Sue Miller is a great writer and her books always have a depth to them. There are several strands of a story going on in this novel. Billy (who is a she!) has written a play about a terrorist bombing of a train in Chicago. The main character is a man who is waiting to hear if his wife survived. Don't worry - he's not waiting alone. His son is there with him and then his (previously secret) girlfriend shows up! The play is about the husband's ambivalence towards his wife's survival. Does he or doesn't he want her to live?
Billy was living with a guy named Gus on September 11th. Gus left on a plane trip and never returned. Billy loved Gus's sister, Leslie, who had been more of a mother than a sister to Gus. Throughout the book we are allowed into the pasts of these characters and find out how they became the people that they turned out to be.
Along with that story is the one about Rafe who plays the husband in the play. Rafe relates to the character he plays because his wife is dying a slow death.
I became very caught up in the characters - the unfolding of their stories drew me in from the very beginning.
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