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Another heartwarming winner from the NBA-anointed Massachusetts author.
Glass (I See You Everywhere, 2008, etc.) observes and gently mocks her charmingly self-absorbed characters in an unmannered manner reminiscent of her popular contemporary Allegra Goodman and their accomplished forerunner Anne Tyler. This time around, age and youth, urban and small-town life, straight and gay relationships, and aesthetic and political priorities are examined with a beguiling mixture of gusto and delicacy. Focal character Percy Darling is a 70-year-old widower living in retirement (from his longtime employment at Harvard's Widener Library) not far from Boston, where he has donated to a trendy preschool use of the barn on his expansive property. The busy activities at "Elves & Fairies" stimulate bittersweet memories of Percy's late wife Poppy, who had housed a dance studio in that very barn, before perishing in a senseless accident 30 years earlier. As the novel ambles deceptively along, gathering momentum and complexity, Percy—really more of a curmudgeon than a "darling"—discovers that his life is much more than the shell of its former self he'd been prepared to accept. Glass moves the viewpoint skillfully, showing how Percy's late-life learning curve intersects with those of such variously involved characters as his elder daughter Clover, whose shaky grasp of the responsibilities of adulthood contrasts cruelly with her younger sister's career as a prominent oncologist; her nephew (and Percy's pride and joy) Robert, a Harvard pre-med student who plunges into the darkest waters of environmental activism; gay preschool teacher Ira, an unlikely source of more lessons for Percy; and "illegal" Guatemalan handyman Celestino, an optimist who just may become the man Percy has always believed himself to be. Reversals of fortune and chastening surprises are in store for them all.
Glass's perfect plot gives each character his or her due, in an irresistible pastoral tragicomedy that showcases the warmth and wisdom of one of America's finest novelists, approaching if not already arrived at her peak.
“Elaborately plotted and luxuriously paced, Glass’s inquisitive, compassionate, funny, and suspenseful saga addresses significant and thorny social issues with emotional veracity, artistic nuance, and a profound perception of the grand interconnectivity of life.”
—Booklist (starred review)
Praise for I See You Everywhere
“Rich, intricate, and alive with emotion . . . An honest portrait of sister-love and sister-hate—interlocking, brave, and forgiving.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“One doesn’t read so much as sink into a Julia Glass novel, lulled into an escapist reverie by her mastery . . . A novel that begins as sophisticated diversion [becomes] a haunting dissection of human fragility.”
—People
Praise for The Whole World Over
“[Glass’s] second novel is even finer than her first . . . Her characters are enticingly complex, their predicaments are provocative and significant . . . Her love for animals, feel for landscape, and ardor for language itself feed the freshness, sensuousness, and compassion that make this such a nourishing and pleasurable read.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Beautiful and satisfying, chock-full of the gorgeous, heartbreaking stuff that makes life worth living.”
—Rocky Mountain News
Praise for Three Junes
“Enormously accomplished . . . Rich, absorbing, and full of life.”
—The New Yorker
“Brilliantly rescues, then refurbishes, the traditional plot-driven novel . . . Glass has written a generous book about family expectations—but also about happiness.”
—The New York Times Book Review
JULIA GLASS is the author of Three Junes, winner of the National Book Award; The Whole World Over; and I See You Everywhere, winner of the Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her short fiction has also won several prizes, and her personal essays have been widely anthologized. She lives in Massachusetts.
One of her earliest short stories, never published, was a semi-autobiographical piece called "Souvenirs." Loosely based on her experiences as a student traveling in Greece, the story was (by Glass's own admission) pretty formulaic. Yet, she found herself returning to it over the years, haunted by the faint memory of someone she had met on that trip: an older man whose wife had recently died.
Then, during the early 1990s, Glass experienced some serious setbacks in her life: Within the space of a few years, her marriage ended in divorce, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her beloved younger sister -- a dynamic woman with a seemingly wonderful life -- committed suicide. Devastated by her sister's death, Glass turned to writing as a way of working through her grief and loss. Suddenly, the memory of the sad widower in Greece took on a melancholy resonance. She retrieved "Souvenirs" from her desk drawer for one final rewrite, expanded it to novella length, and spun it from a different point of view. Renamed "Collies," the story won the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal in 1999. It also became the first section of Glass's remarkable 2002 debut novel, the National Book Award winner Three Junes.
