while i was gone book

Well, without spoiling anything, While I Was Gone was an immediate attention grabber, well written, and who wouldn't want to run into an "old friend" from our younger past, from our younger self, of who we are not today. It hasn't changed us in your eyes to know this." She’s quite startled to hear it’s become Dana’s great quest to find out more about her. . . I heard my grandfather preach, I heard my father preach, and lots of their friends, and I knew the ones my parents thought were better than others. The narrative pacing is masterly, building tension even in the most psychologically subtle passages. You don’t entertain a lot of other points of view; you don’t have to account for facts beyond the blinkered vision of the narrator. While I Was Gone (Book) : Miller, Sue, 1943- : Jo Becker has everything a woman could desire: a loving spouse, contented children, and a nice dog or two. Jo is a very happy person who can’t rest with that happiness.MH:And what about Daniel? And so we drove along in silence, too, and I looked out the window at the back roads that sometimes seemed utterly rural, part of the nineteenth century, and sometimes seemed abruptly the worst of contemporary suburban life: the sere, beautiful old fields carved up to accommodate the too-wide circular asphalt driveways, the too-grand fake-garrison-colonial houses.We lived in the center of town, an old, old town-Adams Mills, the Adamses long dead, the mills long burned down. Daniel worked silently at the sink, his thoughts elsewhere. "How nice, to be a happy man," I said.He looked over his shoulder at me, to get my tone. Should all secrets be told? Don't forget to print your list of official Oprah’s Book Club selections and mark the ones you’ve completed. Dana's life . "Will you go and visit Amy?" Somehow impartial, unattached-an observer. Sue Miller is the bestselling author of the novels The World Below, For Love, and The Good Mother, among others. There are always compromises, of course, but they are at the heart of what it means to be married. . Im 14 so the feelings of beeing trapped and alone wihen your not relate to me but in a diffrent way. How were you moved by it as a reader? I empathized with Jo, the main character, as she looked back on running away from an unsatisfying relationship. . . I'm a veterinarian, and the crises among animals are less complex, more manageable, than those of humans-actually very much a part of my choice of profession.Daniel had turned slightly from the counter to listen to the calls, and I watched his face as he took them in-one about relocating a confirmation class because of a scheduling conflict; one from Mortie, his assistant pastor, reporting on the worsening state of a dying parishioner Daniel was very fond of, a young mother with cancer; one from another minister, suggesting he and Daniel try to "pull something together" among their colleagues about some racial incidents in the three closely adjoining towns around us. I saw them in a boat, my mother reading, my father fishing. 10. So those were intentional moves—those three bloody scenes which echo each other—although I’m not sure you think of these things absolutely ahead of time. While I Was Gone (Book) : Miller, Sue : Riveting . . Directed by Mike Robe. Is she referring to herself specifically, or to all parents? She has three dynamic daughters, a loving marriage, and a rewarding career. She’s not self-centered, she’s other-directed, but she’s a little frightened of human beings. . Do fantasies have a morality? She was so alien to me, this person who was a little unconscious of things around her. She’s very loving, she loves her family—but remember that scene where her husband is holding the twins and they’re wailing and she just leaves? "We used the barn as a garage now, and Daniel had his study out there, in a small heated room at the back. I turned it on. . My mother would come home and throw down her hat and say, “Well! “[While I Was Gone] swoops gracefully between the past and the present, between a woman’s complex feelings about her husband and her equally complex fantasies–and fears–about another man. It was very pleasurable to write.MH:There are many instances of such virtuosic writing to admire in While I Was Gone, not the least of which is the sermon Daniel gives. CBS produced a TV movie, While I Was Gone in 2004 based on the novel. We are experiencing technical difficulties. "You fat-ass pig!" . . 