While I Was Gone

De: Sue Miller

Narrado por: Blair Brown

A decade ago she put a face on every mother's worst nightmare with her phenomenal best seller The Good Mother. 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. 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.

Now Jo has everything she's ever wanted: A veterinary practice she loves, a devoted husband, three grown daughters, a beautiful Massachusetts farmhouse. 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.

But when an old housemate settles in her small town, the fabric of Jo's life begins to unravel: Seduced again by the enticing possibility of another self and another life, she begins a dangerous flirtation that returns her to the darkest moment of her past and imperils all she loves.

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. 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. An extraordinary book, her best, from a beloved American writer.

©1999 Random House, Inc.; 1999 Sue Miller

Enjoyed this very much!

After reading the initial reviews I was hesitant to listen to the audiobook. I was prepared to not really enjoy this book. But I enjoyed it thoroughly. Although part of the storyline and the ultimate ending were somewhat predictable, it still left me eagerly anticipating if what I thought would occur actually would take place. I listened to it in its entirety in one night. I would definitely recommend it.

Unexpected

This book was FAR from what I expected & not one I would have chosen, but it's well written. I was uninterested more than half way through wanting it to be over & then my attention was grasped with the shocking reveal. It is Not a revelation of while she was gone & how she would grow & develop during that time as I thought it would be, but instead how she left one husband & life & was ready to leave again until... Even though the situations were different. A story of things & people not being what or whom they seem. A story of the need to share faults with someone else in order to recognize & forgive oneself.

Enjoyable

Nobody describes the verisimilitude of marriage or family life better than sue Miller, sometimes not everyone may appreciate, but I do. This story is engaging on other levels as well, particularly the second half. I do wish the narrator had used different cadences & inflections for different characters, but everyone seems to speak exactly alike by her reading. Not a terrible problem, tho.

One of my all-time favorite books...

I have always absolutely loved this book. It such an intimate and realistic view of a person’s true identity. An imperfect wife and mother, who draws you in. An imperfect marriage, that makes you want to cheer for their relationship. I read this EVERY fall/winter, and never stop enjoying being invited in to Jo’s Home, for the season.

The reader was good

Did not like how she didn’t act like the adult she was in terms of life choices in the plot

Interesting characters

It was interesting the lives & development of several characters. Like the theme about different life styies.

Good book overall, not a great story line

This is a fairly short book. The beginning didn’t really draw me in and I kept wondering to myself, until nearly the end of the book, when the story line was going to start revealing itself to me. When it ended, I was actually shocked it was over. I remember thinking, “that’s it??”
That being said, the writing itself was good. I liked the characters, for the most part. I think the author was aiming to reveal a grand “moral of the story”, and I think it did have a bit of that, but even this area seemed lacking.
P.S. Please know that this is only my opinion! I am not a professional, I do not have an English degree! Just my take on the book. :)

Interesting

Narration was great
The story was good. Interesting is the only word I can think of to describe it.
. Made me mad at times and surprised me as well.
Overall enjoyable

Excellent

Jo Becker upended her world the year she left her husband and moved into a communal building with strangers. After divorcing her husband, she met and married Danielle a minister with whom she raised three daughters. Quite unexpectedly.Jo becomes reacquainted with one of the roommates from years ago. After being re-introduced to Eli, I wondered if perhaps Joe would take another path and stray from her marriage to Daniel.

I must confess when I first started this read/listen it felt as though the story plotted along. But after a short time, it picked up the pace, and I listened intently to the story.

While I Was Gone is an excellent character study, not only of Jo Becker, but of marriage, and how fragile it is in the wake of our actions. An excellent read by Sue Miller. Blythe Danner was the narrator who brought the characters to life.

I just wasn’t invested in the story.

It had a good twist toward the end but overall is about a woman with a great life who could throw it away for a silly temptation. I don’t feel for her, her ingratitude and taking for granted all that she had. Just wasn’t for me.