The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg

In The Story of Arthur Truluv, a loner teenager meets an elderly man visiting his wife’s grave and the two bond. We learn about life, love, growing up, growing old, and the meaning of family as their relationship grows and they bring others into their circle.

The story is heart-warming, if extremely predictable and manipulative, and there are some neat turns of phrase. For example, Maddy tells Arthur she feels things from the graves, “Mostly peace. Like … relief. Like, ‘Okay, that’s all, put down your pencils, even if you’re not done.’” (p. 39 of the digital advance reader copy). Another phrase I liked was a thought from Arthur on page 49: "What the kids can't do with those computers! He's seen what look like four-year-olds seated at little computer screens at the library, intent on their business as air traffic controllers." I think this novel will find many readers and will be chosen by many book clubs in the coming year.

Arthur imagines the lives of the people under the graves at the cemetery, and I was not crazy about this thought: “This one was a librarian, the prettiest thing you ever saw in spectacles….Wore her hair up in a bun that always immediately started falling down in a most attractive way.” (p. 35 of the digital advance reader copy). It may be Arthur thinking it, but it is Berg writing it, and I’m disappointed in her for continuing the old librarian stereotype. She surely could have come up with something more original.

If you enjoyed A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and Pixar’s movie Up, you probably will enjoy The Story of Arthur Truluv. It struck me as a merging of the two. 

I read an advance reader copy of The Story of Arthur Truluv. It was published on November 21 and is available at the Galesburg Public Library as a print book and as an ebook.