DATE: Sunday, June 1, 1997                  TAG: 9705210715

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY DIANA LYNN DIEHL 

                                            LENGTH:   53 lines

BERG REVISITS STRUGGLES OF JUNIOR HIGH

JOY SCHOOL

ELIZABETH BERG

Random House. 208 pp. $19.

In her latest female-in-transition novel, Joy School, a sequel to Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg remembers junior high school. She captures the stern gym teacher, a whistle around her neck, checking names off her clipboard of those who showered and those who didn't. She describes dreadful home-economics classes with inedible scorched puddings and dishcloth aprons. And she transports readers on the slow, bumpy, baloney-smelling school bus. But mostly, Berg pulls heartstrings with the first stirrings of young love.

Motherless, 12-year-old Katie tries her best to adjust to life in a small Missouri town when her father is transferred from Texas. In keeping with his military mind-set, Katie's dad is distant and more punitive than nurturing. What Katie really needs are parental acceptance, reassurance and love. Ginger, the family housekeeper, nourishes Katie with candy, cookies and room to grow.

Katie finds rejection from the twins next door, who leave nasty notes for her in the bushes, before befriending Cynthia, an oddball girl with a light-up dial Princess phone, a canopy bed and a controlling mother who never fails to point out Katie's inadequacies. By contrast, Cynthia's Italian grandmother, Nona, accepts Katie: ``I like-a you friend!''

Another new girlfriend, Taylor, is a rebel. She teaches Katie about clothes, makeup and shoplifting. On a double date with Taylor and two older boys, Katie decides she is definitely not interested in making out at the drive-in.

Then one fateful winter day, Katie skates alone onto a frozen pond, hits thin ice and falls through. She scrambles out of the cold water and hurries to a nearby gas station to warm up. There she meets Jimmy, 23, the handsome attendant, who gives her dry clothing, hot cocoa and a ride home. Katie is smitten. It is with Jimmy that she learns the joy of true acceptance. He wants nothing more from her than friendship. When Katie discovers Jimmy is married and has a child, she realizes ``love could take your stomach up in its hands and squeeze until it hurts.''

In her previous novels, Berg (Pull of the Moon) has effectively shown the developmental changes in a woman's life. Here she captures the essence of adolescence with all of its highs and lows. Readers may find themselves wondering which girl in their class was Elizabeth Berg, as well as recognize themselves sitting nearby. MEMO: Diana Lynn Diehl is a staff news researcher. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Elizabeth Berg

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu