All This Heavenly Glory

by Elizabeth Crane #9

I had a whole long thing about how I found this book (libraries, browsing, not this book first, blog coincidence -- it was riveting, let me tell you), but none of that really matters. What matters is that this is a wonderful book. It reads to me like a hybrid of short story and novel, a cross between fact and fiction, and between really good and great. You should read it!

Why? The very first chapter is but one reason. It is the longest, most detailed, most list-oriented (I love a good list), most -gratuitous-mentions-of-Owen-Wilson-would-cost-you-10,000,000-dollars-to-publish-if-you-were-paying-by-the-word-single-sentence personal ad in the history of the world. And it's fantastic!

The chapters at the beginning cut back and forth between Charlotte Anne as an adult, and Charlotte Anne growing up. So much of this rang true -- even (especially) the stuff from Charlotte Anne's 12 y.o. point of view. I think a lot of people sort of romanticize what a 12 year old knows and feels, but this seemed right to me. For every thing that really resonated there were things that didn't, but that seems reasonable seeing as how this is a work of fiction and not someone transcribing my exact experience directly from my brain. I assume it would be the same for any other reader (although what that other reader relates to or doesn't would undoubtedly vary). She has a very delicate touch about losing a parent to cancer, for example. I know it's different for everybody, but in so many ways it is exactly the same.

Lest I leave this sounding like the downer-cancer-personal-ad-book-of-the-year, let me say that it's so much more! It's about the struggle and choice to be a decent human being and live your life. But now I've said "struggle" in addition to "cancer" so it is sounding double-plus unfun, which is the OPPOSITE of what I intend. So remember "owen wilson," "lists," and "fizzy, zig-zaggy, shot-to-the-heart writing." And go read it!