12. poignant . But I was slow to warm up to Jo as a character because I knew she was limited. "I refilled the dogs' bowl with water and poured some more dry food for them. . But this time, she’s able to perceive Daniel’s ability to choose whether to hurt her or not, and of course he doesn’t. Each character was feeling better and better about the other person for these different reasons. Should she have confessed her romantic intentions with Eli to Daniel? Jo shines steadily as the flawed and thoroughly modern heroine. The first lie Jo tells about herself when she moves into the house on Lyman Street is her name—she calls herself Felicia Stead. Is this an important lie? While I Was Gone [celebrates] what is impulsive in human nature.”–The New York Times“Miller weaves her themes of secrecy, betrayal, and forgiveness into a narrative that shines.”–TimeJo Becker has every reason to be content. She has three dynamic daughters, a loving marriage, and a rewarding career. . This was a familiar riff, and as I headed to the john, I threw back my contribution: "Dogs! . 2. Or my husband went fishing and I went along, usually with a book to read. Earn Points, Discover Recommendations, Receive a Birthday Gift, and More! IT'S ODD, I SUPPOSE, THAT WHEN I THINK BACK OVER that happened in that terrible time, one of my sharpest memories should be of some few moments the day before everything began. While I Was Gone [celebrates] what is impulsive in human nature. That is hard on him.MH:The opening of the book is so luminous and dark. . . The main characters of this fiction, womens fiction story are Joey Becker, Eli Mayhew. ingenious thriller that . One wall was completely covered with pictures she'd cut out of magazines. . She’s done what she’s wanted to do, and she’s not at all unhappy with herself. "), discuss the theme of forgiveness in the novel. . Clear rating. Drawn deeper into her memories of that fateful summer in 1968, Jo begins to obsess about the person she once was. Fifteen years later, Joe ... #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK ... #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK Her obsession with that period of her life and with the crime that concluded it eventually estrange Jo from everything she holds dear, causing her to tell lie after lie as she is pulled closer to this man from her past—and to a horrible secret. Sara Kaplan is the perfect seductress—a vivacious young lawyer tired of being single. . While I Was Gone [celebrates] what is impulsive in human nature. Do you feel that either of them ever really has to face the consequences of their mistakes? POWERFUL. B.A., Radcliffe College, 1964; M.A.T., Wesleyan U., 1965; Ed.M., Harvard U., 1975; M.A. Daniel is put in this incredible position where he’s actually grateful for such a thing, which he feels very horrible about. . . about questionable engagements—and a love worthy perhaps of the big screen.Florist Abby Crompton has a knack for arranging the most exquisite bouquets for the hippest ... Members save with free shipping everyday! While I Was Gone is an exquisitely suspenseful novel about how quickly and casually a marriage can be destroyed, how a good wife can find herself placing all she holds dear at risk. Dogs are so great, how they come running to greet you when you get home, how they make you feel like you count, even when you don't." While I Was Gone by Sue Miller tells of the story of Jo Becker, a veterinarian in Adams Mills, Massachusetts, who has an ideal life with her three daughters and husband. Riveting . . But to no apparent purpose.If I were trying to account for this feeling, I might say that it had something to do with the way I was half lying, half sitting on several pillows in the bow, the way the curving walls of the old rowboat framed a foreground for my view as they rose away from me. She turns away from what’s complicated. She has a sense of being “utterly present and also, simultaneously, far far away.”SM: The opening came right out of that poem of my mother’s I used for the epigraph:Cedar waxwings dart among the swallowsIridescent fish with wings,Layers of life above the water.Under, the trout.I wanted to use that image, which is one that I connect to my parents. She could have shielded Daniel from the knowledge that she had been prepared to commit adultery, but to do so she would also have had to shield Eli. And I thought he was a little abstracted in his approach to Jo. Nothing excited them more. "Boy, it is sure nice to have dogs! After Eli's confession Jo has to make a series of difficult choices. By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Sue Miller's WHILE I WAS GONE is a compelling story filled with emotion, suspense, and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia that promises to keep the reader engaged until the very end. And in addition, he’s someone who believes, deeply, that her intent to sleep with someone else is nearly as serious as doing it.MH:Although if she’d been really focused on it, she probably wouldn’t have talked so much to Eli but just pulled him upstairs to the room.SM: Except that Eli’s focus was entirely on the talk. Jo Becker has built a wonderful life for herself in central Massachusetts, as she balances her life and career as mother, wife, and veterinarian. She has also written the story collection Inventing the Abbotts and the memoir The Story of My Father. The first edition of the novel was published in January 1st 1999, and was written by Sue Miller. . Even though we know he’s going to forgive her, he really takes his time. [Miller writes] well about the trials of faith.” –The New York Times Book Review “Quietly gripping . 