Product Description

Spanning forty years Family Pictures follows the conflict between husband and wife, over a beautiful autistic child. Randall is both angel and demon. His father, David, a coolly rational psychiatrist, wants him placed in an institution; his mother, Lainey, insists on keeping him at home. Yet it is not just David and Lainey who are struggling to come to terms with a difficult and unpredictable child; there are five other children in the family, each of them coping with the dramas and rifts surrounding them, each of them affected by Randall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1323202 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
If Miller's new novel does not have the shock value of The Good Mother , it benefits from a deeper, more subtle conception of character and a sure sense of the complexities of family relationships. When their third child, Randall, is diagnosed as autistic in 1954, the happy marriage of Lainey and David Eberhardt begins to disintegrate. Subscribing to then-current medical theories, David, a psychiatrist, blames Randall's disease on Lainey. She retaliates with three subsequent pregnancies, "accidents" that result in the little girls whom their father sardonically calls "the last straws." Seguing among the points of view of various family members, the narrative poignantly illustrates the widening effects of a domestic tragedy. As the Eberhardts' marriage goes awry, the children are wounded by David's emotional withdrawal and eventual departure, Lainey's hysterical need to prove she is "a good mother," and the daily pain of living with and caring for a mentally impaired sibling with powerfully destructive urges. Miller again displays a perfect ear for the dialogue between parents and children. In depicting the contrast between the Eberhardts' responses to their son's affliction--David's scientific evaluation, Lainey's spiritual courage--she demonstrates the ways in which parenthood is a "kind of reckless courage . . . a possibility for anguish and pain, and yet a miracle." 125,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Absolutely flawless. It captures perfectly the sass and grit of family life. Harrowing and funny and haunting." -- -- Chicago Tribune

"Dazzling and disturbing." -- -- People

"Profoundly honest, shapely, ambitious, engrossing." -- -- New York Times Book Review

"Absolutely flawless. It captures perfectly the sass and grit of family life. Harrowing and funny and haunting." -- Chicago Tribune

"Dazzling and disturbing." -- People

"Miller does an extraordinary job of representing the terrible (or wonderful), thick intimacy of family life." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Profoundly honest, shapely, ambitious, engrossing." -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author
SALES POINTS From the author of the international bestseller The Good Mother Both The Good Mother and Family Pictures are being reissued with stylish new covers 'In tone it is absolutely flawless ... proof of her extraordinary talent' Anne Tyler 'A big, wonderful, deeply absorbing novel' Newsweek 'Profoundly honest, shapely, ambitious, engrossing, original and true' New York Times 'A remarkable tapestry which explores the love of parents and children with quite extraordinary depth and subtlety' She

Customer Reviews

Realistic Portrayal of an Autistic
As the mother of an autistic child, "Family Pictures" wasnot easy to read, especially due to the eventual fate of the autisticbrother, Randall.

What I would like to say is that I have read a great deal about autism. Fiction, non-fiction, text books, first hand accounts and even how-to manuals, but this book, this NOVEL, was one of the most realistic, compassionate writings dealing with autism I have ever read.

It is heartbreaking in it's total honesty of life with an autistic. It deals with decisions and sacrifices that have to be made and yet, is told with love.

END

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.

Entertaining book
I have to agree with some reviewers that the author can write exquisitely. I also have to agree that I came away not totally understanding some of the characters.

Things jump around, but I'm flexible enough to follow along most times. The thing that bewildered me, however, was that the book shifts from first person to third person and back. You read the point of view of Nina, the family photographer, and settle into getting to know what you presume is the "main character". Suddenly, you flip totally out of her sphere and find she's referred to in the third person. Not only that, but she isn't the main character at all. The story is mostly about her parents. So you don't know where Nina's point of view went - or, more importantly, why it went away. It becomes "Nina's" story four short times without following any discernible structure, except (and I presume this - it isn't stated) that it's because she's a photographer and took pictures, and gave the book the title. You just have to accept that sometimes it's all about Nina. No telling why.

When it flips back to third person, the story switches back and forth between the points of view of several characters, mostly the parents and the non-autistic brother (and sometimes a third-person rather than a first-person Nina), moving the story along more or less chronologically through the 50s and 60s, then ending in the 80s where it began.

Within this shifting of time, place and viewpoint, the story describes a family whose autistic son/brother is both "not there" and omnipresent in their lives. He is the dominating influence on everyone without ever being mentally "with" them. The author describes the impact his life had on his parents' marriage and his siblings as they attempt to cope with their lives and his.

All told, even with the massive shifts in everything, I enjoyed the book, the writing, the story and the timeframe. I would certainly recommend it.