After a spate of "postmodern" bestsellers, Three Junes was like a breath of fresh air, harkening back to an era of more straightforward, gimmick-free writing. Spanning a period of ten years (1989-1999), the novel covers three disparate, event-filled months in the lives of a well-to-do Scottish family named McLeod, weaving a cast of colorful, interconnected characters into a tapestry of contemporary social mores that would do Glass's 19th-century role model George Eliot proud.
The same dazzling sprawl that distinguished her acclaimed debut has characterized Glass's subsequent efforts -- rich, dense narratives that unfold from multiple points of view and illuminate the full, complicated spectrum of relationships (among parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, friends and lovers). In an interview with NPR, she explained her penchant for ensemble casts and panoramic multidimensional stories: "I see life as increasingly complex, vivid, colorful, crazy, chaotic. That's the world I write about...the world I live in."
She is an avid rug-hooker in her free time. She explains that "unlike the more restrictive needlepoint, this medium permits me to work with yarn in a fluid, painterly fashion." Several of her rugs were reproduced in a book called Punch Needle Rug Hooking, by Amy Oxford (Schiffer Books).
Glass considers herself a "confirmed, unrepentant late bloomer." She explains, "I talked late, swam late, did not learn to ride a bike until college -- and might never have walked or learned to drive a car if my parents hadn't overruled my lack of motivation and virtually forced me to embrace both forms of transportation. I suspect I was happy to sit in a corner with a book. Though I didn't quite plan it that way, I had my two sons at just about the same ages my mother saw me and my sister off to college, and my first novel was published when I was 46. This 'tardiness' isn't something I'm proud of, but I'm happy to be an inspiration to others who arrive at these milestones later than most of us do."
1
Why, thank you. I'm getting in shape to die." Those were the first words I spoke aloud on the final Thursday in August of last summer: Thursday, I recall for certain, because it was the day on which I read in our weekly town paper about the first of what I would so blithely come to call the Crusades; the end of the month, I can also say for certain, because Elves & Fairies was scheduled, that very evening, to fling open its brand-new, gloriously purple doors-- formerly the entrance to my beloved barn--and usher in another flight of tiny perfect children, along with their preened and privileged parents.
I was on the return stretch of my route du jour, the sun just gaining a vista over the trees, when a youngster who lives half a mile down my street gave me a thumbs-up and drawled, "Use it or lose it, man!" I might have ignored his insolence had he been pruning a hedge or fetching the newspaper, but he appeared merely to be lounging--and smoking a cigarette--on his parents' hyperfastidiously weed-free lawn. He wore tattered trousers a foot too long and the smile of a bartender who wishes to convey that you've had one too many libations.
I stopped, jogging in place, and elaborated on my initial remark. "Because you see, lad," I informed him, huffing rhythmically though still in control, "I have it on commendable authority that dying is hard work, requiring diligence, stamina, and fortitude. Which I intend to maintain in ample supply until the moment of truth arrives."
And this was no lie: three months before, at my daughter's Memorial Day cookout, I'd overheard one of her colleagues confide to another, in solemn Hippocratic tones, "Maternity nurses love to talk about how hard it is to be born, how it's anything but passive. They explain to all these New Age moms that babies come out exhausted from the work they do, how they literally muscle their way toward the light. Well, if you ask me, dying's the same. It's hard work, too. The final stretch is a marathon. I've seen patients try to die but fail. Just one more thing they didn't bother to tell us in med school." (Creepy, this talk of muscling one's way toward the dark. Though I did enjoy the concept of all those babies toiling away, lives on the line, like ancient Roman tunnel workers, determined to complete their passage.)
As for the youngster with trousers slouched around his bony ankles, my homily had its intended effect. When I finished, he hadn't a syllable at his service; not even the knee-jerk "Whatever" that members of his generation mutter when conversationally cornered. As I went on my way, energized by vindication, I had a dim notion that the youngster's name was Damien. Or Darius. I put him at fifteen, the nadir point of youth. Had he been a boy of his age some twenty years ago, I would have known his name without a second thought, not just because I would have known his parents but because in all likelihood he would have mowed my lawn or painted my barn (gratefully!) for an hourly wage appropriate to a teenage boy's modestly spendthrift habits. Nowadays, teenage boys with wealthy parents do not mow lawns or paint houses. If they stoop to any sort of paid activity, they help seasoned citizens learn to navigate the baffling world of computers and enter tainment modules, charging an hourly wage more appropriate to the appallingly profligate habits of a drug dealer in the Bronx.
