Glassworks
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A gorgeously written and irresistibly intimate queer novel that follows one family across four generations to explore legacy and identity in all its forms.
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel Prizes
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Apple, and Good Housekeeping
In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it.
Agnes's desperate actions breed secrecy, and the resulting silence echoes into the future. Her son, Edward, wants to be a man of faith but struggles with the complexities of the mortal world while apprenticing at a stained-glass studio.
In 1986, Edward's child, Novak-just Novak-is an acrobatic window washer cleaning Manhattan high-rises, who gets caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingénue.
And in 2015, Cecily's daughter Flip-a burned-out stoner trapped in a bureaucratic job firing cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-resolves to break the cycle of inherited secrets, reaching back through the generations in search of a family legacy that feels true.
With "gripping turns and subtle prose" (The Washington Post), Glassworks is a sophisticated debut that holds you in its thrall until the last page.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This stunning, queer-positive epic follows a family throughout the 20th century, packing in tons of compelling generational drama. In Boston, the wealthy Agnes Carter falls in love with an enigmatic glassblower named Ignace, who creates a beautiful glass bee for her that then flutters through the remaining stories, magical realism–style. We were very drawn to debut author Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s memorable characters, including Agnes’ son, Edward, who grapples with his faith, and gender-fluid window washer Novak, who struggles with their affection for a Broadway actress during the AIDS epidemic. Each era in the sweeping tale has its own distinct feel—we particularly loved the section devoted to a 2010s stoner named Flip. A nuanced look into the complexities of love, family, and identity, Glassworks will appeal to fans of Pachinko or One Hundred Years of Solitude.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wolfgang-Smith contends with vocation, identity, and the meaning of family in her appealing debut. The first of four sections takes place in 1910 Boston, where heiress Agnes Carter marries an unscrupulous and abusive man and becomes enamored of a brilliant but volatile sculptor named Ignace Novak, whom she's hired to produce glass models of flora and fauna. In 1938, Agnes's son, Edward, longs to pursue a religious career, but lacks the required theological background, then stumbles into a career making liturgical stained glass. In the 1980s, Edward's gender fluid offspring, Novak, works as a window cleaner in New York City. After Novak is dragged reluctantly to a Broadway performance, Novak becomes besotted with Cecily, a captivating, gender-bending swing performer. The novel's final section, set in 2015, focuses on Cecily's daughter, known as "Flip," who lives miserably in the closet-size spare room of her ex-girlfriend's apartment because she can't afford to move out. Flip works at a start-up that creates glass paperweights out of cremains, where a co-worker encourages her to look into her mysterious given name—Novak—and the glass bee heirloom she once thought was just a trinket. As the various threads tie together, the author makes clever use of her central metaphor, considering glass as sharp, fluid, changeable, and even surprising—much like the characters she depicts. This is a radiant exploration of a complex legacy.
Customer Reviews
Excellent historical fiction novel
Really deep and well written. Threads of characters’ connections were fantastic.