While I Was Gone Summary and Reviews

While I Was Gone
by Sue Miller

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Book Summary Information

Author: Sue Miller
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Published: 2002-11-26
ISBN: 0345420748
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Book Reviews of While I Was Gone

Book Review: Baby Boomer Cliches
Summary: 2 Stars

Occasionally I pick up the books my wife's book club has been reading, and I've enjoyed some of their selections. Not this time.

It was impossible to feel anything but dislike for Jo, the main character. She's just your typical self-absorbed Boomer baggage from her wild past. For 20-plus years, she's had a nauseatingly perfect life, with her little Monday adventures with her husband and her steady veterinarian practice. Even her ne'er do well daughter who is a roadie with a skanky rock band just happens to have the talent and soul to be a great singer herself. And the daughter is going to make it big in NYC as a singer and model. Spare me.

Then, just as Jo is having her midlife crisis, a man from her past (who she once saw naked!) appears. Predictably, she thrills at the touch of his arm. It's an arm with much more strength and power than the arm of her thin, pale, angular husband. Jo and Eli meet a few times, go over the murder of their former housemate, and .... [not gonna spoil it].

Here's the really weird part. Jo's descriptions of scenes of everyday life are wonderfully accurate. The author has a flair for noting how someone leans against a fireplace mantle, or what it's like to walk a dog late at night. But these moments of clarity are merely jarring in a book that is so full of baby boomer cliches.

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