While I Was Gone by SUE MILLER Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of While I Was Gone
Book Review: I suppose I should have skipped this one
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is heavy with angst, I suppose. I suppose, I did not care for any of the characters. It was actually depressing, I suppose. All the characters sounded alike to me. How many times can one say, "I suppose," in a novel. Well, I wished I had started counting from the beginning, because there must be over 100 "I supposes." It was so distracting!!! After a while it was about how many "I supposes," I could find in one page. And all the characters spoke the same. And Daniel, please for being a minister he sure knows how to meet out punishment, for a crime that never even happened. Oh my God. If you have limited time, skip this book! Book Review: Oh my!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a page turner. The flawed main character is so real and so complex. When I love the first ten pages of a book I read it in one setting. Sue Miller's book had me from page one.Book Review: Not worth your time
Summary: 2 Stars
I will not rehash the details of this book, but I will tell you that if you have little time to read and therefore have to seek out quality literature that will allow you to escape from the daily grind and perhaps even provoke thought, this is not the book for you. There are some well-written passages in this novel, but that's about it. Like many other readers, you may want to scream about the lack of closure and the injustice of it all. That a murderer gets away with a cold, brutal killing and life goes on will be insufferable for many.
That a woman chooses without much thought to jeopardize her solid, perhaps too comfortable marriage for a relationship with a man from her past - now that could happen. Yet the question remains, do we as readers ever develop any empathy for the characters in the story? The answer in my case and in the case of many other reader-reviewers is an emphatic no.
You decide, but if you seek out memorable works you may be very disappointed in this disjointed, affected novel.
Book Review: Attempts at redemption
Summary: 3 Stars
Jo Becker enters a marriage which her parents think is suitable, but which soon seems like a trap to her. She runs away to Boston and ends up living with several others her age. She loves the closeness she feels with the others in the house and the lack of responsibility in their lifestyle. When her closest friend in the house is killed, the group breaks up and they go their separate ways. She returns to her home, divorces her husband and meets Daniel whom she marries. She becomes a vet and she and Daniel become the parents of three girls. Her life is going well until one of her old housemates shows up and she feels an undeniable attraction to him, threatening everything she has come to hold dear.
I found Jo Becker to be a very unlikeable character. Her solution to any problem seemed to be to run away from it, regardless of what effect this had on anyone else. She came across as selfish and secretive, depending on the steadfastness and goodness of her husband Daniel, but not reciprocating these qualities in her relationship to him. Her housemates were equally unlikeable, totally wrapped up in themselves and doing what pleased them, again with no regard for anyone else. The author's gift seems to be in describing her characters' thoughts and actions in a way which makes them very real, but I couldn't get past the self-centeredness and lack of insight which made the main character so unlikeable and thus, so unsympathetic.
Book Review: okay
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm trying to diversify my reading. Chose this one based solely on blurbs.
Writing is good, competent, but not magical or even making me want to anxiously flip the pages.
The character is a bit cliched...and there is too much telling and self-examination used to move the story forward.
If Miller had chosen to delve into a relationship crisis, I think Jo and Dana would have been much more interesting...much more interesting to follow and see how it resolves itself. Miller skimmed the surface of possibilities with those two, but then didn't ultimately "go there", as another reviewer said.
I read some of Miller's bio and it seems she definitely tries to write what she knows...
An okay read redeemed by good writing and a few memorable scenes.