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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Too slow and long chapters, a mere 8 chapters for a whole 400 pages is insane to me
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Chevalier's newest novel is set in the heart of glassmaking in Venice; on the island of Murano, we follow Orsola Rosso throughout her life and through the centuries, from 1486, with the Renaissance bringing unprecedented trade and artistic change right up to COVID times and its particular challenges. As we move through the story, Orsola experiences it all, ageing only a few decades as the story passes. Time passes, but what really changes? In "The Glassmaker", time is a fluid construct; decades pass after every section, the characters get older, and their wider society may seem utterly different, but essentially nothing is different; like a stone skimming over water, there are small ripples outwards, but the surface stays the same.
At its heart, it is a story about a woman finding her place in a patriarchal society; she desperately wants to showcase her talent with the glass and her head for business but is thwarted again and again by her family and the world. Orsola is every woman down through the centuries, fighting to be true to herself in a world designed to keep her 'in her place', but finding the strength to do so regardless.
This is a novel that you have to trust the process for, and the perseverance with the unusual structure is well worth it, in my opinion. Chevalier is a master of detailed Historical Fiction for a reason, and while this may be a particularly elaborate narrative structure, once you're reading it, it all makes sense, weaving together and moving us through the ages along with Orsola. The intricate plotline mirrors the beautiful detail, a hallmark of Chevalier's writing; you almost believe you can see and feel these beautiful glass beads in front of you, appreciating their beauty and power along with Orsola. The book is equally gorgeous in both print and audio, and this newest offering keeps Chevalier in my top list of must-read authors.
At its heart, it is a story about a woman finding her place in a patriarchal society; she desperately wants to showcase her talent with the glass and her head for business but is thwarted again and again by her family and the world. Orsola is every woman down through the centuries, fighting to be true to herself in a world designed to keep her 'in her place', but finding the strength to do so regardless.
This is a novel that you have to trust the process for, and the perseverance with the unusual structure is well worth it, in my opinion. Chevalier is a master of detailed Historical Fiction for a reason, and while this may be a particularly elaborate narrative structure, once you're reading it, it all makes sense, weaving together and moving us through the ages along with Orsola. The intricate plotline mirrors the beautiful detail, a hallmark of Chevalier's writing; you almost believe you can see and feel these beautiful glass beads in front of you, appreciating their beauty and power along with Orsola. The book is equally gorgeous in both print and audio, and this newest offering keeps Chevalier in my top list of must-read authors.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoilers!
This was a super well-written and exhaustively researched work of historical fiction that kept me turning pages right til the end. It also had some fascinating bits of magical realism thrown in that I really enjoyed.
I thought the first few sections of the book, representing the first few skips of the stone - Renaissance and 17th-century Venice - were the strongest and most interesting, and honestly I wouldn't have minded if the whole of the book had been set there. I thought the characters shone the brightest during that time, particularly my favourite Laura Rosso, and the sweet Antonio. It was also the era I'd have loved to spend the most time in, and Chevalier's research showed to best effect here.
Throughout the book we get fascinating looks at the Murano glass trade, and I loved learning all about the different ways to make glass - and that women were so involved in it as well! I also loved learning about the plague in Venice, and applying it to my own memories of my visit there. Having the whole family changed after their plague experience was realistic and interesting, and I loved that the book was bracketed by, essentially, two plagues.
The magical realism element was interesting, though on the whole I'm not sure how I feel about it. It definitely worked: Venice as a city outside time is a concept everyone is familiar with, and applying that to a narrative was a really cool concept. I do wish, though, that instead of seeing the same people in the family, we got to see multiple generations. I understand that the point of Venice (and glass) is that time moves very slowly for them, but it meant that the family changed very little while the world went on around them - at least until the 2020s, when suddenly the medieval aspects of the world are gone and suddenly people have phones. I did find that a bit jarring. On the whole the book certainly succeeded in what it set out to do, but I don't know that it was entirely for me!
