Reviews for Sweeping Up Glass

The average rating for Sweeping Up Glass based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-03-28 00:00:00 Cameron Wood This book had a lot of potential, but it fizzled early on. I found the setting and characters all very vivid and was pulled into Olivia's admiration of her father and hatred of her mother from the get go. But then Wall decided to take a sharp left turn into tragedy for no apparent reason and without any explanation. At that point, she lost me. Everything after that was out of character and out of time. I had hoped that Wall would justify all those unexplained years, but not only did she not answer all my questions, but what little answer I did get was a huge let down. I can't really explain that statement without giving spoilers: It's not the car accident that bothered me. I was fine with Olivia losing all that time in the hospital. She seemed to be surviving for awhile, bucking up to life with her incredible strength. We're introduced to Wing and everything is looking up, but then it just dies. She asks him if he loves her and he looks away and asks her the same thing and that's it. She walks away. Olivia lost her father. She should know how much pain Wing is in, but she decides to give up on the one person who loves her despite her scars and sleep with every guy in town instead. Even when Wing asks her to marry him, she marries someone else out of spite. I know she's stubborn, but that all seemed like the wrong reactions for the character I had been reading. I get that she's broken and doesn't understand anything about relationships, but I felt more like Wall wanted to create a tragic story and then skim over thirty years just to make it even more tragic without giving any growth or development over that span. Initially, Wall pulled me into poor Depression-era Kentucky, but she seemed to forget the setting by the end. The big mystery she can't figure out with the Phelps is that they belong to the Klan. Really? That was it? Would a native Kentuckian in the Depression era be that surprised to find racism in her rural town? And then Olivia moves in with Wing with no intention of marrying him in this conservative, religious town with no mention of the backlash that such an act would produce. The front cover has a picture of a woman in a shirt that although a plain plaid is too trendy and detailed for a Depression-era shirt, but I think it fits the novel, as if someone were plucked from our day and dropped into the setting. For all Wall's research about product and pricing and lifestyle in the Depression, she failed to create a character that fit the time period. The pacing of the book was off too. The opening scene with the wolves' ears being shot off intrigued me. As the flashback starts, I grew to like Tate and despise Ida and thought I had a grasp on Olivia's character. But as soon as Tate is pulled from the story, Olivia rushes back to modern day, skimming over thirty years into a self I no longer recognized. We don't ever get to know her daughter, Pauline (you'd think she'd be an important character), or delve into Ida's madness, only her viciousness. I would have liked to know more about Love Alice and Junk too. There were a lot of minor characters that I couldn't keep straight, the span between their introduction and their mention in the end too great. The bulk of the novel sticks in this few weeks without much going on, and I started to get frustrated that my questions about the Phelps and the wolves and Ida's secrets weren't being answered. When Wall decides to explain, she dumps it all within a short period, too quickly to answer my questions. Historically did the Klan ever wear red robes? Why red? And why oh why were the Phelps shooting off the left ears of the wolves? Was it as some metaphor to Junk? That was not explained, and it was the one thing I really wanted to know. And why did the Phelps think that would threaten Olivia? And why now? Why did they think she had her father's notes? And why did they suspect Tate in the first place? There's a difference between knowing about the meetings and recording them. If he buried the info, how did Ida know about it? How much did Ida know about anything? And what exactly was her relationship with the Klan boys? Was Elizabeth part of the Klan or just threatened by her husband? Did Ida actually set herself on fire? It's not like she ever answered any of Olivia's questions, so why kill herself in that painful way instead of ignore yet another question about Tate? I also didn't get the whole sequence of which Phelps killed which and why. The info was too rushed without me understanding who was who in the first place. I was so disappointed that the big mystery was a Klan (how very unoriginal) that I didn't care as much that my questions weren't answered. But still, I had a lot that were glazed over or brushed aside. Too bad because the writing was at times beautiful and the set up powerful.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-01-28 00:00:00 Michael Schwaab This has been on my shelf for years. I don't know why I didn't read it sooner, because it's fantastic. The ending takes a little suspension of disbelief, but this book definitely deserved more attention. A full review to come.