Family Pictures
by Sue Miller
published
2001
by Indigo
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binding
Paperback, 400 pages
literary awards
1990 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
isbn
0575403217
(isbn13: 9780575403215)
description
A Masterful, Engrossing Novel About The Life Of A Large Family That Is Deeply Bounded By The Stranger In Their Midst -- An Autistic Child
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 339)
Read in October, 2007
This book focuses on a family with six children, the third of whom is autistic. I was surprised and irritated at first at how descriptions of day to day life with Randall, the autistic child, seemed to focus much more on the other characters, so that you could almost forget that Randall was there. But then I thought, maybe that's the point - that even with this horrible difficult disease in the middle of the family, life goes on. Coffee (lots of it!) is drunk, games are played, marriages fall...more
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Read in January, 2008
I'm left breathless by Sue Miller's ability to tell a story from many different viewpoints - female, male, very young, very old - reflecting attitudes of five different decades. This covers the timelines of several members of one family whose scars radiate out over many years from the autism of one brother. I don't think this is a spoiler, but the final pages detail an idyllic evening just before the birth of the autistic child. We see the family, still small, as yet unwounded, ready to welcome ...more
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Read in September, 2008
Overall I think Sue Miller's depiction of a family deeply affected by a tragedy is well done - at least I'm still thinking about it. I just could never get a clear picture of the main character, Lainy, in my mind - or perhaps it was Ms. Miller's intention to make her difficult to understand.
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Interesting, because again, like Tilt, it's about a family with an Autistic son/brother and how they deal with it. Told by a younger sister, it brings up a lot of different family relationships in a larger family and especially with a child with autism.
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Love when a list on goodreads reminds me of a title I had forgotten...
Don't know if I should rate anything I completely forgot with 3 stars, but it did come back to me...
I was disappointed in this one, after loving two of Miller's earlier novels. But I did gain a new perspective on my own mother from the amazing portrait of the mom in this book ---the image that stays with me most is her dancing outside when she is finally "free" even in her grief.
Don't know if I should rate anything I completely forgot with 3 stars, but it did come back to me...
I was disappointed in this one, after loving two of Miller's earlier novels. But I did gain a new perspective on my own mother from the amazing portrait of the mom in this book ---the image that stays with me most is her dancing outside when she is finally "free" even in her grief.
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Read in January, 2006
I was really impressed with the dynamics of the relationships in this book. The author really did her research about the environment of psychology in the 1950's. This book was engaging on so many different levels, history of psychology, family relationships, life in a big city in the 50's, very satisfying. I did have a little trouble with all the spouse swapping.
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