Sweeping Up Glass

Sweeping Up Glass is the story of Olivia Harker, her family, her friends, and the hardships they all endure in rural 1938 Kentucky. The book introduces us to Olivia and her immediate surviving family, and then shifts off into about 15 chapters of back story. These chapters relate Olivia's childhood and her previous struggles with her mentally ill mother, her doting father, the love of her life, and the segregated black community in her area. Olivia encounters many hardships and setbacks as she grows up, and some are completely devastating. She grows from being a sweet and loving child into an acerbic and unbending woman. She is fiercely loyal in her love and ardently forceful in her hate. It is clear that her circumstances have shaped show more her. Olivia's daily existence is a tribulation that most would shrink from. Though she handles her situation with poise, she also carries more than a little bitterness. Olivia is a complex woman who is stubborn and resigned, yet still somehow hopeful. When we finally resume the action in the present, Olivia is faced with the realization that someone is killing the wolves that have always been protected residents of her land. Along with her grandson William, she attempts to track down the hunters. What she discovers is more than a simple poaching scheme, and the effects will be volatile to herself and the community.

The secondary plot revolves around Ida, Olivia's mother, who lives in a tar paper shack on the edge of her property. Ida is a fantastically rash character. She is mentally ill and has been abusive towards Olivia all her life; there is no love lost between them. Though Ida was absent for most of Olivia's adolescence, she returns to the family and creates havoc and heartache for Olivia and her father. Through all of her erratic behavior, Olivia's father, Tate Harker, remains loyal and steadfast to her. Yet Ida shows no reciprocation towards Tate, and remains cruel and unyielding. One of the interesting aspects of this book was the portrayal of the mental hospitals of the day. When Ida must retreat to one of these hospitals, Olivia visits to inspect it, and it is harrowing. The women there are either forced to be immobile or locked in small cages. Electroshock is mentioned, as are head shavings and ice baths. I had trouble with this section of the book, as it seemed a savage fate for Ida, one that Olivia didn't fully ruminate on. Though Ida had made some very bad choices in her life and didn't feel even the slightest bit of remorse, the choice to send her to that facility seemed heinous. It seems the author's point was that Olivia couldn't forgive Ida for what she had done and that as far as she was concerned, Ida was irredeemable. I feel that this section of the book may disturb many readers, and it was the only thing that marred my pleasure in this book. It was the only piece in the book that didn't seem to fit. The blatant cruelty of the decision was shocking.

Another aspect of the story involved Olivia's current relationship with her former high school sweetheart, Wing Harris. Olivia and Wing had only a brief time together before events separated them. Wing watched with stolid silence as Olivia went through horrible stages of her life, offering any help he could, while Olivia in her pride rejected him. As the book progresses, Wing and Olivia tackle the obstacles involved in their reconciliation. It is not as easy for them to reunite as one would hope. I liked the character of Wing because he was noble in the face of all his humiliations and trials, and he was always there when it mattered. Wing was a likeable character. Though somewhat sedate, he was unflinching in his honesty and loyalty.

The segregated black community portrayed in this book is poignant and revealing. Though they must remain separate from the whites, even having separate days for shopping at the local store, they embrace Olivia and her family as one of their own. The community's hardships are not harped upon, but relayed with respect to the adversity they faced. It was touching to see that there could indeed be no separation of color as far as Olivia's family was concerned. Themes of racial acceptance, real or imagined, hoped for or denied, ran through the book.

But as wolves continue to be slaughtered, Olivia unwittingly places herself and those she loves into the hands of unjust men who are trying to keep a devastating underground society alive. The story becomes a race to save those she loves, and the town, from certain destruction. Great forces are aligned against her, and it was with great trepidation that I realized the odds were against her. The many tiny revelations, along with the great, kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering if there was more to come, wondering how much more she and those of the town could take. Malice and discord sweep through the pages as the truths are slowly picked out. In addition, there are mysteries surrounding her father, secrets shrouded in perplexity that may indicate that her father was not the man she once knew.

