[title subtitle=”review: Marla Cantrell”][/title]
Elizabeth Berg Random House | 261 pages | $26
I fell in love with Elizabeth Berg’s novel, The Story of Arthur Truluv, and couldn’t wait for this sequel, Night of Miracles. In it, Berg picks up the story of Lucille Howard, who was Arthur Truluv’s roommate and dear friend.
Lucille is a former elementary school teacher who never married. Now in her late eighties, she teaches baking classes in her kitchen, creating masterpieces she also sells to the local diner, Polly’s Henhouse, in a small town in Missouri. Lucille is precise and direct. When students make mistakes, she lets them know, partly because that’s her personality, but partly because she believes in the power of baking. After all, there’s nothing like watching the delight as those you love taste a fresh-made cake or yeast rolls just minutes after they leave the oven.
Her newish next-door neighbors, Jason and Abby, invite her to a dinner of tofu lasagna, which Lucille tells them is not very good. While the dinner is far from a success, Lucille does meet the couple’s son, Lincoln, who starts to visit her house, where she introduces him to John Wayne movies and the delights of baking.
Jason and Abby have kept Lincoln on a vegetarian diet with no sugar, which Lucille largely ignores. This would be a cause of contention if the family weren’t in crisis. But Abby has been diagnosed with leukemia and is getting sicker by the day. As she does, Lincoln is left more often with Lucille, who becomes his lifeline.
A cast of other small-town characters round out this thoughtful novel. Iris, hurting from a divorce, becomes Lucille’s assistant. Tiny, the overweight cab driver, enters the story with his big heart and good intentions. Monica, who works at Polly’s Henhouse, has a few lessons to learn about love and self-esteem. And Maddy, the young mother introduced in The Story of Arthur Truluv, shows up with big news for Lucille.
As if Lucille didn’t have enough going on, the Angel of Death keeps showing up in her dreams. Lucille is determined not to leave this world until she’s ready, something she makes perfectly clear to the angel who’s never met anyone like her.
Lucille is determined to stay where she is so that she can help Lincoln. She has people who depend on her as well, like Maddy who’s become her family, and the students who take her classes. Even her assistant, Iris, is in need of her as she finds her second chance after a painful divorce.
Night of Miracles, while filled with sugar, is never overly sweet. Instead, it is populated with the good and bad of everyday life. If a few baked goods help sweeten the deal, so be it.
Author Elizabeth Berg is a genius at writing these quiet stories of people we all seem to know, who ascend to greatness when the need arises. She is a peddler of hope, offering a gentle reminder that each of us has a calling to make this world better, using every gift we’ve been given.
