Until the Real Thing Comes Along: A Novel

Until the Real Thing Comes Along: A Novel
New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.
Paperback: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 034543739X
Genre: Women’s Lives and Relationships

I did not expect to like this book so much. I was excited to read an Elizabeth Berg book because she has been mentioned more than once in class. This was available at the library and it seemed interesting.

This is the story of Patty Hansen; age thirty-six, single, childless, whimsical, carefree and somewhat stressed. She is happy, unhappy and lonely. She is loving, kind and has a free spirit. More than anything she wants someone in her life, more accurately a man she will never truly have, marriage and a child; “I just want to be done. I want to be married. I want a baby” (27). She follows this man to a new town. He helps her get a child.

Patty is the narrator and provides the backdrop for the other characters.

Her love interest: Ethan Allen Grimes

Patty will never have all of him; “Why can’t you love me? You love me, why can’t you love me? (27). He has been honest (well, not in the beginning when they were a couple but that is not the heart of the story) with her and she knows what she is getting into when she decides to have a baby with him.

She cannot help her love for him, “I truly wish I didn’t love only you, but that’s the reality. I have loved only you since you saved me from Kathleen Mayfield on the playground in sixth grade” (29). Didn’t she think that sharing something so intimate would be more hurtful?

Her desire for a child was like breathing and she could not be denied. Ethan also wanted a child and thus Marilyn was conceived.

Elaine

She is the beautiful friend, “They [men] stop chewing for my friend Elaine. They stop breathing for my friend Elaine. Sometimes it’s hard to be her friend. A lot it’s hard to be her friend. I’m Betty to her Veronica, only I don’t even get to have blonde hair” (29).

Elaine and Ethan have problems. Ethan is watching so many of his friends die of AIDS and Elaine is in love with Mark, Ethan set Mark up with Patty. Mark is into Patty but she does not return the affection. Elaine ends up with Mark.

Robert and Marilyn

They are her parents who have true love. Patty tells her mother, “You and Dad. Sometimes it’s sort of depressing to be around you” (47). Her parents fell in love on sight. Patty wants this kind of love and happiness. Her mother on her father, “And it was instant, I swear to you. It just was. One look, and I was in love” (45). Her father on her mother, “There was not a doubt in my mind. I had to have her” (46). Even in her mother’s illness, Alzheimer’s, the love shared between her parents is undeniable.

Artie and Muriel

A special couple that Patty befriends while showing them houses as part of her job as a real estate agent. Artie ends up with cancer, “I got cancer. Terminal” (87). However, this doesn’t stop him from finding happiness in his life and Patty hopes that her mom can hold on like Artie.

Sophia and Amber

These are two minor characters, Sophia (her neighbor) and Amber (her nail technician) but they offer wisdom and guidance that Patty truly needed. When Patty is preparing to leave for Minneapolis Amber cautions her about Ethan’s intentions, “I think this is a smoke screen for something else going on with Ethan. He’s running away into you, you know what I mean? Into you and the baby. He’s running away from something” (186). She is correct.

I have shared a lot of the book but there is so much depth that there is plenty more to be revealed in reading this novel.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy stories about women that do not always have a truly happy ending for the main character. It definitely reflects the genre. Until the Real Thing Comes Along fits is first written by a woman, has a female protagonist, the story focuses on Patty’s relationships with “family, friends, and lovers” (Saricks, 371). The book is set in a contemporary time period, is quite intimate and unfolds at a leisure pace.

This is a good book for individuals who enjoy stories with real issues. It is beautifully written with several tender lines. Yes, this book is thoroughly overdramatic but sometimes our lives are just complicated.