Once again, Elizabeth Berg has created a sensory experience that you immediately want to step into. Her protagonists are women who only develop their sense of self, resilience, and independence when they're forced to. You start to think, "I'm artistic, intuitive, and creative, too." The Year of Pleasures made you think of Anthropologie; Home Safe actually takes you there.
Helen discovers she has a gift for teaching writing. She overcomes mean stabs from the publishing world. She tries to anchor herself to her daughter who in turn feels smothered. She has begun the process of pecking her way out of the egg.
Her husband has left her her dream house in Mill Valley, California! She sees it, but questions where her home is really, in her new autonomous life. It seems the blue jay pecks away without disturbing a pretty strong egg.
