Former nurse brings healing arts to her novels

Although impressed by others, Elizabeth Berg's writing style stands on its own.

In her youth, it was J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," ("I couldn't believe someone could write like that!"), and more recently, Marg Spragg's "The Fruit of Stone," and Spragg's a new book that Berg has read in galley form, "An Unfinished Life."

Berg's writing, however, is her own natural style.

For years, her books were read mostly by women. But men are rapidly becoming fans.

An author of 15 books, 12 of them novels, Berg, a former registered nurse, is a famous author who never studied writing.

"I didn't like leaving my children with baby sitters, and I was writing non-fiction, usually personal essays, for magazines," Berg said by phone from her home in Chicago. "Finally, when I was 42, I decided to give it a shot and write full-time. Now I find that all my creative energy goes into novels. I do an occasional essay.

"I think you're born a writer — or at least with a certain sensibility toward becoming one. Writing can't be taught. Writing is a joyful thing — my drug of choice."

Ever since writing her first and favorite novel, "Durable Goods," she has been increasingly comfortable in front of a computer screen. She usually writes for three or four hours at a time, and she is productive. Even when she is not actually writing, she is thinking.

Her new book "The Art of Mending" she considers "a dark, heavy story." It's about a woman named Caroline who was abused by her mother as a child, without the knowledge of either of her siblings.

"I learned of an experiment with animals and surrogate mothers," Berg said. "Even when the animals were abused by the mother, they would cling to her. Then I was struck by a photo of a sorrowful young girl at the Museum of Contemporary Art. That little girl became 'Caroline' to me, and I wanted to speak for her. She wanted so badly to be loved."

Berg never organizes or outlines novels in advance, but she collects interesting "tidbits" along the way that might be useful to her in writing. "Once I get going, the novel tells me what to do. It's as if a Polaroid photo slowly comes into view. I like it when the book takes over."