Mainly I wanted a bit more from Orsola and her story! This was less of a narrative and more of a life of a woman, and I really wanted to see and feel her success a little more. For example, with the necklaces! I wanted to really see that take off, and really feel her love for glassmaking. I also have a bone to pick with Stefano. It wasn't his fault that Orsola didn't love him, but then why seek to marry her?? He totally messed up her whole life, and I didn't like that Orsola felt bad for not loving him when she was never required to. I really wanted her love for Antonio to go somewhere, to have it amount to more than a series of dolphins over the course of a life. The fact that it was his descendants doing it over hundreds of years was lovely, but ultimately I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this immensely and the look we got into Venice of different eras. I had no idea about the Austrians and the havoc they wreaked there, so I learned some new things too! I loved the characters (especially Luciana, I wanted so much more from her) and will definitely read more from Chevalier.
This was a super well-written and exhaustively researched work of historical fiction that kept me turning pages right til the end. It also had some fascinating bits of magical realism thrown in that I really enjoyed.
I thought the first few sections of the book, representing the first few skips of the stone - Renaissance and 17th-century Venice - were the strongest and most interesting, and honestly I wouldn't have minded if the whole of the book had been set there. I thought the characters shone the brightest during that time, particularly my favourite Laura Rosso, and the sweet Antonio. It was also the era I'd have loved to spend the most time in, and Chevalier's research showed to best effect here.
Throughout the book we get fascinating looks at the Murano glass trade, and I loved learning all about the different ways to make glass - and that women were so involved in it as well! I also loved learning about the plague in Venice, and applying it to my own memories of my visit there. Having the whole family changed after their plague experience was realistic and interesting, and I loved that the book was bracketed by, essentially, two plagues.
The magical realism element was interesting, though on the whole I'm not sure how I feel about it. It definitely worked: Venice as a city outside time is a concept everyone is familiar with, and applying that to a narrative was a really cool concept. I do wish, though, that instead of seeing the same people in the family, we got to see multiple generations. I understand that the point of Venice (and glass) is that time moves very slowly for them, but it meant that the family changed very little while the world went on around them - at least until the 2020s, when suddenly the medieval aspects of the world are gone and suddenly people have phones. I did find that a bit jarring. On the whole the book certainly succeeded in what it set out to do, but I don't know that it was entirely for me!
Mainly I wanted a bit more from Orsola and her story! This was less of a narrative and more of a life of a woman, and I really wanted to see and feel her success a little more. For example, with the necklaces! I wanted to really see that take off, and really feel her love for glassmaking. I also have a bone to pick with Stefano. It wasn't his fault that Orsola didn't love him, but then why seek to marry her?? He totally messed up her whole life, and I didn't like that Orsola felt bad for not loving him when she was never required to. I really wanted her love for Antonio to go somewhere, to have it amount to more than a series of dolphins over the course of a life. The fact that it was his descendants doing it over hundreds of years was lovely, but ultimately I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this immensely and the look we got into Venice of different eras. I had no idea about the Austrians and the havoc they wreaked there, so I learned some new things too! I loved the characters (especially Luciana, I wanted so much more from her) and will definitely read more from Chevalier.
I enjoyed the story and the main protagonist, as well as the history of Venice over time, but I found the way that the two were woven throughout to be a bit forced. I’m not sure how else she could have done what she was trying to do, but I honestly found the fact that we were supposed to have gone ahead hundreds of years and yet the characters’ chronology remained in tact to be kind of baffling. I have to mull this one over.
<b>The Glassmaker</b> - Chevalier
5 stars
<i>“That sudden passage of time: What does it matter, one century or another, as long as Orsola is accompanied by those she loves and those she needs and even those she hates?”</i>
This book is unique. It is an historical family saga, but without the constantly changing cast of characters through the ages. It is not a time travel fantasy, but it begins in 1486 and ends in the 21st century. It is not the dreaded split timeline novel, but threads of time do split in the progress of the story until they are finally fused at the end. Orsola Russo and her loved ones are not immortal. They live in Murano and Venice. Time passes differently there than it does on Terra Firma, elsewhere on the planet.
