while i was gone book summary

Publishers Weekly 245 (November 2, 1998): 68. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies and shadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love. However much she sympathizes with characters like the protagonist of The Good Mother, who is forced to choose between her lover and her children, Miller will not perpetuate the faith that pervades this permissive era, that one can have it all. But she feels a sense of unease. 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. Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Author Become a Member and discover books that entertain, engage & enlighten. His voice was grave, a series of quick, short responses. Just $12 for 3 months or Jo Becker has an almost idyllic life with a devoted husband and three grown daughters with talent and promise. After all, it is just her word against his, and even her daughter Sadie finds Jo’s story hard to believe. While I Was Gone is that special breed of book that plummeted to 2- and 1-star territory after chapter 10. He went to change, and I moved more slowly now around the kitchen. Feb 1999, 265 pages Jo’s abortive affair with Eli begins innocently enough. "I'm so sorry." While I Was Gone Book descriptions A decade ago she put a face on every mother's worst nightmare with her phenomenal best-sellerThe Good Mother.Now, Sue Miller delivers a spellbinding novel of love and betrayal that explores what it means to be a good wife. Recalling that experience, she always had to remind herself that once her girls became adults, she could no longer protect them by persuading them to come to her. Drawn deeper into her memories of that fateful summer in 1968, Jo … She began in the present, related an episode from the recent past and then, when the encounter with Jean Bennett made further explanations necessary, proceeded to a straightforward, chronological account of what transpired thirty years in the past, events that, Jo hints, have since come back to haunt her. While I Was Gone might be described as the story of a midlife crisis. 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. After this introduction, Jo proceeds to relate her story. More By and About This Author. And while I found the book very engrossing and the writing superb, I couldn't keep my mind off "who-done-it" and it did spoil the fun for me. Daniel turned his back to me while he talked. As she tells her story, it becomes increasingly evident that until Eli came back into her life, Jo had never come to terms with her own identity. It might seem that While I Was Gone is primarily a story about relationships between men and women, contrasting sexual obsession, like that which drives Jo toward Eli, and real love, which Jo had experienced with Daniel. 1 talking about this. Reviews | Already a member? 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. Unlike the other narrative, which consists of dozens of incidents, for the most part this account is psychological. Throughout her works, Miller emphasizes her belief that life is made up of a series of difficult choices and that when one makes the wrong choice, one must face the consequences. In While I Was Gone, Sue Miller again addresses the issues related to sexual love, maternal love, marriage, identity, and morality that she introduced in her first novel, The Good Mother (1986), and later explored in Family Pictures (1990), For Love (1993), and The Distinguished Guest(1995). Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. When Bennett brings an ailing dog, Arthur, to Jo’s office, Jo discovers that Jean’s husband, a prominent biochemist, is the same Eli Mayhew who was Jo’s housemate some thirty years before. Excerpt | Reading Guide | A decade ago she put a face on every mother's worst nightmare with her phenomenal best-seller The Good Mother. Not long after this, Scarlett moves away. The windows had gone black, they were steamy with our life. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. While I Was Gone by Sue Miller l Summary & Study Guide. Jo worried almost incessantly about Cass, the musician, who had no fixed residence and never seemed to plan beyond her next gig. Learn More . Okay. Library Journal 124 (January, 1999): 156. ... while Silas, a vampire, becomes Bod’s guardian since he can pass for human and fetch food from outside the graveyard. Paperback: Okay, okay. 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. For the Detailed Plot Summary, click here or scroll all the way down. Venne fuori che, mentre ero via, anche qualcun altro era stato un buon amico. A veterinarian, unhappy in her life and in her marriage to a minister, treats a dog whose condition is so bad it may have to be euthanized. She has not told the full … Even while she worried about Cass’s feckless existence, she did not admit to herself that she herself had a much more serious problem, a habit of running away, and not only from others but also from herself. "— Fiona Davis. The town and surrounding areas become encased within an impenetrable barrier that burns to the touch, with many of its inhabitants developing supernatural powers. Jo tells herself that inviting the newcomers to a party at her house is just a matter of courtesy, and there is an added reason to do so since Sadie will be at home, and Jean is her favorite professor. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Content includes books from bestselling, midlist and debut authors. While I Was Gone is a story of how the forgotten past and lessons not learned come back to influence the present and future. A site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy. It was therefore very easy for her to add another role to her repertory, that of mistress, and even to play all these parts at once. Laurel, her mother, along with the rest of her family was left with no answers in a case that failed to produce any leads. From the very beginning, Jo is attracted to Eli, although she is not yet obsessed with him. At this point, he cannot see any hope for their marriage. Sometimes he picked up his fishing rod and reeled it in a bit, pulling it one way or ... More books by Sue Miller Laurel’s life has been on hold in many ways since her daughter’s death, but she meets a new man, Floyd, and finds herself drawn in by his charm. Now Jo has everything she's ever wanted: a veterinary practice she loves, a devoted husband, three grown daughters, a beautiful Massachusetts farmhouse. "Yes," he said. Publish your book with B&N. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. However, throughout the second major segment of the novel, which begins with Eli’s appearance at the beginning of the seventh chapter and concludes with Jo’s rejection of him at the end of the eleventh chapter, the author maintains not one, but two story lines, each representing one of the two lives between which Jo eventually must choose. Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. If you liked While I Was Gone, try these: A spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. It seemed that she did indeed have everything. When in the course of investigating Dana’s murder the police found out who Jo was, she ran away again. 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. Logline: Suspicious his brother is stealing from him, Lucas goes on a search through town to confront the problem. 