Rating: 
Summary: Preferred "the Good Mother", but still an excellent book
Review: I am shocked at the extent of the negative comments readers have made about this book. I quite enjoyed this book, despite the fact that it is somewhat "flawed" --given Miller's amazing debut, and I am really pleased to see it chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Hopefully, this choice will expose her work to a larger number of readers than would otherwise have been the case. As a working and commuting mother with little time to waste on most of the fiction produced today--which I find to be either formulaic and trite potboilers, or self-conscious and pretentious bombast--I was engaged by this book within the first five pages. The story is very well written, and is fairly suspenseful with much emotional tension successfully conveyed. The worst one might say about it in the context of Miller's earlier work is that it doesn't have the coherent unity that "the Good Mother" did and its characterization is somewhat weak. I didn't quite understand why Jo remained so closed, despite the affection and warmth she inspired in others--and I did think the author could have done a better job at explaining why. This flaw accounts for my having given the book only four stars, although it did not prevent me from staying interested enough in both the characters and the plot to stay up quite late on several successive nights in order to finish the novel. I would suggest that these are very small criticisms in light of the poor quality of much of what is published today. I have no trouble at all recommending this book very highly. Miller is a very articulate writer with an ability to convey mood and emotion that many a good writer would envy. Although this is not her best work, it's still heads and tails above most of today's offerings. I would hope that many readers would try this book, as well as "The Good Mother", one of the most memorable books I have read in the last twenty years, in order to get acquainted with a very talented and promising writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put down!
Review: I read this book quite a long time ago. It's a great pick and one you can't put down. It really makes you stop and think how really small the world is. Buy this one - you'll like it
Rating:
Summary: Fine writing and real feelings
Review: This was my first experience reading Sue Miller. I was drawn tothe book by the multitude of good reviews from reputable publications, and those reviewers were right about this work. It resonates, it moves, it captures character, memory, emotion, and some of the mystery of human nature. The characters became so life-like for me while I was reading that I found myself thinking about them, psychoanalyzing their motivations, seeing their faces in front of me. I guess the book reached me in particular because I fall into Jo and Daniel's generation. I too experienced life in a group house in the late sixties and early seventies and I easily related to all the yearning and pent up idealism of those times. A word about Sue Miller's penchant for detail: I think what good literature does is sort out the details of living and make a work of art from them. The details draw you in, and finally produce emotional impact that stays with you. So if you have no patience for detail and just want lots of action, a la trash novels, stay away from this one. I for one am happy I discovered Sue Miller. The Good Mother is next.
Rating:
Summary: While I Was Gone
Review: This was my first Sue Miller book, but it will not be my last!I read "While I Was Gone" in a few days...Sue Miller has a gift as a writer to bring the reader inside the pages,the world, and situations she is writing about. I liked the main charactor, Jo....her honesty towards her husband, and I found out things about myself that I hadn't reflected on before. Ofcourse, Jo's husband was too good to be true, an angel really, to put up with her infacuations. One of my favorite parts is when Jo tells her husband about her "so called almost affair" and she knows he sees her walking out to her car, but he stands hidden in the garage. I think everyone should read this book, dive into the pages and swim directly into the lives of these characters ......You may just find something out about yourselves!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic yet real
Review: I absolutely loved this novel. The fact that Jo was such astrong woman, who had accomplished so much, was key. But the best part for me was some of Sue's writing, in which she/Jo expressed feelings I've had but have not been able to put into words. They were REAL feelings/fears/revelations, even in the context of this fictional work. It really blew me away. I've tried other Sue Miller books and not been as connected; this one really hit home for me.
Rating: 
Summary: while i was gone
Review: Well written, but uninteresting. Sue Miller can write, she'sgood at developing characters, and also at writing dialogue. But I found this particular story is quite ordinary, even though it deals w/a particular horrific event. It's surprising that there couldn't have been more of a payoff after going through this journey. By the middle I was so bored, but was determined to finish this book, hoping that it would have some kind of exciting finish. Very disappointing. I doubt I'll pick up her future books.
Rating: 
Summary: reviting it was not
Review: This book, in a word, was enjoyable. I wouldn't tell my bestfriend that she HAS to read this, I wouldn't tell her to stear clear either. It began okay and picked up when we flashed back to her days in Cambridge. When we were back though, it seemed to continue this build up but it did not have the bang that I felt we deserved. I liked the book, don't get me wrong but it didn't keep me up past my bed time like a good but should.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: Sue Miller is a fine writer whose greatest talent lies in herability to attribute passing insights and feelings to her characters that bring an "Aha!" of identification to the lips of the reader. The perceptions she reveals regarding how things seemed for us forty or fifty-somethings back in the heady counter-cultural days of 1969 youth culture, and how we think back on that time today, make this novel well worth reading. On top of that, there is a reasonably well-drawn "murder mystery" aspect to the book, as well. On the downside, once the "mystery" is set up fairly early in the book, things drag for quite a while. We read about Jo's daughters, her holiday traditions, her trip to church, sex with her husband. This part of the book seems kind of fragmented, never really seeming to fit into the larger tapestry of the novel as a whole. Her daughter Cass is interestingly "independent" as a rock singer--but so what? That Cass supposedly represents Jo's own "unfulfilled self" is kind of heavy-handed, and not particlarly convincing. Her other daughters are fairly bland--what's the point here? I also was uncomfortable with the "Eli" angle. This character goes from being a polite, sympathetically lonely representative of "the straight and scientific world" to monster extraordinaire. Are we supposed to infer something from this regarding the alleged value (or lack of same) of science and rational thought? And Jo's own motivation for her self-destructiveness is never made particularly clear, either. Sure, all of us have "secret thoughts" about doing this or that deed that might lead to ruining our lives. But most of us can clearly differentiate between fantasy and reality, and we make the wise choices. What is it about Jo and her background/psyche/mindset that leads her to do the extreme and ultimately foolhardy things she does? Since we never get a satisfactory answer to this, we have to conclude that the purpose of her personality is to be simply a "convenient literary vehicle," and that's not satisfactory to me. I still think that Sue Miller's best novel is *The Distinguished Guest*. I would recommend that book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book/Worth Reading
Review: Miller's book---the first that I've read of hers---is worthreading. While at times I felt the whole "mystery" of the book was a bit dramatic --Miller did a good job at conveying the main character's inner and outer conflicts. I felt like I understood her and at the same time I didn't really agree with her. The prose was finely wrought---though I felt like I was always coasting on Jo's surface never sinking down enough in her waters to feel contained by her--- I wanted to feel a sadness at the end--a kind of grief readers experience when the novel ends and a great character and a great book finishes its time with me. But all in all, you should read it. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Sue Miller Never Disappoints
Review: I got this book only because Sue Miller is the author. I hadabsolutely no idea what it was about, didn't even read the book flaps. I just plunged in expecting Miller's talent would shine through. I was NOT disppointed. She has such a way with being able to create an unusual but entirely believable situation and present it entirely from a woman's point of view. And not a sappy woman either. But strong and individualistic. Miller never breaks away to give the husband's or the daughter's viewpoint. It stays focused right on the main character, as painful as that may be. I could SEE this woman, and her home and her life and I could FEEL and identify with her every breath and emotion. An unsettling but fascinating read.
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