FAMILY PICTURES by Sue Miller

Nina is sometimes the first-person narrator of this immersive family drama and sometimes not, and she is not really the central character, if there even is one.  The fourth of six children, she follows Randall, whose diagnosis of autism completely upends the family dynamic.  Nina and her two younger sisters see their role as being normal, as compensation for Randall’s special needs.  Lainey and David are the parents, whose wobbly marriage is front and center in this story, which also devotes quite a few pages to Mack, the oldest of their children.  Nina and Mack become problem children as adolescents, and this development particularly rankles David, who is a psychiatrist; he obviously cannot “fix” Randall.  The other three children get relatively short shrift, as they mostly fulfill their obligation to be normal.  My favorite character is David, who spouts sarcastic witticisms, particularly when speaking of his youngest three daughters.  Sue Miller’s writing is always soothingly smooth and seamless, even when she is describing Randall’s most violent outburst.  The downside of her style is that suspense is not always a priority, and that is the case particularly with this book and its meandering timeline.  Sometimes we know the outcome before we know how this family arrived at the outcome.  The upside is that Miller puts the “pleasure” in “reading for pleasure.”