Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ordinary life, but so moving, 12 Oct 2003
By A Customer
I tried another book by this author, 'For Love', and I couldn't get into it at all, so I was a little dubious before starting this one. However, I oughtn't to have worried, because I found the style of writing so soothing and the gentle, restful expression of everyday life so easy to relate to. Jo had been a teenager in the late sixties. She shared a house with several others, including her best friend, Dana, and (one of the least noticed of the group) Eli Mayhew. Jo had joined the household after running away from reality - her marriage to someone she hardly knew and the relentless pressure from her parents to conform. Upon making her escape, Jo had invented a new identity and a new 'past' for herself, keeping the truth from everyone, including Dana. However, one fateful day, Jo returned to the house to find Dana dead in a pool of her own blood, still warm, but with stab wounds to her face and body. Jo's grief was profound and her real identity became public in the face of the newspaper reports.
Years later, in the midst of a happy marriage, a face from the past appears in her life, jolting her back to those heady days before and up to Dana's death, making her reassess her feelings and drawing her into a situation that would change her life from that moment on. This is a story of love, trust, the fragility of fidelity and how one instant in your life can alter its course forever.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
slow, tense and moving, 11 Jan 2003
I was given this book as a gift and did not, at first, think I would like it, however I was won over by the beautiful writing and the unusually slow pace that still kept me interested. Sue Miller is a master at making the mundane, everyday tasks of life from walking the dog to a mother/daughter argument, sound interesting and special. Throughout the book I could not understand why Jo would want to jeopardize her happy marriage but in the end I found that to be the strength of the book as for once, the protagonist was not perfect, yet her husband was. Best of all I liked the fact that a Church Minister could be portrayed as someone so human and normal. This was definitely a page-turner and I plan to read more of Sue Miller's books.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I plan to read more by this author., 29 April 2002
The main character is a sensible, cautious middle-aged woman. She's been through a traumatic experience in her youth, but has successfully moved on and created a full and happy new life for herself. She has a career with animals that she loves, and has a family with a good man whom she still loves. So, I agree with the other reviewer; that does make her self-destructive and short-sighted decisions quite irritating and it is hard to sympathise with the character! The woman she is would think things through more! However, the story itself was engaging, so despite my exasperation with Jo, I still read on eagerly to see to what extent she would jeopardise her comfortable existence.
So many books I've read deal with the mother/daughter relationship from the daughter's point of view, that I enjoyed reading about a mother's thoughts on her 3 grown-up daughters.
I will read her new "other World" when it comes out in paperback in Ireland/UK. I may not warm to Sue Miller's characters, but I know will be absorbed by the story.
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