Lost in the Forest

No consequences for the pedophile

I am deeply disappointed that the 50 + year-old man (friend of the family-very typical) gets away with seducing a teenage girl who is very "lost" at this point in her life. The author's style of writing is easy to follow and does make the reader contemplate some life issues and some American cultural issues. I have read other books by this writer and I do think she is very good at describing contemporary society, but I also like accountability. This story left me with a bad/sad feeling.

This book is dark and depressing

The book was easy to read, although the author's writing style was sometimes difficult to follow. There were a lot of broken sentences. The characters were developed well, but no one was ever happy. The characters experienced: tragic death, divorce, child abuse, complete sadness and therapy sessions. It was not a book to make you feel good.

Me and Daisy

Daisy and I are complete opposites. Complete opposite lives, complete opposite personalities. I'm not extremely quiet, withdrawn; I have never cut piano lessons much less taken them; I never lied to my mother or went on a sexual journey with a man three times my age. Why, then, do I feel this vibe of similarity? It's the absent father. But, having an absent father has never fazed me like it did Daisy. It did more than faze her, actually. However, as I conclude, I daresay that I envy Daisy; I envy Daisy's father for my father; I envy that in the end, she got to know him, and he got to know her. Mark realized that Daisy needed him and he needed her. (Something my father failed to recognize). They both were wounded in some deep way, and they needed one another in order to heal. Even if there was still a scar left behind.

Sue Miller's Lost in the Forest shows the importance of BOTH parents in the lives of their children. And, though this was not my type of book, I still give her props for it; it was well written and realistic. I liked it.

a career gal in correction's

Iwas very disappointed in the book. A Middle aged man having an affair w// a minor. He should have been sentenced to prison.

Disappointing

I read Sue Miller years ago (While I Was Gone and The Good Mother). I must have liked her style to read multiple books, but after reading this one, I doubt I will read others. Other reviewers have gone into plot details. (I'll just note that the character who was seduced was 15, not 14, as if that makes a difference.) I thought that Miller's descriptions were 'gratuitous' if you will.

Am Adult Version of Little Red Riding Hood?

If you have read some of Sue Miller's earlier works, such as the Good Mother and While I Was Gone, you may find this book a disappointment. If you are a fan of Sue Miller, you will probably want to read it anyway. It is an easy read, and Sue Miller mesmerizes with her reflective, dreamy writing style. The plot sets in motion, after the main character's second husband is killed by a car. Most of story is the build up for what is about to happen to Daisy, the main characters 14 year old daughter. Grieving for her stepfather, she gets sucked into a sexual affair with a 50 some year old man. This is the climax of the story, and everything quickly winds down after a few titillating pages of her sexual coming of age. I was halfway through the book, lost in Sue Miller's dreamy writing style, before I realized, there would be no closure about what happened to the stepfather who was killed? We don't know, if he was killed by a hit and run driver? There is no discussion of a court case, regarding who might have hit him, and there is no mention of any police involvement. All this is glossed over. I felt that overall the story was rather weak and predictable. Eva the main character witnessed the violent death of her husband as did their three year old son. There is very little reference to the trauma that someone would experience as a result of witnessing such a terrible death of a loved one. I was also disappointed that there weren't any vibriant discriptions of the Northern California area, where the book is to take place. She writes a lot about it raining a lot there, which doesn't sound right. While she manages to wrap everything up at the end, the last chapter is very far removed from the story. You meet the characters many years later, and it is hard to related to it.

SO SO

I felt the book was an easy read, as others have said, but I was disappointed by many things one of which is where is the anger when it's found out that the 14 year old is having an affair with her mother's friend who is 50 -- anyway, not easy for me to recommend this book.

Scenes from real life

This mesh of characters and various lifestyles is interesting and well done. Each point of view is a bit limited, but you can taste of feelings of each person involved, not too much just the right amount of exposure to experiences all of us have had and have viewed in others. Excellent read for someone wanting to be taken away from their life and surroundings.

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