This book had me hooked from the very first pages. The hard-scrabble daily existence of the characters was captivating and engrossing. The economies that had to be made were many, and the details of 1930’s Kentucky were so precise that it was greatly absorbing. The language was rustic and simple, yet very clear and concise. I found myself wanting to know more about these people, to know more about their lives, hurts and victories. This book has a lot to say about the times that it portrays. The small issues and the great, neither is neglected. There are wise and humble characters as well as wicked and sinister ones. Love, anger, betrayal, duty, honor, racism, and death, forgiveness: they are all here. And the tapestry created is one of beautiful complexity.

By the end of the book, I was wishing I could spend more time with these characters, that they would not go. Aside from the aberration regarding the mental hospital, this was an outstanding debut novel. I will definitely read any other offerings from this author, and I wish her luck in her writing career. show less

I learned long ago that when a book's blurb says that the book is like (insert name of a popular book here), they are setting you up for disappointment. Often, authors try to cash in on the success of a bestseller by pumping out a cheap knock-off of the original and they seldom succeed. Even so, when I saw 'Sweeping Up Glass' compared to 'To Kill A Mockingbird', one of my all-time favorite books, I couldn't resist and ordered it immediately. I'm glad that I did. Carolyn Wall is no 'wannabe'. She's a great author in her own right.

Is 'Sweeping Up Glass' a new 'Mockingbird'? No, but there are a lot of striking similarities. Both have young girls living with a kindhearted father in the South, assuming you consider the Kentucky hill country show more 'South'. Both address the subjects of racism and poverty. In both books, black people are helpful, kindly and hard-working and white people's behavior is often contingent on the color of a person's skin. Both books address essential deficiencies in the legal systems of the day and both books have dangerous, drunken bullies. Nevertheless, 'Sweeping Up Glass' is not a pale imitation of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. It is an excellent novel in its own right, full of well developed characters, good and evil, and a thrilling plot full of dark secrets, senseless violence and great courage. The last 100 pages will likely keep you up well into the night to find out how it ends.

While Harper Lee wrote 'Mockingbird' from the perspective of an optimistic young girl who learns about life, Carolyn Wall's debut novel views life through the eyes of a middle aged grandmother who has spent decades being beaten down by poverty, neglect and tragedy. It has a brooding, melancholy air about it that is reminiscent of Norman Blake's poignant bluegrass ballad, 'Lonesome Jenny'. After a while the reader wonders if the sun ever shines in Aurora, Kentucky, and then realizes that the gloom is more a representation of Olivia's outlook than the weather. This is a powerful story and well worth your time. show less

In Olivia Cross, Carolyn Wall walked a real tightrope, creating the heroine for her first novel, [Sweeping Up Glass], with equal parts naïveté and precocious reason. Wall first introduces us to Olivia as a beaten and tired grandmother, too early beset by the brutality of the world, fighting extinction in depression era, rural Kentucky. In a tar paper shack behind her house lives her mother, a demon of a woman, seemingly unhinged from reality. One night, in an act of mercy, Olivia kills one of the transplanted wolves living on her land, taking on the wolves’ pups to raise. As the pups cling to life, Wall retraces Olivia’s youth as an untamed, violently independent girl and follows her through the life that has led her to the brink. show more Olivia undertakes to learn who is preying on her wolves and the answer leads her back to her past, back to the accident which stole her father from her, back to her broken spirit at the hands of her crazy mother.

Epic in a way that evokes Steinbeck and [East of Eden], Olivia and many of the characters in this story are searching for their voices and for a path to redemption. And Wall created characters worthy of such a struggle, rich in depth and mystery and filled with rousing spirits.

This is not a perfect book but is a promising first effort. The unveiling of the secret haunting Olivia and her town culminates in a Hollywood blockbuster movie sort of way which wasn’t consistent with the languid, southern tinted story telling with which the rest of the book is concerned. Wall fleshed out interesting, eccentric characters with whom a reader would rarely grow impatient. A focus on the characters and a patient voice with the story could have carried me through hundreds of more pages, with nary a restless thought about how everything would be resolved. And good southern stories rarely turn out with such rosy endings for everyone.

