Thursday, March 8, 2018

The Story of Arthur Truluv

Title: The Story of Arthur Truluv
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Published: November 21st 2017 by Random House
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Genre: Fiction

I do not know what happened, I picked up this book to read the first couple of paragraphs and the next thing I know, I had read the book straight through. I do not know anyone that could walk away from this book without saying that they need an Arthur “Truluv” Moses in their lives.

Eight-five-year-old Arthur Moses is the kind of man that does not give up on others. When he sees someone in need, he lends a helping hand without thinking of himself or passing judgment. Sure Lucille’s wig might be askew or Maddy’s nose ring is troubling, but that is not for him to judge, Nola would not have wanted him to look down on anyone and so he will not.

Every day, without fail, Arthur gets on the bus and travels to the cemetery to have lunch with his late wife Nola where he keeps up a one sided conversation about his current adventures and their life together. As he travels to her headstone, he stops and listens in on Nola’s neighbors. He senses their stories and is fascinated by them even though on the rare occasion he learns more than he should.

Lonely, seventeen year old Maddy spends her lunch period at the cemetery. Her mother died when she was two weeks old, and though her mother is not buried there, Maddy would rather be in a cemetery than bullied at school or ignored at home by a father that has never bonded with her.

Retired schoolteacher Lucille lives next to Arthur, she never married since her one true love married another yet love may not be truly out of question when Frank reappears and the two, for a short time, rekindle what was lost.

In searching out something that resembles love, Maddy finds herself pregnant and with her father urging her to terminate it, Maddy flees her home and shows up on Arthur’s doorstep. With loneliness taking on may faces, the three friends form a family that allows each to live out their own dreams of love and family.

Throughout this book, the reader will find the most remarkable words of wisdom. Will share in new discoveries and most importantly will learn that family is not where you are born but where you choose to live. Of course you are going to shed a tear and have to put the book down to absorb what you have just read, but you will continue on just so you know that Arthur, Lucille and Maddy will be ok. That life has a way of continuing its circle and just when you have given up on humanity, Truluv will appear and give you purpose.

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