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The Lake Shore
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Review
`Reading Sue Miller is like watching an invisible painter create a lovely, affecting work in smooth, expert strokes. Hovering close to her characters' smallest musings, Miller yet manages a pace both crisp and capacious...
In Miller's shrewd vision, people don't always play nicely - but the worst turmoil occurs within. Her signature gift is to lay out intricate, discomfiting truths in graceful, clear sentences that never fail to engross and comfort...
The astute New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani has noted, of Miller's oeuvre, that Miller "suggests that people have a primal need to ... figure out who they really feel themselves to be and why they've made the choices that they have." Richly layered, these self-examinations drive "The Lake Shore Limited" to a subtle, piquant, satisfying closing. What seems oddly striking is the hushed quality all that interiority lends a drama generated, this time, by the external noise and chaos of an unforgettable September day.' --The San Francisco Chronicle
`Matthew Arnold said about Wordsworth's poetry that it had no "style," not to dispraise it but to distinguish him from other poets. Like her predecessor, Miller seeks and impressively succeeds in finding what Wordsworth called "a plainer and more emphatic language" to express "essential passions of the heart." Her art is to find those passions and that language' --The Boston Globe
`Miller's exquisite new novel, "The Lake Shore Limited," is so sophisticated and thoughtful that it should either help redeem the term "women's literature" or free her from it once and for all...This is emotional terrain some people won't feel comfortable in, but it's gorgeously drawn and told with stark honesty.' --The Washington Post
`By writing alternating sections of the novel from different characters' points of view, Ms. Miller not only conveys the subjectivity of all experience but also succeeds in creating a haunting chamber-music piece with many different solos.
The result is her most nuanced and unsentimental novel to date. This is a book that does not depend on big, noisy plot developments, topical issues or deliberately withheld secrets to create suspense. Rather, its power grows from Ms. Miller's intimate understanding of her characters... and from her Chekhovian understanding of missed connections, lost opportunities, and closely held memories that mutate slowly over time... Ms. Miller gives us a knowing meditation upon the acts of alchemy and theft that constitute an artist's work: a meditation that sheds light on her own craft, so meticulously showcased in this novel.' --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
'I was very moved by this subtle and truthful book. Sue Miller's writing, while never showy, builds an honest, elegant world around the reader' Sadie Jones 'A deeply affecting examination of the thoughts and feelings of four people still moving in the shadow of that tragedy ... exquisite' Washington Post 'An acutely observant writer capable of revealing painful emotional truths about the human condition ... heartbreaking' Sunday Telegraph 'A haunting chamber-music piece with many different solos...The result is her most nuanced and unsentimental novel to date' New York Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When an author reads his or her own work quite often an awareness, an understanding not only of the story but of a character's psycheto enriches the narration. These subtleties of meaning would be difficult for even the best trained actors access but it is all there in the mind of the author who, after all, is the creator of the tale. Such is certainly the case with Sue Miller's narration of her 11th novel THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED.
It is a story hinging on a play penned by Wilhelmina "Billy Gertz, a complex figure who reflects emotions that many of us feel, anger, conflict, a desire for validation. Six years ago Gus, Billy's lover, was killed in a 9/11 plane crash. The couple had been cohabiting but Billy intended to end their relationship. Now, with Gus dead she's unwittingly placed into the position of being thought a tragic figure, a widow - sort of. After this length of time she is more than ready to move on.
Leslie, Gus's sister is unable or unwilling to do the same. She holds on to Billy, presumably either in memory of or to honor Gus, despite her husband's pleas to let go. In Boston, as the opening of Billy's play nears, Leslie issues an invitation she believes helpful - she invites Sam to meet Billy after the performance.
Billy's play concerns the terrorist bombing of a train as it pulls into Chicago's Union Station. A man is waiting to hear whether or not his estranged wife who was on the train managed to escape alive. A parallel between the way Billy waited for news of Gus? Of course. Rafe, the lead actor in the play delivers an astounding performance, only to be filled with regret that he has called upon the impending death of his wife to provide the tears he needs to shed on stage.
The performance of the play has a dramatic effect on the lives of all. Miller's scenario may also have an effect upon us, causing us to reflect upon the losses in our lives and how we have responded to them. THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED is poignant, real, unsettling, and proves once again that Sue Miller is a major literary talent.
- Gail Cooke
It is a story hinging on a play penned by Wilhelmina "Billy Gertz, a complex figure who reflects emotions that many of us feel, anger, conflict, a desire for validation. Six years ago Gus, Billy's lover, was killed in a 9/11 plane crash. The couple had been cohabiting but Billy intended to end their relationship. Now, with Gus dead she's unwittingly placed into the position of being thought a tragic figure, a widow - sort of. After this length of time she is more than ready to move on.
Leslie, Gus's sister is unable or unwilling to do the same. She holds on to Billy, presumably either in memory of or to honor Gus, despite her husband's pleas to let go. In Boston, as the opening of Billy's play nears, Leslie issues an invitation she believes helpful - she invites Sam to meet Billy after the performance.
Billy's play concerns the terrorist bombing of a train as it pulls into Chicago's Union Station. A man is waiting to hear whether or not his estranged wife who was on the train managed to escape alive. A parallel between the way Billy waited for news of Gus? Of course. Rafe, the lead actor in the play delivers an astounding performance, only to be filled with regret that he has called upon the impending death of his wife to provide the tears he needs to shed on stage.
The performance of the play has a dramatic effect on the lives of all. Miller's scenario may also have an effect upon us, causing us to reflect upon the losses in our lives and how we have responded to them. THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED is poignant, real, unsettling, and proves once again that Sue Miller is a major literary talent.
- Gail Cooke
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this novel to be Sue Miller at her best. There are many interesting levels and layers, her characters are so real, so human and their inner worlds are achingly honest. It deals with loss, guilt, confusion, loneliness, social fears and ultimately coming to terms with one's own reality - however difficult that process should be. If you enjoy Sue Miller, Anita Shreve, Elisabeth Berg - you'll love this book!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read lots of extremely positive reviews I was really looking forward to reading this book. But what a disappointment. I felt I had to plod my way through 256 pages. The only gripping passage was when Billy learnt of Gus' death as a victim of 9/11 and had to decide how to deal with it. Apart from that there was no real plot, and the greater part of the book was just boring.
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