Elizabeth Berg has a single great gift as a novelist. She creates heroines who are stuck and unhappy, yet deeply sympathetic. This may seem like an easy trick to pull off, but it's not. Think about it: usually when a character is mired in a problem--especially a problem stemming from her own reluctance to change, or fear of commitment, or lack of identity--the reader is ready within a few dozen pages to shout, "Pull yourself together!" and set the book aside. In contrast, Berg's characters seem like enjoyable challenges: problems with actual solutions.

In Never Change, Berg uses her gift to great advantage. Middle-aged Myra Lipinsky describes herself as "the one who sat on a folding chair out in the hall with a cigar box on my lap selling tickets to the prom, but never going." And despite a flourishing career as a visiting nurse, she feels as much an also-ran as ever. As the novel begins, in fact, high school seems to be rearing its ugly head again: Chip Reardon, the heartthrob of Myra's youth, has returned to town to live with his parents. Chip is dying from a brain tumor, and Myra becomes his nurse. Berg is not the kind of writer to lay bare the unsettling power dynamics of such a situation. Instead, Chip and Myra become friends and, well, learn how to love each other. It's a testament to the author's strong sense of character that we actually believe--and what's more, care about--Myra's emergence from her emotional cocoon. And the book is full of nice details, like this snapshot of children being read to at a library, "rising up on their knees to see the pictures, resting their hands unselfconsciously on those ahead of them so that they would not lose their balance." Such careful observations, recounted in Myra's voice, make us believe that she is a character worth knowing, and worth saving. --Claire Dederer

A self-anointed spinster at fifty-one, Myra Lipinski is reasonably content with her quiet life, her dog, Frank, and her career as a visiting nurse. But everything changes when Chip Reardon, the golden boy she adored in high school, is assigned as her new patient. Choosing to forgo treatment for an incurable illness, Chip has returned to his New England hometown to spend what time he has left. Now, Myra and Chip find themselves engaged in a poignant redefinition of roles, and a complicated dance of memory, ambivalence, and longing.

I enjoyed the book and it was nice reading a book about a woman my age finding love and making a new beginning. I do think this book is a well written romantic fantasy though. If Chip had recovered I suspect he would have celebrated his newly found vigor by ditching both Diann and Myra to marry a young beautiful blond and fathering children. Toward the end it seemed that he was dying so that she could enjoy her fantasy of finally having the guy of her dreams. He even reassures her that she is attractive by making comments that sound like they are from a female perspective, i.e., So what you aren't a size 4... you have hips? It was predictable that she wouldn't kill herself. St. Chip's dying wish was that she would now live a happier more fulfilling life. It would have really sucked if falling in love with him had resulted in her killing herself, especially when she had seemed fairly content with her career, her house, her patients, and her dog prior to his re-appearance in her life. I think it is good story because it is though-provoking. Is it true that some women, due to genetic disposition, their combination of looks and personality, are destined to be unlucky in love or can they make their own luck?

A simply marvelous story of a woman who doesn't think highly of her looks or character, because of what she learned growing up. Through nursing others she changes the view of herself and gains friends, probably for the first time in her life.
Berg's way of telling a story is simple, understanding, and gets to the core of one's own self. The story of a visiting nurse shows how nursing used to be. The caring that went into looking after another human being, instead of get in and get out, onto the next patient. Above all it's a wonderful love story. Highly recommended.

After reading one of this author's other books, I wasn't sure if I'd like her books, but I really did like this one. The characters were likable and sympathetic, and the story line was engaging and believable. A pretty good book!

This book sucks. "Never Change" is about Myra Lipinski, a 51-year-old nurse who has basically lived her life in a self-imposed solitary confinement. There's nothing wrong with this woman aside from the fact that she has absolutely zero self-confidence and doesn't believe that anyone could truly like or care about her. The fact that Myra is such a weak character is one of the two main reasons why I hated this book. The other reason is because the basic plot of the story revolves around Myra caring for her former high school classmate, Chip Reardon, who has returned to town after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor. Chip was the guy Myra and all the other girls lusted after in high school: kind, popular, handsome, etc. The story is just so hokey and I really didn't care what happened to any of the characters. What a waste of paper.

I put 3 authors in the same echelon, Tyler, Shreeve and Berg. I think, Berg is my favorite. I have read several of her books and the thing I recall the most about her books is her words. I have written down several of her quotes from the various books I have read. She has a way of putting into words things you have thought but couldn't really find the words to say. I felt a personal pull to this book since my mother is a nurse and I could never understand why she enjoyed her job so much. This book shed some light. It isn't just a job. It's the people. Berg created a great character for this book, as well. Myra isn't necessarily that pretty on the outside. Therefore, she doesn't attract the people she longed for. However, once you had the privilege to meet her, you recognized the incredible beauty inside. I think Myra realized this about herself at the end of the book. At least, if she didn't, she was on her way. Another Berg book that has left an impression on me.