Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Broken Spell, August 2, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Carolyn Wall's debut novel "Sweeping Up Glass" starts with such a strong literary impact that I had to remind myself to keep breathing. There was so much heartbreaking humanity and reality in the prose that it felt as if the book I held in my hand was a lovely, small, wounded animal rather than a simple work of fiction. In the beginning, almost everything about the book had me entranced--I was under a spell...and, for the most part, that feeling of awe continued straight through to the end.
The book is a truly remarkable debut and Carolyn Wall is an impressive new novelist. Through her simple lyrical prose and authentic dialogue, the impoverished people of rural Appalachia come alive. There is exquisite magic in her straightforward, honest storytelling.
Other reviews on this site outline the book's plot and themes, so I will not go over that material again here. Instead, I want to explain why, after such an enthusiastic opening, I choose to give this book only a three-star and not a five-star rating.
The problem for me was the abrupt change-of-pace in the last few chapters. For most of the book, I had the feeling that I was reading a magnificent character study--a study of a woman, her family, and her town. I would have been totally satisfied if the book had been nothing more than that. It was such a beautiful experience to be in the author's capable hands, taking an intimate look at a marvelous, odd cast of real-life characters.
But shortly before the end, the book abruptly morphs into a fast-paced thriller. The book was like a chimera--ninety percent slow-paced literary character study and ten percent potboiler. I'm sure than many, if not most readers, will not have any problem with this sudden switch-of-pace and style, but for me...well, it totally lifted the veil of reality and I was found myself staring at all the pulley-and-lever mechanics of storytelling stagecraft. The ending broke the long spell of entrancement...and I was sorely disappointed.
I have no problem with the mixing of genres. It is possible to mix a thriller in together with a literary character study--indeed, it has been done many times before. Carolyn Wall got this mix wrong.
Despite this disappointment, I am still enthusiastic and excited by the promise of this new author. Carolyn Wall seems to be a stunning new literary talent and I look forward to her next book. Hopefully, with the next book, she will manage to keep me under her spell straight through to the end.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
True grit in the cold Kentucky mountains..., July 26, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This novel was difficult to read. Not because it wasn't good - it was very good -- but because of the subject matter. I was hungry, I was cold, tired, lonely and filled with rage and frustration - I felt every feeling and thought every thought along with Olivia. I savored the prose and often stopped to reread passages - something I don't often do with the typical books I tend to pick up these days. I was looking for reading pleasure and I got that in this book in one way, but in another I was so drawn into Olivia's world that I experienced it with her and that meant I didn't find it comfortable to read too much at one sitting. It is an unflinching look at poverty, racism, buried secrets, and family bonds at a time in history when everything was HARD.
You will like this book and you should buy it if you like gritty stories of hardscrabble existence eked out in primitive conditions by a determined, plucky woman who has nothing going for her but a strong back and a sense of purpose. The setting is the Kentucky mountains, depression era, dirt poor. Olivia Harker Cross lives with her crazy mother Ida and her grandson Will'm in a shack attached to a small grocery. She stocks her shelves and feeds her family by making quilts and by working very hard. Her life revolves around staying alive, taking care of her grandson, and protecting the silver wolves that were reintroduced to the area by her grandfather. She is a friend to the blacks in a time where lynchings aren't uncommon and segregation is fierce. Even though there is a story line that involves hunters going after the wolves, the book is really a character study. Although some might not find them sympathetic and might even dislike them, they are all very real, uniquely flawed, and doing the best they can given the time, place, and circumstance.
I recommend it -- much to think about and good for a book group or class discussion. Would work perfectly as ancillary reading in an American History course re: 1930s lectures about the Great Depression and race relations.
Personal opinion: I do not agree with others who have likened the book to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) as the adult point of view and bitter voice of Olivia, although clear and honest, is not like the innocent child narrator Scout in that story.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now What It Appears to Be, August 27, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is a literary novel that tells a powerful story in the voice of an unforgettable woman. For most of this book I thought I was reading a beautifully written novel about the hard life of a poor woman in rural Kentucky -- sort of like The Beans of Egypt, Maine(also a fine novel). I was, of course, but the author performed an amazing sleight of hand as the story developed, and suddenly nothing was as it first seemed, and the book became a fascinating mystery. The author's gift for characterization is prodigious -- rarely have I met such a memorable crew, vivid in mind even weeks after finishing the novel.
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