pat Boone, Prell shampoo and Green Stamps. . . . Plus, to give Berg her due, she (or Katie, if you prefer) is capable of some lovely writing.

Chicago Sun-Times

It is 1961, and 13-year-old Katie is living in the chasm of the generation gap. Accepting her father's corny suggestions, she becomes a babysitter and a Girl Scout. For Katie, adolescence without her birth mother is tense and stressful; and, as she matures, Katie realizes that she is capable of sacrificing even her best friend for popularity. Things that should make her happy don't, but she does find solace in odd places. This powerful novel tracks Katie in the years between Durable Goods and Joy School.

bn.com

Berg is the master of the soft-focus, nonconfrontational women's novel, as evidenced in her 2000 Oprah Book Club selection, Open House. In her latest work, which again features the pubescent narrator first encountered in her debut novel, Durable Goods, she describes a summer in the life of 13-year-old Katie Nash. It is 1961, and Katie's mother has been dead for two years; Katie lives with her dour military father and peppy stepmother in Missouri. Resigned to allowing her strict dad to find her summer jobs, in her free time she gorges herself on junk food with her best friend, Cynthia, and works on her tan. Katie's first-person voice is deliberative and colloquial, and the story told is rarely eventful: the highlights come when Katie first starts working for a kind, needy elderly couple, the Randolphs, and wins a radio contest offering a free plane ticket anywhere in the world. Yet where does Katie choose to fly? Back to Fort Hood, Tex., where she last lived before her mother died and where she can revisit her former best friend, Cherylanne, who is slightly older than Katie and well versed in the ways of boys, clothes and getting married fast. The trip peters out when Katie realizes she really has nothing in common with boy-crazy Cherylanne. Meanwhile, Mr. Randolph secures a scholarship for Katie at the upscale school where he once taught, but even this boon becomes a hurdle when Katie belittles Cynthia to land in the rich girls' good graces. Berg lays nostalgia traps at every turn in her 10th feel-good novel, but her readers for the most part will be happy to fall into them. 14-city author tour. (June 11) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Berg continues the saga of the adolescent Katie in this sequel to her award-winning Durable Goods and Joy School. Katie's maturity is increasingly evident as she faces tough choices about the cost of friendship and begins to look outward. Her routine battle against loneliness encompasses fellow outsider Cynthia, an aging couple where the wife is ill, and the wild set of boys she baby-sits for instead of finding a "real job." Witty and insightful, this short but complete audiobook is a comfortable revisiting with narrator Jen Taylor's familiar embodiment of the daily life of a teenager. Recommended.-Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Another installment in the life of preternaturally wise military brat Katie Nash (Joy School, 1997, etc.), who over a summer and fall learns about friendship and love: a story that's more well-intentioned manual of life-lessons than engaging drama of adolescent turbulence. Katie, now 13 and living in St. Louis, misses her former home, Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas, where her mother died and her best friend Cherylanne lives. Dad, who had a rough childhood, is still playing the heavy, but stepmother Ginger, a model of tact and insight, seems to be softening him up. Katie's only friend is Cynthia O' Connell, a loser though she does share Katie's liking for poetry—but also has a pathetic mother determined to start a Girl Scout troop (afraid of the outdoors, she plans overnight camping in her living room). As summer begins, Dad insists that Katie work two jobs: helping old Mr. Randolph, a retired teacher, with his bedridden wife; and babysitting the three Wexler boys. Not Katie's ideal jobs, but she buckles under and finds them more rewarding than she expected. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph are still deeply in love, though they've been married for eons, and Katie learns that "In some couples, each puts the other first." Not like the Wexlers, whose boys are fun to babysit once Katie figures out that they like playing games, but whose marriage nearly ends that summer. A trip back to see Cherylanne affords more life-lessons—that Cherylanne isn't as smart as Cynthia, that she doesn't appreciate poetry, and that friendships change. Cherylanne has troubles too—she's pregnant and must get married. In the fall, Katie, now attending a snobby private school, is mean to Cynthia. But she really wants to be good,confesses her sins to a friendly priest, and, realizing how much she values Cynthia's friendship, tries to win her back. Insights that seem too easily won in a slick story that skims the surface. Author tour

Kirkus Reviews

Boston Herald (Editor's Pick) A convincing teen's-eye view on growing up in the summer of 1961.

Chicago Tribune In Katie, Berg has created a narrator true to adolescent form.

From the Publisher