While I Was Gone

Now this unhappy era returns in the person of Eli Mayhew, who had been the odd man out in Jo's boho household. His appearance is both tantalizing and upsetting: "Inside, I slowed down. I felt numbed. I had two last patients, and then I told Beattie to go home, that I'd close up.... I refiled the last charts, sprayed and wiped the examining table. I reviewed my list of routine surgeries for Wednesday. All the while I was thinking of Eli Mayhew, and of Dana and Larry and Duncan and me, and our lives in the house. Of the horrible way it had all ended." Sue Miller's fine novel is a penetrating--and sensuous--portrait of a woman besieged by her conscience. While I Was Gone also demonstrates that in the face of distance and betrayal, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing indeed. --Winnie Wheaton

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

While I Was Gone, 2008-08-29
If you have a lot in common with the narrator (professional class woman/vaguely dissatisfied with everything), AND you don't like to think while you read, you may enjoy this book.

Normally, I would give a book 2 stars just for being able to reach people (which this does), but I can't because it was full of pretentious language and meandering descriptions/anecdotes which didn't really contribute to the plot or the characters. Also, it was poorly researched.

If you like reading about somewhat depressing family life and relationships, I recommend reading something by Ann Tyler instead (I actually don't like her either, but she's good at what she does.)The Amateur Marriage (Tyler, Anne (Large Print))


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

How to Be, 2008-08-21
This book grips you page after page. A book for all who have memories that harry or haunt, who have secrets they don't know how to tell or integrate into their lives, who wonder who people think they are and wonder who they are themselves. Simply one of the best books I've read on working through and integrating life's trials. Not an answer, but a hopeful pointer in the right direction. Past and present histories beautifully woven. Characters you care about, feel you know. Scenes that are real, sometimes frighteningly so. A book you won't forget.


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Baby Boomer Cliches, 2008-07-11
Occasionally I pick up the books my wife's book club has been reading, and I've enjoyed some of their selections. Not this time.

It was impossible to feel anything but dislike for Jo, the main character. She's just your typical self-absorbed Boomer baggage from her wild past. For 20-plus years, she's had a nauseatingly perfect life, with her little Monday adventures with her husband and her steady veterinarian practice. Even her ne'er do well daughter who is a roadie with a skanky rock band just happens to have the talent and soul to be a great singer herself. And the daughter is going to make it big in NYC as a singer and model. Spare me.

Then, just as Jo is having her midlife crisis, a man from her past (who she once saw naked!) appears. Predictably, she thrills at the touch of his arm. It's an arm with much more strength and power than the arm of her thin, pale, angular husband. Jo and Eli meet a few times, go over the murder of their former housemate, and .... [not gonna spoil it].

Here's the really weird part. Jo's descriptions of scenes of everyday life are wonderfully accurate. The author has a flair for noting how someone leans against a fireplace mantle, or what it's like to walk a dog late at night. But these moments of clarity are merely jarring in a book that is so full of baby boomer cliches.






1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Not Miller's best work, 2008-02-22
Try Sue Miller's other books, or read Rabid: A Novel by T.K. Kenyon or Bee Season: A Novel by Myla Goldberg.

I'm too young and too foreign to bring much to this book, but you shouldn't have to bring a similar history to enjoy and understand a book. I don't think I ever will understand why Americans in the 60's and 70's were so obsessed with very misrepresented Indian culture. The details seemed disjointed, and the culture of "free love" and bohemian living is so different from the type of world that I grew up in.

Beyond the setting and premise, the main character Jo Becker seems like a whiner who is always longing for something better than she's got. The ending was unsatisfying and unsettling, but not in a good way. My book club fantasized about more satisfying endings instead of discussing the book itself.

Sorry.

Minna


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Disappointing., 2008-01-16
I was really disappointed in this book and reminded not to assume a book is good because it has a lot of blurbs. This seemed more like a first novel to me. While it contained some scenes and snippets that were well-written, they seemed forced together. I never believed what the narrator was feeling towards her old housemate and it didn't help that he sounded like a jerk the whole time anyway. Instead of the story flowing, I felt that the author just wrote her way out of each situation. Really not good, and I was disappointed that I used up a couple hours of my life reading it.

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