Damius or Darien might indeed...
About the Author:
Julia Glass is the author of the National Book Award–winning Three Junes, as well as The Whole World Over, and I See You Everywhere. She lives in Massachusetts.
Questions for Discussion:
1. From the stories that the characters remember and tell, what kind of mother (and wife) was Poppy Darling? How would you explain the very different kinds of mothers her two daughters, Trudy and Clover, have become? Discuss the choices these two women have made and how they affect their relationships with their children. And how about Sarah? What kind of mother is she? Does being a mother define any or all of these women?
2. How do Percy’s age, background, and profession shape the way he thinks about the world around him? How does the way he sees himself differ from the way other characters see him? How has being a single father and now an involved grandfather defined him? How do you think he would have been a different father and man had Poppy lived?
3. By the end of the novel, how has Percy changed/evolved?
4. Why do you think Percy chose to avoid romantic or sexual involvement for so many years after Poppy’s death? Is it habit and routine, nostalgia and commitment to his wife, or guilt over her death; or a combination of all three? Why do you think he falls so suddenly for Sarah after all that time alone? Why now?
5. The novel takes place over the course of a year, with chapters varying from Percy’s point of view (looking back from the end of that year) to those of Celestino, Robert, and Ira. Why do you think Julia Glass chose to narrate only Percy’s chapters in a first-person voice, the rest in the third person? (Does this make you think of the way she handled voice in her previous books?) And why do you think, when there are so many important female characters in this novel, that she chose to tell the story only through the eyes of men?
6. What do you think of the allusion in this book’s title to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales?
7. This is a novel about family, the intricacies of the intertwining relationships among parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and cousins, in-laws and girlfriends. Discuss and compare some of the central familial relationships here (particularly those between Percy and the various members of his extended clan). Do any of these relationships ring particularly true to your own family experiences? Which ones fascinate or move you the most?
8. Celestino is an outsider and a loner—in the eyes of the law, an illegal alien—who was brought to the United States by a stroke of good fortune, only to lose his favored status and end up in a precarious situation with little money and no close friends. Discuss the circumstances that bring him into Percy’s circle and the way in which he becomes so important in Robert’s and Percy’s lives? What destiny do you imagine for him beyond the end of the novel?
9. Discuss Celestino and Isabelle’s teenage relationship as compared with the way they view each other once they are reunited as adults. Do you think that it would have worked out differently under other circumstances, or do culture and class sometimes present insurmountable obstacles? Compare Celestino and Isabelle’s youthful relationship with the one between Robert and Clara.
10. What do you think of Robert’s relationship with his mother? Talk about the way he sees her in the college essay he wrote versus the way he sees her after the argument they have in the car the night before Thanksgiving and Robert finds out about the sibling he almost had. How is Robert’s intimate view of Trudy, as her son and only child, different from Percy’s fatherly view of Trudy as one of two daughters? Compare Robert’s and Percy’s different visions of her professional life: Robert’s summer working in the chemo clinic versus Percy’s first visit to the hospital when he seeks Trudy’s advice about Sarah. Is there a generational difference to the way they encounter the world of modern medicine?
11. What about Percy’s relationship with Clover? What do you think about his “sacrifice” of the barn to help her out? Is it entirely altruistic? What are the unintended consequences to their love for each other? Why does Clover resent her father and betray both him and her nephew, Robert, at the end of the novel?
12. Why does Robert, the good student and good son, allow himself to become involved in Arturo’s “missions”? Discuss Robert’s friendship with Arturo and why Arturo is so appealing to Robert. What do you think of the observation that Turo is “of everywhere and nowhere?”
13. What do you think about Turo’s activist group, the DOGS, and their acts of eco-vandalism? Do you agree with Turo that conservation efforts like recycling and organic lawn care aren’t “dramatic enough to make a dent” (p. 148) in society’s lazy, consumerist ways—that true change will come about only through extremism?
