Rating: 
Summary: OK at the beginning
Review: At first I was really into this book, but near the middle I lost interest. I like the writer's style, but didn't really care for the story. I couldn't really relate to Eli Mayhew, and didn't really care about the relationship between him and the main character. The daughters were not really likable either.
Rating:
Summary: I Didn't Get It
Review: Why would the protaganist dare to throw away a perfectly good and loving marriage to have an adventure with a guy she sort of knew way back when? It's not as if she had loved him, and, furthermore, hadn't seemed to be attracted to him when they were young. One point against the plot.Second point: Eli's confession was so silly. Why now? Why to her? What was the point? Third point: I'm no prude and I've read the best of them, but what did the heavy sex scene with her husband add to the plot. It seemed that Miller's editor told her to throw a couple of pages of heavy panting into a boring book in order for it to sell. Sorry - Miller has done better.
Rating: 
Summary: While I was plugging throught this bomb...
Review: What a disappointment! This book was so frustrating I actually threw it down when I finished. The characters were horribly one dimensional and difficult to understand. The daughters were each a stereotype: the goody-goody, the hellraiser and the snotty rich one. Jo, the main character, made odd decisions in regards to keeping all kinds of personal information secret even when she knew it was hurting her family. Her choices were all bad and unconvincing because they seemed to clash with her character. The worst part of this book is by far the confession of the killer. Why would he meet her in a bar and confess to a murder that happened thirty years ago, just out of the blue? Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and pick a better book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Why the Stereotypical Scientist?
Review: While Miller writes well in a mournful way, a feminine counterpart to Chris Bohjalian's mournful men, this comment is directed at her disparaging treatment of scientists. She presents Eli Mayhew as a cold, emotionally bereft misfit, as a person who does not measure up to the remainder of the characters (most of whom are artists, ministers, or blue-collar workers). Ultimately he is revealed to have committed a deranged act. Miller creates an image no better than that of the 1950-era movie mad scientist. She could have chosen a less anti-intellectual way to construct the participants in her story. Carl Witthoft (physicist, musician, athlete, and most of all father)
Rating: 
Summary: A tough book to like
Review: While I was Gone by Sue Miller was a difficult book to enjoy. I found that the book was written well, but it was hard for me to have any sympathy for the main character, Jo Becker: a 50-ish woman, married, three daughters, and had a thriving career as a veterinarian. But despite the good things in her life, she is drawn to her distant past that she had kept secret from her children for decades. She meets and reacquaints herself, through one daughter's professor in college, with a man she hadn't seen since the 1960's, a man whom she shares a terrible secret. The book is written in the present, but takes a u-turn into Jo's past when she meets this old acquaintance, Eli, and then relives the rather bohemian lifestyle when she lived with a number of housemates a year or two after leaving her first husband, a college sweetheart. The past reveals a different side of Jo, a side that her daughters are not aware of, and a side that her current husband, the father of her daughters, cannot comprehend, but had accepted, or so Jo thought. What I didnt' like about Jo was that it seemed that throughout her life, she was running away from her problems. She ran away from her first husband by joining a group of people and living a bohemian life. Even as an adult she was running away, if not physically, at least mentally and emotionally. I find that distasteful in a person, and therefore I had a very hard time liking Jo. Despite this fact, I enjoyed the story for what it was: a psychological look into a person and how tragedies in this person's past shaped her and changed her to what she became in the present. Despite the many negative aspects of the story (dont' expect a happy ending), I found this book to be very enjoyable on a different level. I didnt' like Jo, but I found myself very interested in what happens to her, and what happened to her in her past. For this reason, it didnt' take me long to finish this book. I almost couldn't put it down. I recommend this book, but with a warning - you will probably not like Jo Becker. Be prepared for that!
Rating:
Summary: Very Touching Emotional Drama
Review: Sue Miller does a great job capturing the feelings of isolation and loneliness a person experiences. The book is not action packed but has lots of emotional substance. It left me thinking for a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: While I Was Gone will grab and hold onto you.
Review: Life is full of reinventing ourselves. Maybe we all don't remake ourselves to the level that Jo does when she transforms herself more than once in this book, but I think everyone can identify with the need to change, to evolve. While I Was Gone takes us through many of Jo's defining moments and allows us to travel those new beginnings with her. A beautifully crafted book with an unexpected twist in the plot, While I Was Gone was a thought provoking, powerful read.
Rating:
Summary: realistic
Review: For those of you who didn't like this book, you must be too young to understand the complexities that life will eventually hold. Miller expertly shows the inner conflict you can have between your romanticized younger life and the reality of what your life is today. I felt it was a very enjoyable book - I couldn't put it down until I finished it.
Rating:
Summary: Rambling story about unlikeable characters
Review: Just because it's an Oprah read doesn't mean it's a worthy read. I found this book rambled on, back and forth in time, in an annoying manner. The characters are all unlikeable, I found myself not caring at all about the main character and very annoyed at her whole demeanor. I'm surprised I made it to the end of the book. I guess I had hoped it would get better. It didn't. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was done with the whole ordeal.
Rating:
Summary: Skillfully Written!
Review: Warning! This book is so artfully crafted that you won't want to put it down. Like watercolor brushstrokes, a few carefully chosen words paint an image which the reader fills in with her imagination and experience. Every seemingly insignificant detail reappears later in the story, giving it rich texture. This one's a keeper, to be enjoyed again and again.
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