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Part
novel, part short story collection, Elizabeth Crane’s All This Heavenly Glory
tells the story of Charlotte Anne Byers’s life in a collection of short snippets.
Brought to New York City at six years old by her newly-divorced mom,
Charlotte Anne grows up in Manhattan (though she spends the summers in Iowa with her dad
and her step-family). While she’s taught that the most important thing in life is to
“have it all together,” Charlotte Anne realizes that that’s easier said than done. While
she faces the challenges of growing up in the Big Apple (a city that she repeatedly tries
to leave), finding friends, dating, and becoming an adult, she struggles through
alcoholism and bad relationships in an attempt to discover who she really is.
The book’s format is an uncommon one—jumping from first person to third
and skipping around chronologically, from one story of Charlotte in her thirties back to
a story about nine-year-old Charlotte Anne. But the effect is powerful. At times a
comedy, at other times a tear-jerker, All This Heavenly Glory is a poignant story
of the ups and downs of life—of experiences, mistakes, and lessons.
A
review of this book wouldn’t be complete, however, without a discussion about Crane’s
style. As I read the first story—a ten-page personal ad that goes from the basic
personal-ad descriptions to self-analysis to a discussion about Owen Wilson in one long,
rambling sentence filled with commas and semicolons and lists and side notes—I was
overjoyed. I found the sprawling, conversational tone refreshing. It read like a casual
chat with a slightly-caffeinated friend (one who might possibly benefit from Ritalin).
But as I continued reading, the style became less refreshing and more distracting. I
often found myself wading through paragraph-long sentences, trying to follow the train of
thought. And sometimes I’d get to the end and realize that my mind had started wandering
(you know—like the way your mind sometimes wanders off a little while you’re watching
your friend’s mouth move as she tells you a long, rambling story that seems to go on
forever), and I’d have to go back and start over to figure out what I’d missed.
If you can get beyond the rambling style and reach down to the heart of
the story, you’ll be stunned by All This Heavenly Glory. But be warned that it’ll
take some extra concentration to get there.
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