4 bones!!!!

Bottom Line: A worthy read with solid, exciting characters which strays a bit at the end. Look for this author to fine tune her story-telling and produce even better books show less

I was not in the mood for Sweeping Up Glass when I began reading it. I had made a commitment though to read and review it. I am sure it sounded good to me when I checked the box at the BookBrowse website to be entered for a chance to review it, but once it arrived in the mail, I wondered what in the world I had been thinking. My extra-fabulous reading streak would surely be ruined now. Maybe that would be a good thing though, I told myself. People are beginning to think I not only like, but actually love just about everything I read.

Sweeping Up Glass is Carolyn Wall’s first novel. And let me just say now that it definitely did not ruin my love ‘em all reading streak. I loved it. Can I say that again, please? I loved it. So much for show more not being in the mood for it. Well, there you have it. End of review.

Okay, so not really. Despite my initial doubts, it was clear from the very first page that I was going to like this novel. Olivia Harker Cross has lived a lifetime in her nearly 42 years of life. It was not all bad at first. Although they were poor, which was true of most of the folk living in their Kentucky town, Olivia and her father ran the grocery store, living in the back. Olivia adored her father. He ran a little side business, mending and caring for injured animals. He did what he could for Olivia, making sure she did not do without. Olivia’s mother, Ida, during those early years was locked away in an asylum, having never been quite the same after giving birth to her daughter.

Olivia spent her days going to school and helping her father with the store, sometimes even helping him with the animals. Her best friend, Love Alice, a black girl just a few years older than herself, was married to Junk Hanley, a strong and decent man who often did work around the store for Olivia and her father. Junk’s family had taken Olivia in more than once, Junk’s mother being the mother Olivia never really had. This was during a time when the line between black and white was well drawn. Segregation was the norm: they shopped at the grocery store on different days from one another, attended different schools and churches, and the blacks had to enter through the back door rather than the front at the local restaurant. Color made no difference to Olivia, however. She knew who her friends were, and she loved them dearly.

When word came from the asylum that her mother was ready to come home, Olivia was devastated. Her mother had never taken kindly to her and Olivia knew it would not turn out well. She was right. Her mother treated her poorly, cruelly even. When Olivia got word of her father’s death, she blamed herself and her mother would not let her forget the part she played in it.

As time went on, Olivia found love and lost it, became a mother early on and struggled with raising a daughter. She did not hesitate to take in her grandson Will’m, when her daughter, Pauline left him on her doorstep. It was to that end that Olivia finds herself caring for her elderly mother, who has grown no nicer with age, and her young grandson, the only real joy in her life.

Will’m is so much like his great-grandfather, big heart and all. When the wolves on the family’s mountain are suddenly targeted by cold-blooded hunters, he begs his grandmother to try and save a litter of young pups. Olivia is angered that someone is trespassing on her land and killing off the wolves. She is determined to get to the bottom of it. What she finds is a town full of dark secrets, cover-ups and lies. And the closer she comes to the truth, the more danger she and Will’m are in.

Olivia Harker Cross’s life has made her tough and somewhat bitter. She has a softer side, which is most evident when she is around her grandson, Will’m. She is such a strong woman, so resilient, and yet still so full of doubt. Even though I may not have agreed with every choice she made, I never lost respect for her. She believes in standing up for what is right and is not afraid to speak her mind.

Olivia’s mother, Ida, is such an interesting character. She too has had a difficult life. She is much kinder to the men in her life (other than her husband) than she is to the women. She’s long been plagued with mental illness, but it is never clear what exactly that may be. One of the heart-wrenching moments in the book is when Olivia visits the state hospital her mother had spent much of Olivia's early childhood in. Even though Ida was terrible to Olivia, it was hard not to feel for her, having had to live in a place like that. For all intents and purposes, Ida seems to be a woman unhappy with her lot in life and so she takes it out on those closest to her. The relationship between Olivia and Ida is a complicated one.

