The Story of Arthur Truluv

Elizabeth Berg's The Story of Arthur Truluv is a sweet enough story. The elderly, recently-widowed Arthur meets lonely, teenaged Maddy at the cemetery where he eats lunch with his late wife and she escapes the bullying and tedium of high school. Perhaps improbably, they forge a friendship, first with one another and then - individually and jointly - with Lucille, Arthur's equally-elderly neighbor. All of them are grappling with grief and with change, and loss is an elemental part of the story and their relationships with one another

Overall, I liked the story, although I am growing a bit weary of the genre. Glancing through reviews on Amazon, it's clear I'm not the only one who sees similarities with Ove, Hendrik Groen, and that other widower Arthur, Mr. Pepper. Too, I was bothered by the timing of the closing chapters; I simply couldn't make the dates add up in a way that made sense and seemed true to the rest of the story.

I was especially fond of Arthur, though, as well as his neighbor Lucille. On more than one occasion I was reminded of my great-grandfather, a widower who lived around the corner from his brother's widow, but would only rarely visit with her lest the neighbors notice. I am grateful for any book that offers an opportunity to reminisce about my grandfather, but such sentimentality can only take me so far.

Four stars.