The Distinguished Guest
A Novel

The Distinguished Guest was my first, no doubt too long in coming, dip into the work of bestselling author, Sue Miller. Within the first few pages, indeed, first few lines, I had to wonder what had taken me so long to make this discovery for myself. Here was a literary talent, wide and deep, for the......more

At 72 Lily finds literary fame after publishing her memoir. She appears to have been a polarizing woman with strong views on racial integration, religion and marriage. Her writings are offerings of her paradigm and little interest or understanding of those to whom she is genetically related. As the......more

Lily is a difficult person, especially for her son, a middle-aged architect. We see her from various perspectives, including her own in excerpts from her memoir, and that of Linnett, a journalist interviewing her for a profile in The New Yorker. Not a plot-driven novel, but one with subtle insights......more

I found this to be an interesting story, but a fairly annoying read from a stylistic point of view - too much changing of tense, too much passive voice. I can understand her use of passive voice as a way of illustrating that the narrator feels acted upon rather than active; but a reader shouldn't b......more