After reading and loving Three Junes, I couldn’t wait to pick up The Whole World Over. I truly wish I hadn’t.
Synopsis:
Greenie Duquette loves her cozy life in the West Village, her work as a pastry chef, and her precocious young son. But she is fed up with her husband, Alan, an underemployed psychotherapist whose once passionate beliefs are ossifying into reflexive bitterness. When, in early 2000, the brash Republican governor of New Mexico offers her a lucrative job, she jumps at it; Alan is free to follow her if he chooses. In Glass’s sprawling follow-up to her award-winning novel “Three Junes,” a dozen or so characters are plunged into the tumultuous dissatisfactions and challenges of middle age, their paths crossing and recrossing with a pleasing mixture of chance and inevitability.
Review:
What a disappointment. As in Glass’s previous novel, there are many different story lines, however, with each chapter I felt like I was reading a completely different novel. The connection between some characters is slim, at best, and Glass just didn’t master the flow between them. The characters aren’t very involving, and their stories don’t make you want to find out more about them. The story lumbers along and Glass finally does return to her great writing but it isn’t until the last 50 pages or so. The only reason I didn’t give this book 1-star is because of the last 50 pages which truly are beautifully written. Unfortunately, you have to get through 460 other pages to reach them!
** out of 5 stars.