19 quotes from While I Was Gone: ‘I felt the kind of desperation, I think, that cancels the possibility of empathy...that makes you unkind.’ ... Rate this book. 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. Moreover, she found her career as a veterinarian fully as satisfying as her husband Daniel did his work in the ministry. The New York Times Book Review 104 (February 21, 1999): 10. However, for some reason, she did not admit her deceit about her identity even to Dana. It was a time of limitless possibility, but it ended in a single instant when Jo returned home one night to find her best friend lying dead in a pool of blood on the living room floor. Everything quieted. Word Count: 1888. Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Readalikes | Then an old housemate reappears, sending Jo back to a distant past when she lived in a communal house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the four chapters that follow, Jo relives that time when, bored with life as a medical student’s wife, she fled to Cambridge, assumed a new identity, and moved into a house with six other young people. The While I Was Gone Study Guide contains a comprehensive summary and analysis of While I Was Gone by Sue Miller. The Christian Century 116 (March 10, 1999): 267. One of Jo’s most vivid memories is of the day her two toddlers got out onto the roof, and she had to coax them back to safety. What is the weight of the stories we choose to tell...and the burdens of those we hide? 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 includes a detailed Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Character Descriptions, Objects/Places, Themes, Styles, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion. 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. He sat still a long time between each pull. 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. by BookRags. The chapter ends with Daniel’s sermon at a funeral service for a young mother, a sermon that aroused in Jo a sense of joy and of commitment to her husband that she had not experienced for a long time. Detailed plot synopsis reviews of While I Was Gone; Jo rushed into marriage and a career as a teacher only to find she was vaguely dissatisfied, enough to run away from both. Although Jo does decide to report his confession to the police, the matter is dropped for lack of evidence. Jo summarizes what followed in the sixth chapter of the novel, how she went home, got a divorce, went back to school, met and married Daniel, settled down in Adams Mill, produced three daughters, and reared them successfully. However, another important theme in the novel is the love of parents for their children and, since the narrator is a woman, specifically maternal love. Possibile contenuto inappropriato. However, Jo now remembers that for some time before her past came back to claim her, she had felt increasingly disconnected from her husband and from her whole comfortable but predictable world. A decade ago she put a face on every mother's worst nightmare with her phenomenal best-seller The Good Mother. The oars dripped and then slowly stopped dripping. Article "While I Was Gone a War Began" is a narrative or lyric poem, a type of poem that is noted for having a lone character speaking about a personal concern. She was much too busy to think much about that strange period when she had suddenly dropped out of sight and made herself into someone she was not. Now, Sue Miller delivers a spellbinding novel of love and betrayal that explores what it means to be a good wife. Full access is for members only. When he hung up, I said, "She's dying." Last night I couldn’t put this book down and ended up finishing it at 1am, but it was definitely worth losing a few hours of sleep. The novel started out well enough. 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. However, during the evening, Eli makes so vicious a verbal attack on Daniel and the beliefs that are the basis of the minister’s life that there is no possibility of any more socializing between the two couples. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Even the slower passages and asides are engaging. The Jo whom readers meet at the beginning of the novel is a very different person from that confused young woman. What is particularly ironic is that all the time she was worrying about Cass, Jo herself was rushing toward disaster, and since no one else knew about it, there was no one to keep her from falling off the roof. At the end of While I Was Gone, Jo has realized that she can never again disappear from her relationship with her husband. Jo chooses to ignore Eli’s evident contempt for Daniel and agrees to meet Eli for a quiet lunch. In the final section of While I Was Gone, Eli gradually fades into the background. My husband's back was to me as I lay in the hard curve of the bow. When she came home that fall, however, Cass amazed and delighted her parents by announcing that she had finally decided on a career and was off to New York to become a model. One of the narratives focuses on Jo’s family, her work, and her activities within the community. Feb 2000, 265 pages. CBS produced a TV movie, While I Was Gone in 2004 based on the novel. ©2021 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. And if occasionally she feels a stranger to herself and wonders what happened to the freedom she once felt, or how she came to be the wife, mother, and doctor her neighbors know and trust--if at times she feels as if her whole life is vanishing behind her as she's living it--she need only look at her daughters or her husband, Daniel, to recall the satisfactions of family and community and marriage. The police were never able to identify the murderer, and the housemates dispersed. Almost as soon as they meet, however, Eli confesses to murdering Dana and proceeds to recite all the distasteful details. When she was with Dana, Jo felt freer than she ever had before. Immediately download the While I Was Gone summary, chapter-by-chapter analysis, book notes, essays, quotes, character descriptions, lesson plans, and more - everything you need for studying or teaching While I Was Gone. However, Jo also knows that individuals can never fully know each other or even themselves, and therefore they must learn to bridge the gulfs between themselves in the only way they can, through forgiveness. While I Was Gone is a 1999 novel by Sue Miller, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in May 2000. Spam Free: Your email is never shared with anyone; opt out any time. Yes. "I know." Horrified and frightened, Jo eludes Eli, finds her car, and races back to Adams Mill, where she repeats Eli’s story to Daniel. That said, there's slow bit in the middle where I felt the narrator's boredom a little too keenly and… To Jo’s amazement, Daniel is not particularly interested in the murder of someone he never met; what does concern him and, indeed, devastates him is Jo’s betrayal of him and everything they have had together. We’ve discounted annual subscriptions by 50% for COVID-19 relief—Join Now! Gone is a bestselling book series written by Michael Grant.. All rights reserved. She has three dynamic daughters, a loving marriage, and a rewarding career.

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