11. . "I've worked the rest of my life to assure that who I am has some meaning, some value beyond this part of my past . There were stark photos of dancers in radical poses, of nearly naked models in perfume or liquor ads, engaged in moments of stylized passion, there were romantic and soft-focus views of places she dreamed of going to-Cuzco, Venice, Zanzibar. Along the other side of the green there were shops: a small, expensive grocery, a video store, a store with high-quality kitsch-stoneware, cute gardening tools, stationery, rubber stamps, coffee-table books, Venetian-glass paperweights. Summary In the summer of 1968, Jo Becker ran out on the marriage and the life her parents wanted for her, and escaped — for one beautiful, idyllic year—into a life that was bohemian and romantic, living under an assumed name in a rambling group house in Cambridge. short by her kidnapping and brutal murder, young psychologist Jeremy Carrier is left emotionally devastated, haunted by his lover’s grisly demise—and eyed warily by police ... NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Before The Dante Chamber, there was The Dante Club: “an ... NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Before The Dante Chamber, there was The Dante Club: “an . . What do you think the author believes, and why? . She just moves fast, without fully taking into account thewidening circle of effect she has on people. I felt very excited in a certain way. The impossibility of the old version's vanishing." . "When I came out, a few minutes later, all three dogs had finally bestirred themselves from wherever they'd been nesting and were whacking their happy tails around the kitchen. While I Was Gone is an exquisitely suspenseful novel about how quickly and casually a marriage can be destroyed, how a good wife can find herself placing all she holds dear at risk. As in her 1986 novel, The Good Mother, Miller shows how impulses can fracture the family.”–USA Today“Marvelous . Sometimes he recast, standing high above me in the boat, the light line whipping wider and wider, whistling faintly in its looping arc across the sky before he let it go.It was a day in mid-fall, well after the turning of the leaves. While I Was Gone was an immediate attention grabber, well written, and who wouldn't want to run into an "old friend" from our younger past, from our younger self, of who we are not today. And what I recollect of that Monday, that fine fall day, is that for some long moments in the boat, I was suddenly aware of my state, in a way we aren't often. There’s a distancing quality in that, an unwillingness to sit with someone in the ambiguity of her life, which could be very irritating to another, and is part of why Jo withholds certain things from him. Yeah, a lot of people feel that way. He began to reel his line in.I turned and stretched. In the air above us swallows darted-dark, quick silhouettes-and once a cedar waxwing moved smoothly through them. . Everything quieted. I can think of few contemporary novelists–John Updike and Frederick Buechner are two others–who write so well about the trials of faith. There were three messages, all for Daniel, which was the way it usually went, except when I was on call. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. she's you." At one point she’s talking about the series of near-flings she’s had, the times she’s been tempted sexually in her life before Eli, and she says, “I assume Daniel has had the same thing.” She is simply not that curious, so she doesn’t really know. Of doing it well and thoroughly and neatly, as I liked to do things, and simultaneously of being at a great distance from my own actions.Or at home, setting the table, sitting down with my husband to another meal, beginning our friendly evening conversation about the day-the house quiet around us, the old dogs dozing under the table or occasionally nuzzling our feet. It swoops gracefully between the past and the present, between a woman's complex feelings about her husband and her equally complex fantasies—and fears—about another man. . This was different: there was, I supposed, no next thing. In what sense are the "trout" in the book's epigraph, and the "deep water" in this passage, metaphors for a universal experience? She feels that he has