Family Pictures - Sue Miller

A masterfully written exploration of a family's movement through the 1960's and 1970's. Sue Miller presents chapters that portray a picture in time of a family and its struggles. A central focus is an autistic child and how the other family members react and mature with this added stress. The chapters are also like pictures in that they convey emotions and personal insight more than develop a plot. Reading this book is like pausing in front of a great photo that impacts one emotionally and touches you deeply.

This book will change the way you view a family. The lessons it teaches are subtle and moving. Miller does an amazing job of involving us in the lives of several members of the family and understading their unique development. After reading this book, you will resist quickly judging others without understanding their experiences.

For a while I pushed everything idly around the table--the photographs, the postcards. I began thinking of them as elements in a kind of Rock-Scissors-Paper game, which contained the mystery of my childhood. Which had the most power?...For weeks, for months, the pictures stayed there. Eventually, I stopped seeing them, except occasionally when I would suddenly think of something that had happened while I was in Chicago; or something from my childhood. Then I'd go and stand in front of them again, staring stupidly at one and then another image, as though if I looked hard enough, long enough, their meaning would become clear.