Scan barcode
eraofkara's review against another edition
2.0
Frankly, I enjoyed the excerpts from Crane's blog at the back of the book far more than the actual book. I may still try her short stories, though.
megankhein's review against another edition
4.0
at first, i didn't think i would ever feel connected to this story simply because of elizabeth crane's writing style (run-on sentences, no dialogue, etc.), but then i started loving and identifying with charlotte, the main character.
missnicelady's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh. I loved Crane's weird book of short stories, but this thing. Jeez. I kept forcing myself to read it, but still only made it halfway through before remembering that life is too short for bad books. The book starts promisingly, with a ten-page, one-sentence personal ad for the protagonist. The ad is blissfully crazy, with lots of asides and explanations and insights about the character and life in general. I figured I was in for a fun ride. But no.
Charlotte Anne is just dull and ordinary, and Crane's overstuffed prose doesn't make her more interesting. Every other sentence has a long, often parenthetical description or pop-culture reference, which can work if you're David Foster Wallace but doesn't if you're, you know, not. All the excess material just hangs on the book like a school of lampreys, sucking the life out of every page.
Read the first chapter and skip the rest.
Charlotte Anne is just dull and ordinary, and Crane's overstuffed prose doesn't make her more interesting. Every other sentence has a long, often parenthetical description or pop-culture reference, which can work if you're David Foster Wallace but doesn't if you're, you know, not. All the excess material just hangs on the book like a school of lampreys, sucking the life out of every page.
Read the first chapter and skip the rest.
spygrl1's review
3.0
These stories are more tightly coupled than those in When The Messenger is Hot -- in fact, Glory might even be a novel. Each story/chapter deals with the life of Charlotte Anne Byers, who is probably mostly Elizabeth Crane: New Yorker, transplanted to Chicago, former alcoholic, divorced parents, opera singer mother who dies of cancer, hapless in matters of romance ... These are also the characteristics shared by the protagonist(s) in When the Messenger.
This time, the writing style is even more conversational, even babbling. The sentences run on and on and on, winding through clauses and past commas, sometimes for pages and pages. Proving that I am not unable to appreciate a rambling, discursive style. Although I do think Messenger packed more punch, but that might just be because I read it first.
Notable/Quotable
Charlotte is the sort of person who's inclined to feel guilty imagining so much as a kiss between her and someone who's already involved, the sort of person who can't really even manage a fantasy about a movie star who might be married, much as she finds, let's say, Andy Garcia to be worth imagnining, Charlotte is the sort of person who will have to get Andy Garcia divorced, within the fantasy but having nothing to do with having met her, he has to be divorced prior to having met her in order for her to think about kissing him, and so Charlotte tends to find it easier to just fantasize about celebrities she knows are single than to go to all that trouble.
For one thing, she hadn't exactly chosen a field; although she has since childhood imagined picking up her Oscar, the category has never been determined. There was some thought that by the time she grew up they would give out Oscars for Best Novel (and that by then she would have written one), or that maybe she would just get some kind of honorary Oscar for her distinctive life observations made in everyday conversations, or the occasional letter.
Russell made a comment to Charlotte about how she struck him as being really kind of healthy, in an emotional way, which wasn't completely surprising -- she knew she was fairly adroit at making people think she had it going on in that way (which gets into another whole thing about whether that was really a useful trait, which in fact she was pretty sure it wasn't, considering that maybe she could actually get some help from people, if she were willing to admit she needed any).
But people seem to think it's better to say, It's not you. I don't know why anyone would think that's useful, because so often it is you, and if they would only admit that is it you, and if they could further explain in exactly what way it is you, it seem to me like they would ultimately be doing you a service ...
This time, the writing style is even more conversational, even babbling. The sentences run on and on and on, winding through clauses and past commas, sometimes for pages and pages. Proving that I am not unable to appreciate a rambling, discursive style. Although I do think Messenger packed more punch, but that might just be because I read it first.
Notable/Quotable
Charlotte is the sort of person who's inclined to feel guilty imagining so much as a kiss between her and someone who's already involved, the sort of person who can't really even manage a fantasy about a movie star who might be married, much as she finds, let's say, Andy Garcia to be worth imagnining, Charlotte is the sort of person who will have to get Andy Garcia divorced, within the fantasy but having nothing to do with having met her, he has to be divorced prior to having met her in order for her to think about kissing him, and so Charlotte tends to find it easier to just fantasize about celebrities she knows are single than to go to all that trouble.
For one thing, she hadn't exactly chosen a field; although she has since childhood imagined picking up her Oscar, the category has never been determined. There was some thought that by the time she grew up they would give out Oscars for Best Novel (and that by then she would have written one), or that maybe she would just get some kind of honorary Oscar for her distinctive life observations made in everyday conversations, or the occasional letter.
Russell made a comment to Charlotte about how she struck him as being really kind of healthy, in an emotional way, which wasn't completely surprising -- she knew she was fairly adroit at making people think she had it going on in that way (which gets into another whole thing about whether that was really a useful trait, which in fact she was pretty sure it wasn't, considering that maybe she could actually get some help from people, if she were willing to admit she needed any).
But people seem to think it's better to say, It's not you. I don't know why anyone would think that's useful, because so often it is you, and if they would only admit that is it you, and if they could further explain in exactly what way it is you, it seem to me like they would ultimately be doing you a service ...
More...