While I Was Gone by Sue Miller Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of While I Was Gone
Book Review: A WORTHWHILE READ -- A GOOD OPRAH PICK
Summary: 4 Stars
When Oprah announced this as her latest pick, I was happy because this book has been sitting in my bookcase for over a year waiting for me to read it. I finished it in two days and was happy I finally had the impetus to read a Sue Miller offering. She is a gifted and talented writer but in this book she gives you a main character, Jo Becker, who you love at times and want to strangle at others. It's terrible to say but during the book I kept saying to myself, "what a jerk she is." I know that's not a great descriptive word but it fits. This is a character who always thinks there is something better around the corner and although she's been married for 25 years, wanderlust is lurking around every corner. While devoted at times (to animals), I found her shallow both in the way she treated her husband's profession as well as her daughters. Over the years, Jo had lived a kind of quirky lifestyle and 25 years later, an old friend comes back into her life and wreaks havoc. The unfortunate thing is that it didn't have to be this way but wonderful Jo allowed it to be. For anyone who has lived through the 60's or even thought about free, communal living and is now living in just the opposite lifestyle, you will probably find this book as page-turning as I did. I felt that I was rushing the book because I wanted to see how it would end. This is not your typical Oprah dysfunctional family book set in the South -- rather it is set in the North but a bit dysfunctional all the same. Definitely worth the read.Book Review: Feminests take a stand!
Summary: 3 Stars
I think this book portrays women as weak, helpless human beings. Women do not need to depend on their husbands for everything. Take a stand! This is wrong! Should we be stuck in the kitchen wearing aprons? NO!Actually, I'm just joshin' with ya. This book was awesome, or was it? You be the judge. I rather enjoyed this book.
Book Review: I have always loved sue miller
Summary: 5 Stars
ever since THE GOOD MOTHER I have been entranced with this fine author. There is no novel of hers I would not heartily recommend; she is in the company of anne tyler, jane hamilton, and jane smiley in that she never dissapoints, alwyays creates frightening real, seemingly ordinary but enigmatic, multi-layered characters, and a plot that moves along like a brook. oprah has done an outstanding job in choosing this book....now let the masses consume the work of a subtle and masterful writer...Book Review: The Costs is much too Great when you look for answers....
Summary: 4 Stars
that lie in the past... I read this book a plane flight I took last spring (march 1999) & it will remain a story I will return to in my mind when I begin to question my own past; and wonder whether or not I made correct judgements....both; then & now. While reading this I was amazed at the J.'s tenacity to get at the truth; irregardless of the personal costs. Although I understand her, not everyone does, including in that group her own husband...So in the end; does the truth really matter?Book Review: Read this and wish you were reading it, While You were Gone
Summary: 2 Stars
I have enjoyed Sue Miller in the past, but this book just didn't do it for me. While the premise got my interest, the plot is so thinly constructed and the characters so unexceptional, I plowed my way through the book thinking, "I wish I, too, were gone." Finally, the resolution is disappointing and one closes the book thinking, "What a dissatisfying ending to a dissatisfying book."