I kept reading because I lived in Binghamton for a year and this made the story seem somehow comforting but it is slightly depressing book. ( )

Years after Eve loses her husband to an unexpected car crash, her husband Chuck walks out on her during a garage sale, leaving her to pick up the pieces and take care of their two children on her own. With an intrusive mother who overshares her opinions and brewing trouble at work, Eve is soon dropping weight (abandonment and grief make for a great diet plan, who knew?) and trying to help her children and mother on her own. As kind-hearted strangers reach out to offer their support, Eve finds her life and her Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by new friends and potential love interests. This is a warm story of how to keep going on when bad things just seem to keep on happening. I enjoyed the character development and the humor in this story. There were also a few twists as the author tried to trick the reader and build suspense, which was particularly enjoyable. In all, a good quick read with a cast of interesting believable characters. ( )

I enjoyed meeting and speaking with Liz Rosenberg but I found her first novel lackluster. I enjoyed her works of poetry much more. This novel is set in nearby Binghamton, NY where the author lives and teaches at university so many local landmarks are mentioned. She is left by her husband during a garage sale. Wanting to empty her life of things she doesn't need, bought but didn't really want, or never used-she fills her driveway with piles of "stuff" she plans on ridding herself of. One thing that unwittingly is discarded that day is her marriage to a flighty, self centered man who leaves in his car not to return to his wife or children. The children act out in stereotypical ways causing further pain to their mother who seems boringly out of focus with herself. She pines for her man, losses weight, is watched over by her mother, etc. This story is well known and left me uninspired. I expected much more. ( )

Eve has already lost one husband – her beloved Ivan who went out to get her chocolate ice cream and ended up dying in a car crash. So when her second husband, the handsome free-spirit Chuck, drives away from their upstate New York home on fine summer day (in the middle of a garage sale), Eve instinctively knows he has left her and her children. Eve gathers up the remnants of her yard sale and digs deep to find the courage to move forward. Her teenage son from her first marriage (Marcus), and her precocious nine year old daughter from her union with Chuck (Nona), along with Eve’s fiesty, sharp-tongued mother Charlotte (who moves from Tennessee to be close to her abandoned daughter) motivate Eve to keep going despite her broken heart.

Home Repair is the story of what it means to experience love and loss, and yet still find fulfillment in the small things that life offers. Liz Rosenberg’s prose reminds me a lot of Anne Tyler – the quirky, lovable characters and matter of fact narrative of ordinary life peppered with all the sadness and laughter that comes with it, ring true. Eve’s journey is not a straight line – she takes one step forward and three steps back – but, her persistence and sincerity, her love for her children, and her hope for romantic love again, all work to her advantage. Despite all of Eve’s setbacks, she is able to find the beauty that still exists in her life.

Rosenberg’s strength is in the development of her characters – my favorite of whom was Charlotte, an aging woman whose crusty exterior belies a loving heart. Rosenberg captures the bittersweet process of aging, as well as the connections between grandparents and children, and the ambivalence between mothers and daughters.

Charlotte Dunrea, the meticulous, the upright, was beginning to drip gravy down her front, to spill coffee in her lap. The seat of her slacks sagged. She complained that it was harder to do everything – to get in and out of the car with Marcus. You could see what an effort it was, getting up out of the kitchen chair after dinner, clinging to the table for support. She might need a walker soon. She was slowing down. It seemed to Eve as if her stubborn little mother was now a permanent fixture in their lives, and the only way she’d ever leave was for her to be carried out, feet first. – from Home Repair, page 48 -

I enjoyed this lovely book. My only complaint was a minor one – that Rosenberg makes a small error re: medical information (being a Physical Therapist, I am probably more tuned into the nuances around medical procedures than the average reader). But, aside from that, the pages of this book turned effortlessly. I began to feel like the characters in the book were old friends, and I regretted saying good-bye to them. I hope Rosenberg is working on her next novel because I look forward to reading more from this talented debut author.

Home Repair is a mixture of happy and sad, laughter and tears – it reflects the real stuff of our ordinary lives. Readers who chose to go along on Eve’s journey from joy to loss and back to happiness will find it a satisfying trip.

Recommended. ( )

People believed bad things came in threes. Eve thought they came in packs, like wolves.

If troubles come in packs, nobody would know better than Eve. When her husband simply drives off during her summer yard sale under the guise of running errands and doesn't return, life becomes very complicated for Eve, and that's only the beginning. Suddenly finding herself a single mom to her two children, teenage Marcus and nine-year-old Noni, Eve is adrift. With Chuck's departure, it seems that everything in Eve's life is coming unglued. Her aging mother, Charlotte Dunrea, moves from the south to Binghamton, ostensibly to help, but actually needing much more help than she's able give. Eve fears for her job when an unhinged co-worker calls her purpose into question. Her one possible romantic interest seems hardly interested in her. She can't even take her dogs to the park and train them on the racquetball courts that have fallen into disuse for the winter without raising the ire of a slightly frightening, if ultimately goodhearted, park worker. All this is not to mention her almost ex-husband who seems to be popping up on the phone and even in person, just when Eve thinks she might be able to move on from the wreckage of their relationship.

Home Repair is a book that calls to mind the sort of books Laura Moriarty (The Center of Everything, The Rest of Her Life) writes. It's the kind of book where nothing especially major seems to happen, but it serves as a slice of the life of memorable and sympathetic characters who remind us of ourselves. It's hard not to feel for Eve as she navigates the everyday trials that are piling up at her front door even as she tries to adjust to tackling problems all on her own. Her two children, Marcus, a politically inclined gifted public speaker who can't seem to get his driver's license, and Noni, who, at nine years, seems preternaturally wise and yet unable to grasp why her father would simply leave one summer day, easily draw our sympathy as well.

Home Repair is a great story of a woman finding herself and discovering just what she is capable of on her own. It's a story about family and how sometimes the best families aren't always made up of people who are actually related. It's even a story of how it's never too late for love to make a difference in our lives.

Sometimes the story is a little too fragmented, and sometimes I thought it might benefit from a good, compelling first person narration that packs more of an emotional punch, as seen in Laura Moriarty's books, but ultimately Home Repair is a story with heart and is a well-worth-reading contribution to that "genre" of books that exposes the lives of all those characters that are just like you and me while at the same time making us think twice about the good things in our lives that are all too easy to take for granted. ( )