Customer Reviews

Blue Glass (Harvest American Writing)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Blue galss by Sandra Tyler is an interesting book, different from other novels, still it is very easy to relate to. The book is not trying to tell the story of a family through time, it rather focuses on one event. This event may stretch over 4 or 5 years, yet in our lifespane, this is concidered one point in time. The book struck me as a series of scenes, ordinary scenes from our daily life, however, when we watch these scenes go by, we can see that they are not so ordinary after all; there is more than meets the eye. The elements of the book are simple and common: an adolescnet girl, a mother who built her life around her family, and a husband who grew tired of his life style. From one scence to the next, the writer shows very subtle changes and very small incidents that eventually change their whole life. I think the book tries to show us that small things that happen routinly mean something and that we shouldn't assume how the people close to us feel or think; there are things about them that we may never know. The elements and events in the book take place around us and we never notice. They are not special or important. However if we look carefully, we see that they mean a lot and they are very important for those who live through them. Each one of these scenes needs a star and each line needs an actor. Our simple daily lives is a long movie, it is not dull, not ordinary. We are not ordinary people, we are the stars of our own movies, of our own lives.

I was impressed with Sandra Tyler's first novel Blue Glass. Leslie, the main character, holds a solid voice throughout, one that is allowed to age and grow over time. Also, the myriad of secondary characters: her grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle and parents are each given room to interact and I saw them as three dimensional people rather than filler. Moving the story from Leslie's house to the lake house to the grandparents' home was a good plot device that aided in creating new situations while not losing the characters or the multi-faceted Leslie. The book is character driven and moves like an elongated conversation that takes place over Leslie's impressionable junior high and high school years. Blue Glass did not lose my interest and I found myself returning to it to see what the next chapter would bring.
Most moving to me was Leslie's parent's divorce and how her father, slowly moving towards his own freedom, becomes a background character to Leslie and at the novel's end lives across county and is not there to celebrate her entrance into college; Leslie's final prayer only for herself and her mother is a poignant reminder of this. Perhaps most striking of all the characters is Leslie's mother Mary. Mary, who lives to love and serve and continues to love and not blame her husband after he moves on, is allowed to grow as a person; we see change in small ways but the overall picture, her sweetness and adaptability, and with it her inherent limitations, remain the same. Powerful were the ways in which Tyler showed Mary's deep loss at her divorce. We don't know if the mother will remain alone; the jagged edges of her life are softened by her upbeat nature, but the book does not take a sentimental shortcut by giving her Mr. Right, the opposite happens actually, and Blue Glass shows the emotional needs and unmet longings that people face.
I think that Blue Glass reads somewhat like a first novel....this comment is easier said than explained....but it is a good first novel. Care and development are part of its fabric; it does not waste our time.