given the sermon to her and that he is a wonderful man and she just sort of runs out in the rain thinking, “my husband.” That really engaged me. In her letter to Sadie, Jo writes, "Now there's a different message, I guess, something having to do with our inability to know or guess at the secret depths of another person." . Nicholas Lyon is the perfect husband—a handsome divorce attorney who dotes on his wife and ... Nicholas Lyon is the perfect husband—a handsome divorce attorney who dotes on his wife and While I Was Gone Sue Miller, 1999 Random House 304 pp. More By and About This Author. [Miller writes] well about the trials of faith.” –The New York Times Book Review “Quietly gripping . That is, I was abruptly and most intensely, sharply aware of all the aspects of life surrounding me, and yet of feeling neither part of it nor truly separated from it. She doesn’t consider the effect her name change has on anybody, or the effect of never having discussed certain things with her children, or how they might feel when they do find out about her first marriage and other details of her life before them. As in her 1986 novel, The Good Mother, Miller shows how impulses can fracture the family. Is it possible to ever really know another person? That was just not worth going to at all!” Oh, she’d be so mad about this or that! A sense suddenly of being utterly present and also, simultaneously, far, far away.Now I stirred, shifted my weight. Is there a reason for your return to a first-person narrator?SM: I thought first person would carry me into it much faster. While I was working, I heard Daniel leave the kitchen, headed across the yard to his office in the barn to make his calls.WITH THE CLOSING OF THE DOOR I FELT RELEASED FROM THE awareness of his sorrow that had held me in his orbit. While I Was Gone is a story of how the forgotten past and lessons not learned come back to influence the present and future. What does Jo mean by this? What do you feel about Jo as a mother? . Sue Miller's WHILE I WAS GONE is a compelling story filled with emotion, suspense, and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia that promises to keep the reader engaged until the very end. In those early years we sometimes made love in the boat when we were fishing, or in the woods-we had so little time and privacy at home.It was a Monday. I'd often thought this was what made him so good at what he did, that he held on to some part of himself through everything. His approach to life is that we can talk this through, we can work this through. Would Jo's betrayal of Daniel have been more profound if she'd actually had an affair with Eli? Even when the girls were small and it was harder to arrange, we managed at least part of the day alone together. I thought While You Were gone was a wondeful novel! Where is he in his life?SM: It’s lots less clear, in part because Jo is the narrator and she doesn’t really think about Daniel all that much. ""I've got two reasonable ones. Then, an old roommate reappears to bring back Jo’s memories of her early 20s. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. Now Jo has everything she’s ever wanted: a veterinary practice she loves, a devoted husband, three grown daughters, a beautiful Massachusetts farmhouse. That is some of what’s appealing about her but also what makes it hard for people around her who care for her deeply to feel close to her at times. "I don't know," he said without looking at me. I think he’s a workaholic like all ministers are.SM: I thought so too. If you know the story you want to tell, once you get launched in the voice, it’s very uncomplicated in a certain way: You have just this limited perspective in which to tell the tale. "And I meant it," I answered.As we rowed back, as we drove home, I found myself wanting to tell my husband about my feeling, but then not knowing what to call it. -The New York Times Miller weaves her themes of secrecy, betrayal, and forgiveness into a narrative that shines. (Laughs.) The narrative pacing is masterly, building tension even in the most psychologically subtle passages. What didn’t you like about it?SM: I felt far away from it. and, most particularly, her reflections in the novel's closing pages ("Perhaps it's best to live with the possibility that around any corner, at any time, may come the person who reminds you of your own capacity to surprise yourself, to put at risk everything that's dear to you. For example, the image of blood: The first time Jo gets spattered by blood is when she witnesses a bar fight and is thrilled; then she finds Dana bleeding to death and, of course, is horrified. Above him there was the flat, milky-blue sky and sometimes, when we were close enough to shore, the furred, nearly black line of the spruces and pines against it. [Miller