Family Pictures

By Sue Miller

Book Overview

A masterful, engrossing novel about the life of a large family that is deeply bonded by the stranger in their midst -- an autistic child

The whole world could not have broken the spirit and strength of the Eberhardt family of 1948. Lainey is a wonderful if slightly eccentric mother. David is a good father, sometimes sarcastic, always cool-tempered. Two wonderful children round out the perfect picture. Then the next child arrives -- and life is never the same again. Over the next forty years, the Eberhardt family struggles to survive a flood tide of upheaval and heartbreak, love and betrayal, passion and pain...hoping they can someday heal their hearts.

--New York Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060929987
• ISBN13: 9780060929985
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

read it!

I loved this book. I'm a reader and am always reading and I finished this one the day after I got it. It's very endearing and relaxing. I'm sure I'll read it again !

I LOVED THIS BOOK

This book stuns me with it's detail--Miller writes like someone taking a photograph. I feel absolutely THERE when reading it, and feel as if I know every single character personally. Miller has the uncanny ability to create an almost 'voyeuristic' atmosphere in her books. I can't help but feel these characters are living and breathing. One of my all time favourites. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Excellent, emotional story.

I couldn't put this book down. I loved it. Ms. Miller's detailed descriptions brought the book to life for me. I have read every other book by the author and my only disappointment is how long I have to wait between books.

Painful and appalling yet beautiful

Miller did a wonderful job to decribe Eberhart family's struggle to maintain family homeostasis. I would definitely recommend to my friends who are interested in studying family dynamics.

A terrific read that keeps echoing in my mind!

A friend recommended Family Pictures to me when I was learning that my son had a disorder related to autism--although the impact of Randall's diagnosis created difficulties in this family's story, he also changed their lives in positive ways. I found courage in facing my son's diagnosis through the very human response of this family to Randall's difficulties. Sue Miller's writing is compelling. I loved the scene where the family photographs are viewed and one from Randall's babyhood portends the impact he will have on the family.

One of My All-time Favorites

This is a great American novel, and one of my lifetime favorites. It is the story of how one family was forever changed because of a handicapped child, and how the entire family had to revolve around the needs of this child and his mother's selfless devotion to him, even at the expense of her marriage. She simply couldn't stop giving more of herself to him than to anyone else. This is a truly splendid book, and anyone who thinks there is trashy material in it is nuts.