<i>“If you skim a flat stone skillfully across water, it will touch down many times, in long or short intervals as it lands. With that image in mind, now replace water with time.”</i>
With that explanation, Chevalier sets the Russo family story in motion through the ages. At the beginning of the book, I was skeptical. Lightman played with a similar idea of regional time variations in <b>Einstein’s Dreams</b>, but I couldn’t see how it would work in a full-length novel.
It did work. Before the book ended, I was totally comfortable with the idea that the Russo family would continue with their daily concerns of housekeeping and glassmaking at their own pace while accommodating the outside world only when necessary. I liked the comparisons that could happen with the compression of centuries.
Orsola Russo is Chevalier’s primary female/feminist, protagonist in this novel. Murano glass work is, of course, a totally male industry. The book begins and ends with the competitive tension between Orsola and the head of the family, her brother, Marco. Orsola carves a small independence for herself with hand crafted glass beads. As years and centuries pass, this becomes an entree for female artisans in business. I enjoyed the way Orsola was always there, crafting beads, while Chevalier shifted the social and political setting.
I learned a bit about glassmaking from reading this book. Chevalier had clearly done her research. She captured the hierarchy of the workshop and the labor of learning an exacting craft. The Russo glassmakers struggled constantly to balance the desire to create art with the practical necessity to make a living and run a household.
<i>“People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time. Painters, writers, wood-carvers, knitters, weavers and, yes, glassmakers: creators often enter an absorbed state that psychologists call flow, in which hours pass without their noticing.
Readers, too.”</i>
As a reader, I was definitely in the flow.
5 stars
<i>“That sudden passage of time: What does it matter, one century or another, as long as Orsola is accompanied by those she loves and those she needs and even those she hates?”</i>
This book is unique. It is an historical family saga, but without the constantly changing cast of characters through the ages. It is not a time travel fantasy, but it begins in 1486 and ends in the 21st century. It is not the dreaded split timeline novel, but threads of time do split in the progress of the story until they are finally fused at the end. Orsola Russo and her loved ones are not immortal. They live in Murano and Venice. Time passes differently there than it does on Terra Firma, elsewhere on the planet.
<i>“If you skim a flat stone skillfully across water, it will touch down many times, in long or short intervals as it lands. With that image in mind, now replace water with time.”</i>
With that explanation, Chevalier sets the Russo family story in motion through the ages. At the beginning of the book, I was skeptical. Lightman played with a similar idea of regional time variations in <b>Einstein’s Dreams</b>, but I couldn’t see how it would work in a full-length novel.
It did work. Before the book ended, I was totally comfortable with the idea that the Russo family would continue with their daily concerns of housekeeping and glassmaking at their own pace while accommodating the outside world only when necessary. I liked the comparisons that could happen with the compression of centuries.
Orsola Russo is Chevalier’s primary female/feminist, protagonist in this novel. Murano glass work is, of course, a totally male industry. The book begins and ends with the competitive tension between Orsola and the head of the family, her brother, Marco. Orsola carves a small independence for herself with hand crafted glass beads. As years and centuries pass, this becomes an entree for female artisans in business. I enjoyed the way Orsola was always there, crafting beads, while Chevalier shifted the social and political setting.
I learned a bit about glassmaking from reading this book. Chevalier had clearly done her research. She captured the hierarchy of the workshop and the labor of learning an exacting craft. The Russo glassmakers struggled constantly to balance the desire to create art with the practical necessity to make a living and run a household.
<i>“People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time. Painters, writers, wood-carvers, knitters, weavers and, yes, glassmakers: creators often enter an absorbed state that psychologists call flow, in which hours pass without their noticing.
Readers, too.”</i>
As a reader, I was definitely in the flow.
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes