Rating: 
Summary: Flawed and dull
Review: I've read all of Ms. Miller's books, but this one never really caught or held my attention. I guess I wasn't that interested in the Grandmother's story...and then when it hit present day, it seemed to be all talk, talk, talk. When Cath, the main character, first arrives at the home, it was interesting...but then nothing really happened. We get some of the Grandmother's backstory...then some of Cath's story and read over and over (and over) about her two flawed marriages. About page 120, I started to skim. And skim. And skim. To sum up, well-written (as always) -- just not very interesting, and really lacked narrative drive.
Rating: 
Summary: Sue Miller Never Fails Me
Review: If you're looking for an author to love, a consistent choice for your reading list, and characters that stay with you, pick up any Sue Miller book. This one didn't fail me. Miller takes on a reflective character who looks back on her past, as well as lives in her current life and challenges. It's a joy to read about a woman attempting to make healthy choices for her life. There's a description of an underwater town in this book that haunted not only the pages, but also my mind. Miller has a unique way of making "the world below" an integral, yet tiny part of the overall story.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly disappointing
Review: It was obviously a mistake to read The World Below right after Miller's big hit While I Was Gone. I cannot percieve how the very same writer could possibly have produced these two works. There's a WORLD of difference between them. While I Was Gone was vivid, dynamic, absorbing, worth reading and remembering. The World Below is downright mediocre. Dull. Deadly slow. Not wanting to leave it unfinished out of my respect for Miller's earlier works, I forced myself almost unsuccessfully to skim-read it. I just couldn't wait to start a new book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Great, Not Bad
Review: My first impression after reading this book was like many other reviewers: fair, not great. It seems I spent most of the book searching for the real story and I'm not convinced it ever came along. I enjoy multi-generational storytelling, but this approach seemed disjointed here and I was often confused as to which mother or daughter or timeframe she was describing. None of the characters were very engaging and mostly they all seemed distant from me as a reader. At the end, I wasn't sure what the main character Cath had resolved or what she wanted or what she was hoping to find in her journey to her grandparents' home and back. Essentially she was on some sort of journey but she never got there in any sense, and it seemed like nothing ever really happened overall. Sue Miller has some excellent books and I would definitely recommend "While I Was Gone". Though I wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading "The World Below" since it had one mildly interesting story, that of Cath's grandmother Georgia, I certainly wouldn't be able to recommend the book overall.
Rating:
Summary: Not Great, Not Bad
Review: My first impression after reading this book was like many other reviewers: fair, not great. It seems I spent most of the book searching for the real story and I'm not convinced it ever came along. I enjoy multi-generational storytelling, but this approach seemed disjointed here and I was often confused as to which mother or daughter or timeframe she was describing. None of the characters were very engaging and mostly they all seemed distant from me as a reader. At the end, I wasn't sure what the main character Cath had resolved or what she wanted or what she was hoping to find in her journey to her grandparents' home and back. Essentially she was on some sort of journey but she never got there in any sense, and it seemed like nothing ever really happened overall. Sue Miller has some excellent books and I would definitely recommend "While I Was Gone". Though I wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading "The World Below" since it had one mildly interesting story, that of Cath's grandmother Georgia, I certainly wouldn't be able to recommend the book overall.
Rating:
Summary: gentle, but not compelling
Review: Oh, I was disappointed, and I read all of Sue Miller. This is a then-and-now story, but it's simply slow. Very little "happens." The author does far too much "telling" and not enough "showing." And far too much "seeming" and "feeling" than actual doing. I made myself finish the book, but was relieved when it ended. Sue Miller is capable of much, much better.
Rating:
Summary: This is my first Sue Miller book
Review: She is an excellent writer but I'm a little perplexed about why she began with the death of her grandmother's mother; then the suicide of her mother; then the aunt's death;then with her own role as a mother; then the grandmother's death; then with her daughter's beginning role as a mother....then failed to connect them. Once her grandmother mused, "I wonder what would have happened if I'd gone to live with my grandparents." Why was the aunt Rue mentioned so prominently if we were not going to learn what estranged her from her mother? There was no mention of her son as a child but he reappears by sending a box of gifts from South America; how and why was he there? I can understand the need to explore our own "worlds below," but this one seemed boring to the author. Therefore the issues that she raised were treated as page fillers, rather than roads on the path to the past.
Was she making a statment about the mental illness of her mother and the hatred harboured by her aunt? How did the exhaustive look into the lives of her grandparents impact on the lives of her aunt and her mother?
Any of these characters and their milieus could have been interesting, but after Miller mentioned them she just left them there. That's how I felt when I finished this book: abandoned.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Tapestry
Review: Sue Miller has done a masterful job with this new book, which is as good as her best known work "The Good Mother". She skillfully interweaves the story of middle-aged Cath, at a crossroads in her life and trying to decide which path to travel, and Cath's grandmother Georgia. Using Georgia's diaries, Cath pieces together stories her grandmother told her with the diary's cryptic entries, and eventually she understands the events that shaped her grandmother's destiny. Both stories are equally well-told, but the tale of Georgia's days in a sanitarium recovering from TB, a deadly disease in those days, is especially fascinating. The sanitarium was its own world, and people whose time may have been short made their own rules. I just met Sue Miller and found out that she based much of this story on her own grandmother's diaries. Readers that enjoy contemporary fiction from thoughtful authors such as Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Berg will surely love this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: Sue Miller is a wonderful writer and expresses things quite well in her books. This one is no exception. She introduces us to Cath and her grandmother Georgia. Cath is a twice divorced mother who has inherited her grandmother's home and decides to go there to sort things out in her life. She discovers her grandmother's diaries and we get a glimpse into her life and times. The story on TB and the stay at the san was really well done. I did feel like I knew Georgia's character better than Cath's though. I enjoyed the flashbacks and the development of the characters. An enjoyable book. Worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: The World Below
Review: Sue Miller knows characters. She knows how to build them so subtly that you feel like you knew them right from the start. That is what happens here with both Cath and her grandmother, Georgia. We learn about Georgia as a young woman, what she went thru in the sanitorium, her marriage, and her relationship with Cath. And we go through Cath's need to just get away from everything she knows in California and soak in her past in Vermont. Those looking for plot driven novels need not apply here. This is solely character driven and if you like these characters, you will fly through this one.
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