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Sweeping Up Glass [Hardcover]

Carolyn D Wall (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

Release Date: Aug 10 2008
1938: Olivia and the boy, Willam, run Harkeras Grocery and live in the cold-water kitchen behind the store. Money is scarce; business is bad. Out back, Pap is buried near the outhouse, and Oliviaas crazy mother Ida is living in a tarpaper shack.
For 30 years, Olivia has loved Wing Harris, who plays a mean trumpet and owns the Kentuckian Hotel. For decades, theyave shared only howdies at Ruseas CafA(c).
This may be the coldest winter on record in Kentucky, but that doesnat keep the elusive Hunt Club from tracking silver-faced wolves on Oliviaas strip of mountain. It falls to her and Willam to figure out why as the hunters turn their sights on them, too.
Then, one frozen night, Willamas mother comes back for him. The some terrible secrets explode among the Rowe Street community. Now thereas blood on Oliviaas hands, and nothing is as she thought it was.
Olivia is responsible for the very people who betrayed her. While she searches for answers that might save them all, then the day comes when Olivia must shatter the shackles that bind her and her community.
Like nothing you have ever read, Sweeping Up Glass is Carolyn D. Wallas searing and surprising debut novel.

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The strong, fresh narrative voice pulls the reader in and doesn't let go in Wall's stunning debut. Someone is killing wolves on Olivia Harker's Kentucky property for sport, and Olivia aims to find the culprit. Meanwhile, Olivia recounts her childhood with an adored father and a mad mother in the brutally segregated Depression-era South. In quick succession, Olivia finds and loses love, gives birth, marries an unloved suitor and becomes a widow. Olivia's daughter, wild and ambitious, hands Olivia her own out-of-wedlock baby to raise, a boy named Will'm. When the probable persecutor of Olivia's wolves sets his sights on her beloved Will'm, Olivia clarifies a decades-old mystery, unwittingly bringing danger to the impoverished local community of blacks who've been her guardian angels. As the action moves inexorably to its explosive conclusion, Olivia must come to grips with past betrayals, thereby earning a second chance at love, redemption and long overdue justice. (Aug.)
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Review

“Haunting, lyrical, entirely absorbing, Sweeping Up Glass deserves a place on the shelf next to classics like True Grit and To Kill a Mockingbird.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Carolyn D. Wall has created an engaging character in Olivia Harker and a complex and densely interconnected community in Aurora, Kentucky. Her evocative prose recalls the regional style of such authors as Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Eudora Welty.”—Mystery Scene

"Wall gives her heroine a powerful voice in this haunting debut."—Kirkus Reviews

“A real stunner, with plot and characters the like of which you’ve never seen.”—MLB News

“Highly recommended for all collections.” —Library Journal, starred review

“This is a perfect little book, like a head-on collision between Flannery O’Connor and Harper Lee, with a bit of Faulkner on a mystery binge. I loved every page of it.”—Joe R. Landsdale, Edgar-award winner

“A powerful novel…features unforgettable characters placed in a terrifying situation….this is a fine novel which deserves a wide audience.”—Mystery News

“The strong, fresh narrative voice pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go in Wall’s stunning debut.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The suspense is gripping, the danger is very real, and the reader gets caught up in Wall’s powerful, moving debut.” —Library Journal, starred review

“This debut novel does so much more than traditional, tightly focused mysteries. It has a powerfully, sometimes uncomfortably, realized setting; characters who seem drawn from life; and a wide-ranging plot, bursting with complications...A gripping story and a truly original voice.” —Booklist

“This extraordinary debut novel…is filled with arresting images, bitter humor, and characters with palpable physical presence. The fresh voice of that clear-eyed narrator reminded me of Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I literally could not put it down.” —Boston Globe
 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars This exciting story swept me away... July 21 2010
By Betty L. Dravis TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Sweeping Up Glass is a stirring debut novel by a fresh, new voice. With a start like this, I expect author Carolyn Wall to be a strong, prolific literary force in the future.

