While I Was Gone [LARGE PRINT] [Hardcover]

Sue Miller (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1ST edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375705716
• ISBN-13: 978-0375705717
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forgiveness and redemption overcome horrific past event!, March 21, 2000

By 

Kay Mitchell - See all my reviews

This review is from: While I Was Gone (Hardcover)

Once again, Sue Miller has written a thoughtful and powerful story, this time about Jo Becker, a woman of quiet integrity and trustworthy love. Her marriage to a kind and gentle minister, their three precocious and talented daughters, and her much loved profession as a veterinarian place her in positions of high regard and respect in her community and great affection and love with her family. But Jo has a past life that she cannot forget, partly because of the role she played at a time when she was searching for her own identity, and largely because of a tragic and horrific event that brought that other life to a screeching halt. When a friend from that past surfaces in her small Massachusetts town, the memories come rushing back with a vividness akin to the actual time, and she relives the tragedy once again. She is drawn to this old housemate in a strange and frightening way, a sexual fantasy that not only attracts but also repels her. This is a story about trust and betrayal . It takes us to the edge of that certainty of how well we can know a person, even if we have lived with them for years. It also reminds us of how we can return from the edge of heartbreak and despair through faith and the abiding affection that sometimes exists between people who truly love each other. Miller's characters are real and if they suffer, the reader suffers with them, hoping for forgiveness and redemption.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sue Miller Never Disappoints, January 9, 2000

By 

C. Lacher "armchaircritic" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: While I Was Gone (Hardcover)

I got this book only because Sue Miller is the author. I had absolutely 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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We all have secrets, March 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: While I Was Gone (Paperback)

We all have secrets from the past. If you don't believe that, perhaps you shouldn't read this book! But if you do accept that truth, you know that as we reach "a certain age" we have to reconcile our past and our present lives. That is the subject of this book. My life is certainly very different from Jo's, but I can really identify with her. Sue Miller is a talented writer, and While I Was Gone is a gripping novel. I especially enjoyed the interview with the author and the questions for reading groups in the Ballantine Reader's Circle edition.