Olivia has long harbored a hate in her heart for a mother she does not understand. All her life, even now, Olivia has wanted her mother to show some sign that she loves her. Her mother never has. The scars her mother has left on her run deep. They impact her relationship with her own daughter, who could not wait to escape. Olivia’s heart has been broken too many times, and love does not come easily for her. She guards her heart as those who love her know all too well.

Carolyn Wall’s novel begins in the future and quickly steps back into the past where the reader learns about Olivia’s childhood, setting the stage for the events to come. What begins as a quiet novel picks up intensity in the second half, particularly in the final 100 pages or so, as everything comes to a head (several soft expletives escaped me mouth, causing my husband to wonder if I was crazy). It almost seemed like two different novels in a way: the first half being more of a life story and the second being the suspense-filled mystery. And while I could fault another novel for this, I actually thought it worked quite well. The transition happened gradually and the story threads were interwoven from beginning to end.

The novel is set in the late 1930’s, at least in terms of the “current” story thread. The time period plays an especially important role in the novel. Life was hard all over the United States at that time and in the decades preceding it, people struggling to make ends meet. In Pope County Kentucky, where the novel is set, it was no different. Carolyn Wall captured the desperation of the times as well as the adaptability of the people. People bartered with food and services when they could not pay. Segregation was commonplace and racism ran rampant.

There is so much I want to say about this book and I haven't even come close to capturing all that I loved about it, but I’ve already said more than I probably should. This is one of those books that you have to read for yourself. Told in the voice of Olivia, the narrative is uncomplicated, her wry humor coming out now and then. The pages are filled with characters well worth getting to know, and Olivia’s story is one that will surely touch the reader’s heart. The secrets uncovered are chilling and the resolution is satisfying. The novel is as complex as Olivia Harker. Sweeping Up Glass is a love story, a mystery, and historical novel that touches on social issues that still reverberate today.

To think I had doubts about reading this book. That will show me, won’t it? show less

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, this books. I could not put it down. I was captured by the first line and it held me until the final line. From Olivia to Will'm, Junk to Love Alice, Wing to Ida, all of the characters are so well written and developed. This book is part mystery, part history, part suspense, and great storytelling all rolled into one. Wall reminds me of Sharyn McCrumb who is also a great storyteller. The settings are so real, you can picture the tar paper shack, Wing's hotel, Ruse's diner, Phelp's barn. That is what makes this story so great. I will recommend this book to bookclubs and customers who like great storytelling. I can't wait for Wall's next book, The Coffin Maker, I am hoping for a similar setting with equally as great show more characters. ***** show less

I thought the blurb on the back would be too much for any book to live up to, but this book did not disappoint. I was sucked in immediately, and did not want to put this one down. I just loved the character of Olivia. She epitomizes the feistiness at the core of every woman. Olivia is a woman of the earth, in so many ways.

This is a tough review to write because I really do not want to give away too many details, as the pace at which the characters, the setting and back-story are revealed are a very large part of the enjoyment of this book. The prose is crisp and wonderfully descriptive, and the characters very human.

I have just have to say this... I think I smell a bestseller.

What a great little surprise this book turned out to be. At times the writing is right up there with the likes of Dorothy Allison, Donna Tartt, and (gasp... is he really going to say it?) Harper Lee.

It's the story of a strong but damaged woman who is barely ekeing out a living for her non-traditional family in the mountains of the Jim Crow South. She runs the country store, tends to her raving and uncooperartive mother, raises her grandchild as her own, and protects the endangered wolf population that sometimes wanders onto her property.

The little town is filled with sinister secrets: Some of them pertaining to the family of evil-seeming brothers who menace the population. Some of them somehow wrapped around the legacy of Olivia's show more bootlegger/veterinarian father.

The characters are vivid, the writing is crisp, and the reveals pack nice wallops.

Highly recommended! show less