Though some reviewers found this setting in the brutally segregated Depression-era-Kentucky to be uncomfortable, it wasn't to me. My grandparents and parents were born in Kentucky. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression years there, with my parents escaping the worst of it by moving to Ohio. I was born in Ohio, but heard many stories from that era that remind me of Wall's main character, Olivia Harker Cross.

Olivia is a strong, brave, self-sufficient woman, very much like my late mother and Grannie Sue. I liked and related to her right from the gripping start of this book.

In Sweeping Up Glass, Olivia survives the harshness of the Kentucky mountain life by running a small grocery store which is also her spare living quarters, with sleeping areas partitioned off by makeshift curtains. When her out-of-wedlock grandson Will'm is thrust upon her by her wild daughter, Olivia makes the best of the situation, cares for him and teaches him all her hard-earned survival skills.

To add to the drama of this story, Olivia's crazy mother, who lives out back in a tar-paper shack, stirs the plot, making it twice as hard for her daughter.

Olivia and Will'm love and respect the wolves that roam the hills around her property and are trying to protect them from poachers who kill them for sport, angering these cruel men so that she and the boy become endangered themselves.

It's a hard life with Olivia always scrambling to feed them...always pressed for time and energy as she tries to fight these men by wit and cunning... She must encounter her own mysterious past to save herself and the boy; in so doing, she uncovers ugly secrets about the neighboring trouble-makers that endanger not only herself and the boy but also the impoverished community of blacks who have protected her since the death of her adored father. She comes to grips with past betrayals and earns a second chance at love in an explosive ending where justice is finally served.

As I said above, the strong, narrative voice of the heroine grabbed me right away. The first sentence reads: The long howl of a wolf rolls over me like a toothache. Talk about intriguing openings--Wow!

Truthfully, I need go no further than that one sentence to show the depth of Wall's talent. Anyone can see that that sentence alone speaks volumes: 1) it paints a picture of setting and mood; 2) it makes one wonder what's going on; 3) it grabs the reader; 4) it stirs emotion; and 5) it ends with an appropriate, yet creative simile. This lone sentence speaks more about this author than a volume of praise, but I'll list some of the things I like about her writing, anyway:
* Fresh voice.
* Detailed, accurate description.
* Suspenseful Pacing.
* Realistic dialogue with correct vernacular
* Fleshed-out, believable characters.
* Original, exciting plot with a courageous woman winning against the odds.

I could go on and on, but saying that Wall is a masterful wordsmith should sum it up nicely.

I'm sporting a big, satisfied smile as I give this book five stars!

Reviewed by Betty Dravis, June 6, 2010
Author of "Dream Reachers" (with Chase Von) and other books
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars  69 reviews
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars A Broken Spell Aug 2 2009
By B. Case - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
Carolyn Wall's debut novel "Sweeping Up Glass" starts with such a strong literary impact that I had to remind myself to keep breathing. There was so much heartbreaking humanity and reality in the prose that it felt as if the book I held in my hand was a lovely, small, wounded animal rather than a simple work of fiction. In the beginning, almost everything about the book had me entranced--I was under a spell...and, for the most part, that feeling of awe continued straight through to the end.

The book is a truly remarkable debut and Carolyn Wall is an impressive new novelist. Through her simple lyrical prose and authentic dialogue, the impoverished people of rural Appalachia come alive. There is exquisite magic in her straightforward, honest storytelling.

Other reviews on this site outline the book's plot and themes, so I will not go over that material again here. Instead, I want to explain why, after such an enthusiastic opening, I choose to give this book only a three-star and not a five-star rating.

The problem for me was the abrupt change-of-pace in the last few chapters. For most of the book, I had the feeling that I was reading a magnificent character study--a study of a woman, her family, and her town. I would have been totally satisfied if the book had been nothing more than that. It was such a beautiful experience to be in the author's capable hands, taking an intimate look at a marvelous, odd cast of real-life characters.

But shortly before the end, the book abruptly morphs into a fast-paced thriller. The book was like a chimera--ninety percent slow-paced literary character study and ten percent potboiler. I'm sure than many, if not most readers, will not have any problem with this sudden switch-of-pace and style, but for me...well, it totally lifted the veil of reality and I was found myself staring at all the pulley-and-lever mechanics of storytelling stagecraft. The ending broke the long spell of entrancement...and I was sorely disappointed.

