Customer Reviews

Family Pictures: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As the mother of an autistic child, "Family Pictures" wasnot easy to read, especially due to the eventual fate of the autisticbrother, Randall.

What I would like to say is that I have read a great deal about autism. Fiction, non-fiction, text books, first hand accounts and even how-to manuals, but this book, this NOVEL, was one of the most realistic, compassionate writings dealing with autism I have ever read.

It is heartbreaking in it's total honesty of life with an autistic. It deals with decisions and sacrifices that have to be made and yet, is told with love.

END

This is a great American novel, and one of my lifetime favorites. It is the story of how one family was forever changed because of a handicapped child, and how the entire family had to revolve around the needs of this child and his mother's selfless devotion to him, even at the expense of her marriage. She simply couldn't stop giving more of herself to him than to anyone else. This is a truly splendid book, and anyone who thinks there is trashy material in it is nuts.

A friend recommended Family Pictures to me when I was learning that my son had a disorder related to autism--although the impact of Randall's diagnosis created difficulties in this family's story, he also changed their lives in positive ways. I found courage in facing my son's diagnosis through the very human response of this family to Randall's difficulties. Sue Miller's writing is compelling. I loved the scene where the family photographs are viewed and one from Randall's babyhood portends the impact he will have on the family.

I have to agree with some reviewers that the author can write exquisitely. I also have to agree that I came away not totally understanding some of the characters.

Things jump around, but I'm flexible enough to follow along most times. The thing that bewildered me, however, was that the book shifts from first person to third person and back. You read the point of view of Nina, the family photographer, and settle into getting to know what you presume is the "main character". Suddenly, you flip totally out of her sphere and find she's referred to in the third person. Not only that, but she isn't the main character at all. The story is mostly about her parents. So you don't know where Nina's point of view went - or, more importantly, why it went away. It becomes "Nina's" story four short times without following any discernible structure, except (and I presume this - it isn't stated) that it's because she's a photographer and took pictures, and gave the book the title. You just have to accept that sometimes it's all about Nina. No telling why.

When it flips back to third person, the story switches back and forth between the points of view of several characters, mostly the parents and the non-autistic brother (and sometimes a third-person rather than a first-person Nina), moving the story along more or less chronologically through the 50s and 60s, then ending in the 80s where it began.

Within this shifting of time, place and viewpoint, the story describes a family whose autistic son/brother is both "not there" and omnipresent in their lives. He is the dominating influence on everyone without ever being mentally "with" them. The author describes the impact his life had on his parents' marriage and his siblings as they attempt to cope with their lives and his.

All told, even with the massive shifts in everything, I enjoyed the book, the writing, the story and the timeframe. I would certainly recommend it.

This book stuns me with it's detail--Miller writes like someone taking a photograph. I feel absolutely THERE when reading it, and feel as if I know every single character personally. Miller has the uncanny ability to create an almost 'voyeuristic' atmosphere in her books. I can't help but feel these characters are living and breathing. One of my all time favourites. I can't recommend it highly enough.

"Family Pictures" started off promising, but went downhill quickly. Too many words, but no action. Too many scenes in the book that had nothing to do with anything. Many times I was ready to put this book down and not finish it. What kept me reading was I wanted to know what happens to the Randall. I scanned the second half of the book.
Not one of Sue Miller's better books.

Set in the 40s, 50s, and 70s, this stirring novel examines the way a large family struggles (psychologically) with the autistic child in their lives. Different chapters have different voices; either the 3rd person narrator, or of the fourth of six children, Nina. Nina has the unique perspective of being the first of the three children born after Randall, the autistic boy. An observer and a thoughtful, clever child, Nina relates, through her younger and older self, what happens to the family during her childhood years and later makes some observations about 'why'. The older children seem lost, even as adults, and the younger ones seem to understand implicitly that they are expected to be good, easy, healthy, and most importantly, "well".... to make up for Randall's "unwellness". The New York Times reviewer wrote, "Ms. Miller is particularly good at dramatizing scenes of domestic chaos and the complex interplay of adults and children... the reader is irresistibly drawn through their pain by the author's exquisite eye for psychological detail..." "Family Pictures" tells the stories of every family - the hurts and misperceptions, the survival mechanisms that any child builds and the beautiful crazy ways a family learns to live with and love each other.

I couldn't put this book down. I loved it. Ms. Miller's detailed descriptions brought the book to life for me. I have read every other book by the author and my only disappointment is how long I have to wait between books.

I absolutely loved the book "While I was Gone" yet I had a hard time getting into this book. I think I had a hard time relating to the story. I pesonally felt that it didn't flow as well as the other book I mentioned before. It seemed a little drawn out at times. I always finish a book that is able to keep my interest, but this just didn't cut it.

Sue Miller does such a wonderful job with characters. There was nothing in this novel that could have stood by itself. It was all in the characters. Miller tells the story of a large Chicago family from the late 1940's to the 1980's. Although this book is described as a family whose lives focus around the autistic son, I felt as though it was more about everyone else. Miller lets us into the lives of all of the family, from the parents to the children. It seems to linger more on those who are deeply effected by the happenings within the family, and leaving some as intimate outsiders.

Although there isn't a huge plot, just the going's on of a family, I flew through this book.