While I Was Gone (Abridged)

Rating:
Summary: A good read!
Review: My reading group read this book. Everybody in the group reallyliked the book. I could understand how Jo got caught up in the past.( I felt it was a believeable scenario) Sometimes when we're going day to day raising a family working, trying to make ends meet etc etc. Then something comes back to remind us of our past and the "carefree days" you can get caught up in it, and romanticize about the past. When Jo runs into this man from her past she gets caught up in it. And almost throws everything away. She also never seems quite satisfied with her life no matter how good things are. In the end she doesnt go through with. But not because she relizes what she is doing is wrong, and just plain dumb, but because of other circumstances. I took away from this book is that Yes! life when you were younger may have been happy go lucky and more carefree than what you have now. But if you have a good life now dont throw it away to try to recapture the past. Leave the past in the past and go on and be happy of where you are right now!

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, satisfying fiction.
Review: It took me two evenings to read Miller's novel that offersinsights into the lives of middle agers who went through some harrowing experiences in the 1960's. Expieriences that inevitably serve to shape the course of their lives to come. How we live and how we constantly mediate our outer existences with our inner desires is crafted into an interesting read. Sue Miller seems to get better and better at revealing some of lives truths and mysteries, making the reader reflect on, and sometimes cry about the lives the reader is presently inhabiting.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging, masterful, thought provoking
Review: I inhaled this book. The characters were beautifully real, thestoryline complex and surprising. The writing is masterful, astonishing. Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: NOT GREAT, BUT OKAY
Review: I am a Sue Miller fan from way back when - the Good Mother andFamily Pictures are among my favorite books. This book certainly kept my attention and evoked a lovely sense of place and time, but it was disappointing. The marriage between Jo and Daniel bordered on nauseating, and the sex scenes were so overdone that I felt as though I were reading a bodice-ripper. They were totally overdone and quite graphic. Spare me! Good fiction doesn't need this. Overall,okay story but disappointing and not up to Sue Miller's usual standards. - wait for the paperback

Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Read, But Cheaply Melodramatic
Review: Jo has a happy, secure life with her loving minister husband,Daniel, in a picturesque New England town. One day Eli Mayhew moves to town. Jo knew Eli in the Sixties when they lived in a commune in Cambridge with several other people. Jo joined the commune after running away from her first short-lived marriage. The commune exists happily, until Dana, it's brightest member is visciously murdered, the murder never solved. The tragic results of what happens when Eli meets Jo again after all these years is the 'stuff' of this book. But this murder mystery in the guise of a contemporary woman's novel is cheaply melodramatic and Jo is a very unlikeable, self-centered character, although the portrayal of family life is excellent, especially the depiction of Jo and her difficult twenty-something daughter, Cass. If I want to read outstanding murder mysteries I'll stick with authors like Ruth Rendell. She does this sort of thing so much better.

Rating:
Summary: A must read, instant bonding for women over 40
Review: I just finished Sue Miller's While I Was Gone and can't wait toread her other books. This story moved me, many of the situations described in it regarding children, sense of self, and relationships were right on the mark. Miller takes these everyday situations and vague thoughts all of us have and gives them clarity. To be able to write so that your reader knows exactly what you mean and can visualize the scene is a gift and Miller has this gift and shares it with us often. One powerful example of this talent is her chapter dealing with the death of a parishioner in the small Massachusetts town where the main characters, Jo and Daniel live and work. Miller's treatment of the sermon following the death of a young mother was both enlightening and comforting. She says exactly what you want to hear without being trite. This story is realistic and at the same time it makes you feel good. I hope you read this book.

Rating:
Summary: While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Review: I read this book over a two day span - I couldn't put it down. The clean writing in this book explained feelings so obscure in such a normal way that anyone could have related. I loved the main character the most - and her loving husband. This book makes me look at my husband differently and has given me the foresight to appreciate life and what it hands me. The main character, Jo, has so much to be thankful for - yet she lets herself be taken back in history to another time and life she led, and it gets her in trouble. This book gives you the chance to think about things in a new way, a way that might not have even come up before. I like the captivating way Sue Miller writes and look forward to reading another one of her books.

Rating:
Summary: Reading in Florida
Review: I thought the book was well-written but somewhat dark. Jo seemed to be afraid of any significant emotional committment throughout her life; consequently, she seemed somewhat shallow. I couldn't help wondering if she was drawn to her second husband -- a minister -- as someone 'good' who would counteract the 'bad' things that had happened during her life in Cambridge. It appeared that she just wanted a 'safe' life, a life that wouldn't make too many demands on her emotionally. I also felt that this inability to commit was probably why she became a Vet -- animals love unconditionally and require very little in return. All in all, a thought-provoking book.



Rating:
Summary: The grass is always greener . . .
Review: Miller does a wonderful job with both plot and character development in this novel, which was a New York Times bestseller and a Ballantine Reader's Circle book. The protagonist, Jo, is finely drawn and very complex. Sometimes I empathized and identified with her and other times I thought she was immensely selfish.

A basic plot sketch - Basically, Jo ran away from her "safe" life as a married teacher when she was young, opting instead for life in a house full of other young people who didn't know about her past. This part of the book is described in a free, easy style that I really enjoyed. Although I didn't grow up during the sixties, I felt as though Miller gave a good picture of what it might have been like. Life in the house ends with a violent crime, and the "friends" scatter to the winds to live their separate lives. Jo later re-marries, has three daughters, and enjoys a fulfilling job. Her life seems almost idyllic. Then her past comes back to torment her in the form of an old friend (and her overactive memory/imagination). It is her own selfishness, however, that causes the most trouble for her in the end.

I really identified with Jo's intermittent feelings of restlessness; she feels sometimes as if she wants to live more fully, take more risks, to feel more free and passionate about her life. She yearns for the way she felt during her youth. I think everyone feels this way sometimes. But Jo decides to pursue this longing the wrong way, in a way that causes pain to those she loves. I find it interesting that she rarely stops to think about how her words and actions will make her devoted husband feel.

Despite not feeling totally sympathetic to Jo's character, I loved the book. The characters seem very real, and I enjoyed reading about them. Based on this novel, I'll definitely read more Miller.

Rating:
Summary: Great story about Fixing the wrongs in your life
Review: While I Was Gone -- by SUE MILLER; is a exceptional, intelligent writing at its best - Absolutely Fantastic, compelling and suspenseful all at once. I didn't want to put it down. It compares to "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel" by Rebecca Wells; "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb, "When It Rains" by Marjorie Spoto, "Drowning Ruth" by Christina Schwarz and "The Davinci Code" by Dan Brown. A Must Read.