I have no problem with the mixing of genres. It is possible to mix a thriller in together with a literary character study--indeed, it has been done many times before. Carolyn Wall got this mix wrong.

Despite this disappointment, I am still enthusiastic and excited by the promise of this new author. Carolyn Wall seems to be a stunning new literary talent and I look forward to her next book. Hopefully, with the next book, she will manage to keep me under her spell straight through to the end.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars True grit in the cold Kentucky mountains... July 26 2009
By Denise Crawford - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
This novel was difficult to read. Not because it wasn't good - it was very good -- but because of the subject matter. I was hungry, I was cold, tired, lonely and filled with rage and frustration - I felt every feeling and thought every thought along with Olivia. I savored the prose and often stopped to reread passages - something I don't often do with the typical books I tend to pick up these days. I was looking for reading pleasure and I got that in this book in one way, but in another I was so drawn into Olivia's world that I experienced it with her and that meant I didn't find it comfortable to read too much at one sitting. It is an unflinching look at poverty, racism, buried secrets, and family bonds at a time in history when everything was HARD.

You will like this book and you should buy it if you like gritty stories of hardscrabble existence eked out in primitive conditions by a determined, plucky woman who has nothing going for her but a strong back and a sense of purpose. The setting is the Kentucky mountains, depression era, dirt poor. Olivia Harker Cross lives with her crazy mother Ida and her grandson Will'm in a shack attached to a small grocery. She stocks her shelves and feeds her family by making quilts and by working very hard. Her life revolves around staying alive, taking care of her grandson, and protecting the silver wolves that were reintroduced to the area by her grandfather. She is a friend to the blacks in a time where lynchings aren't uncommon and segregation is fierce. Even though there is a story line that involves hunters going after the wolves, the book is really a character study. Although some might not find them sympathetic and might even dislike them, they are all very real, uniquely flawed, and doing the best they can given the time, place, and circumstance.

I recommend it -- much to think about and good for a book group or class discussion. Would work perfectly as ancillary reading in an American History course re: 1930s lectures about the Great Depression and race relations.

Personal opinion: I do not agree with others who have likened the book to the classic To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) as the adult point of view and bitter voice of Olivia, although clear and honest, is not like the innocent child narrator Scout in that story.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fresh Voice And Captivatingly Original Protagonist Aug 3 2009
By K. Harris - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
Olivia Harker Cross, the protagonist and narrator in Carolyn Wall's captivating "Sweeping Up Glass" is one of the novel's strongest selling points. It's been a good while since I have been so wrapped up in the complexities of a fictional character that I have to heartily recommend this terrific and surprising new book. Admirable, stubborn, heroic, and infuriating--Olivia's fresh, clear, and blunt voice drive Wall's deceptively simple story to unexpected depths.

Living a hard hand-to-mouth existence in rural Kentucky, Olivia supports a mother just this side of madness and a grandson abandoned by her daughter. When someone starts murdering wolves on her land, this catalyst leads Olivia to explore her family history and to unearth some bitter and terrifying truths about the place she calls home. The novel, both moving and exciting, is alive and haunting as it unfolds in Olivia's own words and as she starts to unravel the past and to understand the present--the reader is right there with her. I was fully committed to Olivia and her quest for answers.

Spanning decades and tracking four generations of a proud, but troubled, Kentucky family--this small and compulsively entertaining story is at once straightforward and multi-layered. Part family drama, part mystery, part social commentary, part romance, and part thriller--it's an amazing feat that Wall has accomplished in fitting so much content into such a small volume. And to do so with so much gusto and originality left me breathless. A nearly perfect little book marred by a bit of abruptness in the final pages, Wall's storytelling style has drawn comparisons to Harper Lee. A huge compliment in and of itself! Unlike Lee, though, and her masterpiece "To Kill A Mockingbird"--I just hope there's a lot more to come from Wall. KGHarris, 8/09.
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