The World Below: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

What always amazes me is Sue Miller's knack of relaying another's story and making all sound so familiar.Cath, a mid-fifties woman twice divorced and wondering at the course of her life has a decision to make. A dying relative leaves her and her brother one of her childhood homes. She and her brother lived with her grandparents after the premature death of her mother. She had a strong bond with both her grandparents, so this long forgotten places beckons to one wondering about her future.Once there Cath finds some old diaries and begins to read them. Here Sue Miller intertwines pieces of Cath's past and that of her grandmother Georgia's. It was a different world when her grandmother was a girl and she is reminded of that in these diaries. She is also given an opportunity to see a side of a grandmother, she never imagined. However in her mid-50s somethings remembered fit in with new information gleaned from the diaries.Also for me personally when Sue Miller wrote of Georgia's stint in a TB sanatorium, it struck a nerve. My dad was a TB survivor of the WWII era and met my mother a girl from the town the sanatorium was in. As I have a disease to thank for my existance, this peculiar sanatorium life has often interested me. This book also gives me an opportunity to see the seriousness of the disease at the time. Unlike today's age of intervention and cure, then most patients were given rest and care in hopes their bodies would do the work of the cure.. Very different than today in many ways.As time goes on Georgia considers her life in earnest and her relationship with those living and dead in Vermont and comes to terms with what will be the next step in her life. What I found interesting here is how "events" both big and small are used as turning points in one's life. Do we need them as an excuse or as a marker of change?I never walk away from one of Sue Miller's book without wondering about my own life and neither will you.

If you're looking for an author to love, a consistent choice for your reading list, and characters that stay with you, pick up any Sue Miller book. This one didn't fail me. Miller takes on a reflective character who looks back on her past, as well as lives in her current life and challenges. It's a joy to read about a woman attempting to make healthy choices for her life. There's a description of an underwater town in this book that haunted not only the pages, but also my mind. Miller has a unique way of making "the world below" an integral, yet tiny part of the overall story.

This was a lovely story ~ weaves several mother/daughter relationships. Takes you across the country (CA to VT) and embraces your heart with characters so real to the touch. I highly recommend this book and look forward to Miller's other books. I didn't want this one to end but when it did, it stayed with me and for that, I thank Miller.

... she really is.She captures everything from that sense you have as a kid that your grandparents' house has always been there and always will be, with them on the doorstep ready to take you in -- to the discovery of what's true about life and what's true about any one life, the individual life.Some things I especially enjoyed, no particular order:1. the way Cath, and we the readers, learn slowly how significant were the months her grandmother spent in the sanitarium2. the small betrayals that we stumble over in each other3. how you can know the "weather" of someone's life without knowing the hidden-away organizing principle4. amazing descriptions and metaphor that resonates foreverGabriel Garcia Marquez and Denis Johnson are my 2 favorite writers -- but gosh Sue Miller sure comes close.

I found these two interweaving stories of Kath and her grandmother, Georgia, to be a compelling read that has stayed in my mind months after reading it for the first time. I'm now on my second reading (something I rarely do), and find it as amazing this time around as in my first encounter. What a deep, profound novel. The reader must be patient. It's definitely a character driven book, not a plot-heavy pageturner. But once you immerse yourself in these wonderful characters from two different generations, you can't help but be drawn in deeply and feel as if you're getting to know "real people" as memorable and poignant as perhaps the secret stories woven into your own grandmother's past.To me it is truly amazing the way that Cath was raised by her grandparents after her own disturbed mother's suicide. She always thought her grandparents had boring and quite ordinary lives. But what she discovers, through reading her grandmother's diaries, is that her grandmother, Georgia's marriage was much deeper, more filled with quiet conflict and inner struggle than she'd ever imagined possible! I won't spoil the story by revealing the secrets - but the heartwarming way that her grandparents solved some deep problems in their own relationship is a model for today's couples to follow. It was so heartwarming and inspiring. Like many readers here, I've read both The World Below and While I Was Gone. They are quite different books, but I liked both. Sue Miller is now one of my very favorite authors. Bravo!!