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The Lake Shore Limited Audiobook
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(3.00) - 2,135 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Four unforgettable characters beckon you into this spellbinding new novel from Sue Miller, the author of 2008’s heralded best seller The Senator’s Wife. First among them is Wilhelmina—Billy—Gertz, small as a child, fiercely independent, powerfully committed to her work as a playwright. The story itself centers on The Lake Shore Limited—a play Billy has written about an imagined terrorist bombing of that train as it pulls into Union Station in Chicago, and about a man waiting to hear the fate of his estranged wife, who is traveling on it. Billy had waited in just such a way on 9/11 to hear whether her lover, Gus, was on one of the planes used in the attack. The novel moves from the snow-filled woods of Vermont to the rainy brick sidewalks of Boston as the lives of the other characters intersect and interweave with Billy’s: Leslie, Gus’s sister, still driven by grief years after her brother’s death; Rafe, the actor who rises to greatness in a performance inspired by a night of incandescent lovemaking; and Sam, a man irresistibly drawn to Billy after he sees the play that so clearly displays the terrible conflicts and ambivalence of her situation. How Billy has come to create the play out of these emotions, how it is then created anew on the stage, how the performance itself touches and changes the other characters’ lives—these form the thread that binds them all together and drives the novel compulsively forward. A powerful love story; a mesmerizing tale of entanglements, connections, and inconsolable losses; a marvelous reflection on the meaning of grace and the uses of sorrow, in life and in art: The Lake Shore Limited is Sue Miller at her dazzling best.
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"Sue Miller rarely disappoints me. I liked this one. Well-developed characters and an intriguing plot involving a playwright whose boyfriend died in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Now she's written a play that, in some ways, reflects her situation when that happened. And she meets a man who had a wife who died of a lingering illness. Also, the sister of the deceased boyfriend plays a role. Examines the emotions and life of those close to people dying in tragic circumstances."
— Trudi (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Expertly written, this novel plumbs the dark depths of grief and guilt but emerges into the light of self-forgiveness and freedom.”
— Library Journal -
“The Lake Shore Limited is perhaps best appreciated as an extended character study…Worth reading for the ruthlessness of its revelations.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“The Lake Shore Limited is so sophisticated and thoughtful that it should either help redeem the term ‘women’s literature’ or free her from it once and for all.”
— Washington Post -
“Miller’s take on post-9/11 America is fascinating and perfectly balanced with her writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss and the creation and experience of art.”
— Publishers Weekly
Awards
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Selected for the April 2010 Indie Next List
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A New York Times bestseller
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Best Book for Fiction
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A 2010 Washington Post Best Book for Fiction
The Lake Shore Limited Listener Reviews
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" I've read Sue Miller before and enjoyed her books but not this one. I had trouble keeping track of the story when it switched from character to character. The people in the story were just not likeable. Disappointing! "
— Ellyn, 2/20/2014 -
" Sorry Sue. Used to love your books but I don't plan to even finish this one. I gave it 75 Pages and I have way too many other books calling my name. Maybe it's because I just if finished ME BEFORE YOU where the characters were so well described that I felt I was in their skin. Even the ones I didn't like. Someday when I finish my pile, maybe I'll pick this up again and figure out what people are raving about. Too many books, too little time. "
— Marta, 2/18/2014 -
" I loved this book. I have read everything Sue Miller has written and I like her style -- I thought this one was especially good. She does a great job in most of her novels as far as character analysis and this one stands out in that department. I really liked the ending and how she ties it in with the ending of the play in the novel, i.e.The Lake Shore Limited "
— Jan, 2/4/2014 -
" It was ironic that I happened to read this the week preceding the 10th anniversary of 9/11; beyond that, all I can say is meh...... "
— Ashruska, 2/1/2014 -
" An interesting character study showing the mixed reactions to tragedy. "
— Phyllis, 1/15/2014 -
" It was a little hard to get into, but by the end I really liked it and it made me think alot. "
— Donnaestern, 1/12/2014 -
" Not one of her best, but still pretty good. "
— Theresa, 1/8/2014 -
" Sad, but terrific. Perfect resolved ending. "
— Ksnitselaar, 12/14/2013 -
" Such a perceptive, honest book about how we make decisions, forge relationships and often lie to ourselves; how we ignore uncomfortable truths in favor of easy desires. Flawed characters, making difficult choices, forging ahead, just as we all are and all do. "
— Pamela, 11/21/2013 -
" Way too boring. I could not get into it. "
— Resa, 11/4/2013 -
" A well-written entertaining read. "
— Leorah, 11/3/2013
About Sue Miller
Sue Miller is the author of While I Was Gone, The Distinguished Guest, For Love, Family Pictures, Inventing the Abbotts, and The Good Mother, many of which made the New York Times bestsellers list.