Maryellen, Elizabeth Berg and Me!

Oh, I never cease to amaze myself - the hubris we have - it's amazing. Ever since Maryellen got us tickets to go over to the Sanibel library to hear Elizabeth Berg speak, we 've been asking ourselves, "will she remember us? Will she remember the reading festival? Will she come back cause she had so much fun the first time?" Well folks, the answers are a definate no, a definate no and a maybe. The humiliation!
Ms. Berg's book The Pull of the Moon got me through the 50th year with aplomb. I was sure she had written that novel just for me. As did millions of other readers I suppose. That's the joy of her writing, after all, it feels like she's speaking just to you. She makes it look so simple but, of course, we know that it isn't. Every novel she writes seems like it was written about someone you know.
When she presents a talk, as she did the other night, you're convinced that she's looking right a you and you alone. She was funny, sexy, a little off color, gracious, modest but not ashamed to be pleased by her own success. She's a woman you'd like to go out and have a few wines with.

Imagine our surprise when we hung around the library afterwards waiting to reintroduce ourselves to her and she honestly said she didn't remember us. What courage! She could have faked it but no, she didn't remember me picking her up at the airport 7 or 8 years ago - I know, you're stunned. She didn't remember Maryellen up on stage introducing her to the 300 and some people who came to see her, even though Maryellen brought the photo as evidence. She didn't remember Sue Grafton telling her she should get a face lift or Kelly Lange spilling a glass of red wine down the ample white clad chest of our then library director.

Does it matter? Not a whit. Does it take us down to size? Well, a bit. The good news is, she loves to get email from fans and it sounded as if she responds to everyone. Will I continue to read her? Of course.
Back we'll go next month to hear Elizabeth Strout with whom Ms. Berg is friends. The good news? We've never met her!