writes] well about the trials of faith.” –The New York Times Book Review “Quietly gripping . How does this relate to Jo's experience in Cambridge? In expert strokes, Sue Miller captures the precariousness of even the strongest ties, the ease with which we abandon each other, and our need to be forgiven. "Riveting . One night Cassie said to Jo, "I know who Miraculotta really is, Mom . Discuss this in relation to the end of the novel. AWARD • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York TimesThe Pulitzer ... NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   When his passionate romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut ... NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   When his passionate romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut . Celebrate Black Authors, Leaders, and Creators! . He sat still a long time between each pull. And then, I wanted to call it While I Was Gone and I didn’t see how I could write it in the third person and turn around and call it that. The New York Times Miller weaves her themes of secrecy, betrayal, and forgiveness... Free Shipping on all orders over $10. MANY READERS WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO FORGET. She has not told the full … Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. She has not seen him since their disagreement the night before; yet as she leaves the church she feels "such a wild reckless joy and excitement that I wanted to yell, to dance under the pelting rain. "–USA Today. 9. Sue Miller Booklist Sue Miller Message Board. . While I Was Gone is an exquisitely suspenseful novel about how quickly and casually a marriage can be destroyed, how a good wife can find herself placing all she holds dear at risk. Then with the tomato, I wanted to depict a nearmurderous rage in a safe relationship, which is the one she has with Daniel.MH:Which provides a remarkable juxtaposition between Eli and Daniel: Eli gets mad and kills someone; Daniel gets mad and throws a tomato.SM: And Jo is splattered as she was with the bar fight. Is this legitimate? What should Jo have done? I really liked Jo, I identified with her. “Riveting . "–Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer"A BEAUTIFUL AND FRIGHTENING BOOK . While I Was Gone might be described as the story of a midlife crisis. I’d rather overwrite and then cut down, letting stuff occur to me that I may choose not to use in the end, rather than never allowing something to bubble up to the surface. Has Eli redeemed himself? Lots of people have talked and written to me about the book and there’s a range of opinion about Daniel, but one opinion that quite a few people have expressed to me is that he’s simply too good to be true.MH:Well, I see big flaws. Now, Sue Miller delivers a spellbinding novel of love and betrayal that explores what it means to be a good wife.In the summer of 1968, Jo Becker ran out on the marriage and the life her parents wanted for her, and escaped–for one beautiful, idyllic year–into a life that was bohemian and romantic, living under an assumed name in a rambling group house in Cambridge. Light from the hall fell in long rectangles on the old painted pine floors. . A NEW NOVEL OF GREAT INTEGRITY AND POWER . . . 13. . I was trying to suggest very clearly that she misread Eli’s every step toward her. He would feel called upon to offer comfort. . What does she mean by this? Layers of life above me. Jo has a complicated past that resurfaces when she has a chance encounter with an old acquaintance named Eli. But she just hasn’t ever asked him. . While I Was Gone celebrate[s] what is impulsive in human nature. Jo’s not at a stage of her life where she’s changing radically or growing. "–Time"FASCINATING . . Who reminds you of the distances we have to bridge to begin to know anything about one another. Despite having a loving husband, three vivacious daughters, a beautiful home in rural Massachusetts, and satisfaction in her work, Jo Becker's mind is invaded by a persistent restlessness. "—CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT   The New York Times"MILLER WEAVES HER THEMES OF SECRECY, BETRAYAL AND FORGIVENESS INTO A NARRATIVE THAT SHINES. I liked only that part of the problem, being too young for something. While I Was Gone Overview. Seemingly unconnected to what followed, this memory is often one of the first things that comes to me when I call up those weeks, those months-the prelude, the long, beautiful, somber note I heard but chose to disregard.This is it: silence between us. . . This article about a 1990s novel is a stub. "—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel"MARVELOUS . I think he is much more wounded by what Jo does because he does feel so content with her and is not restless or questioning his life.MH:And he gets so angry at her. An extraordinary book, her best, from a beloved American writer. What about the stories Jo makes up about her background? I found that the book was written well, but it was hard for me to have any sympathy for the main character, Jo Becker: a 50-ish woman, married, three daughters, and had a thriving career as a veterinarian. It was all right to imagine this, I said to myself . In expert strokes, Sue Miller captures the precariousness of even the strongest ties, the ease with which we abandon each other, and our need to be forgiven. Also, I certainly knew patterns that people used in making sermons; certain turns they took, and the kind of coming back around that they would do. Then he wrote a novel savaging everything in town, a novel that became a national bestseller and a huge hit movie. A decade ago she put a face on every mother’s worst nightmare with her phenomenal best-seller The Good Mother. While I Was Gone is an exquisitely suspenseful novel about how quickly and casually a marriage can be destroyed, how a good wife can find herself placing all she holds dear at risk. . It hits “the long, beautiful, somber note” Jo mentions and sets the tone for the rest of the novel. 8. Later she makes reference to a similar feeling on Daniel's part—"the momentary possibility that he didn't know me at all"—and she recalls her mother's words after her mother's confession: "We're the same, aren't we? What relationship, if any, does memory have to morality? I asked.His plaid shirt pulled and puckered across his shoulder blades with his motion. Look in particular at the scene where Daniel waits in the shadows for Jo to depart ("He's seen me in the car, and he's stopped there, waiting. He doesn't realize I've seen him. The birds above, the trout below. . . "—The New York Times Book Review"QUIETLY GRIPPING . While I Was Gone Book Summary and Study Guide. What do you think of Daniel and Jo's marriage? First there’s the blood she takes all this pleasure in, feeling that she’s experiencing something raw and tough and real. She’s a very decisive person. What's changed? Because of all this, we felt connected to the house's life as part of a farm.Yet at the front of the house we were townsfolk, connected to the village. . How do this passage, and the epigraph, work together to express the novel's themes? The book was published in multiple languages including English, consists of 266 pages and is available in Paperback format. He registered everything quickly, transparently-with these calls first annoyance, then the sag of sorrow, then a nod of judicious agreement-but there was something finally self-contained about him too. Sign up for news about books, authors, and more from Penguin Random House, Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network. I was back, solidly in time, exactly where we were. Jo Becker has built a wonderful life for herself in central Massachusetts, as she balances her life and career as mother, wife, and veterinarian. A good sermon is not the same as a wellorganized essay, or a well-structured story; it’s more a lacing together of abstract ideas and concrete illustrations in such a way that meaning accretes and accretes. . . She has three dynamic daughters, a loving marriage, and a rewarding career. He doesn't want me to see him. Not Daniel's church, it's true, and we looked at its back side-its rump, the girls had called it-but it was a splendid civic vista nonetheless. . Doug (my husband) works at a homeless shelter, and he was talking to a male nurse there who’d gone out on a call to pick up a guy who’d been stabbed. I'd always loved looking at him. But she feels a sense of unease. But there are aspects of her character that have remained unexamined, blind spots that she never discusses.MH:Yes, this book seems to be about those unexamined aspects rearing up, demanding attention. And then realize, oh, there’s just more of this. In expert strokes, Sue Miller captures the precariousness of even the strongest ties, the ease with which we abandon each other, and our need to be forgiven. . I wrecked one life, yes. But he seems to be very content in his life and not to be undergoing the same kind of questioning that Jo is. . . ") In fact, writing that sermon was a real turning point in the book, in terms of involving me in Jo’s character—after she hears the sermon she’s in love with Daniel all over again in an active and excited way. Between all these worlds and part of none of them.But this isn't what I really believe; I think the sensation came from somewhere within me.We feel this way sometimes in adolescence, too, surely most of us can call it up. "—Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer"A BEAUTIFUL AND FRIGHTENING BOOK .

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