14. Discuss the importance of the tree house in the novel. What does it represent, if anything, to each of the four main characters?
15. What do you think of Ira and his relationship with Anthony? How have Ira’s fears influenced his relationships in general? How do you imagine the crisis at the end of the book has changed him, if at all?
16. Homes often seem like characters in Julia Glass novels; compare Percy’s house with key houses in her other novels, if you’ve read them (e.g., Tealing, Fenno McLeod’s childhood house in Three Junes; Uncle Marsden’s run-down seaside mansion in The Whole World Over). Describe Percy’s house and its significance to various members of the Darling family. Discuss its tie to the neighboring house and the revelation at the end about the two brothers who built the houses. Why is this important?
17. How have libraries changed over the course of Percy’s working life, through his youth, his daughters’ youth, and now Robert’s youth? Percy doesn’t seem to approve of the direction libraries are going and the way in which society regards books. Do you?
18. “‘Daughters.’ This word meant everything to me in that moment: sun, moon, stars, blood, water (oh curse the water!), meat, potatoes, wine, shoes, books, the floor beneath my feet, the roof over my head” (p. 108). Compare and contrast Percy’s two daughters.
19. Why is Sarah so evasive and even hostile when Percy confronts her about the lump in her breast—and even after she starts cancer treatment with Trudy? What do you think about her decision to marry her ex-boyfriend when he offers her the lifeline of his health insurance—and to keep this a secret from Percy? What does it say about Sarah and her feelings for Percy? Do you think the relationship, at the end of the book, is salvageable in any form?
20. While visiting a museum, Percy’s friend Norval asks, “So what sort of landscape are you?” Percy replies, “A field. Overgrown and weedy.” Norval then suggests, “Or a very large, gnarled tree” (p. 278). How would you describe Percy? How about yourself; what sort of landscape are you?
21. How is The Widower’s Tale both a tale of our time and a story specific to its place, to New England?
Loraine100
Posted September 24, 2010
Open Julie Glass' book The Widower's Tale anywhere and you know you're in good hands. The prose is always pitch perfect, from the description of a moonlit night as experienced by Robert, a Harvard student on cross country skis: "The moon stood out from the sky like a medal. It cruised along beside them, calm and vigilant, passing behind tree after tree as their skis hissed through snow on the path that skirted the pond and then branched away into acres of trails winding through Matlock's fairy-tale forest." Or the wonderful description of his female friends as seen by Ira, a gay nursery-school teacher: "The women around Ira were losing it. Their grip, their composure, their stamina, their footing-each falling out of balance in some essential way." Julie Glass spins a sprawling tale of family and relationships with characters so true you feel you know them. This is a book you will take to your heart.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 21, 2010
Julie Glass continues to excel at bringing us new and interesting charcters with her latest book The Widower's Tale. Celestino, Robert, Arturo, Ira, Percy's two daughters, etc.... all add color and dimension to the wonderful fabric of this story about Percy Darling, a 70 yr old widowed New Englander, forced to let go of the past at so many levels. I love how Julie so masterfully brings together all the charcters of the book through their somteims intimate, some times distant association with Percy Darling or his wonderul old home and barn in a small town in Massachusetts. This book reminds us of how often in life it is the unexpected or trying times which makes us feel alive. This book is a must read!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.SHARON39
Posted September 19, 2010
I Also Recommend:
This is a lovely story of a 70 year old, long time widower and a retired librarian, Percival Darling, who lives in upscale Matlock, Massachusetts. He realizes that the world is changing, whether he tries to stop it or not. Percival is a witty, intelligent, loveable man but known to be a little cranky and reclusive, who cherishes his family more than anything. As the story progresses, other strong, interesting, believable and likable characters, enter, his two daughters and his Lady- Friend, Robert, Percy's grandson who's in pre-med at Harvard, Cellestino, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, and Ira, a popular teacher who got canned from school because there was a complaint that he was gay. After so many years of self-imposed detachment with women, Percy meets Sarah, a fifty-one year old single mother who he falls head over heels for. There are the many typical complications of life as these people learn to meld and struggle with conflicting ideas, class and individual impulses. As is human nature, each thinks he is right. Great heart and the fine points of living go hand in hand in this real life story. An enjoyable read.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 26, 2010
Excellent writer - Beautiful descriptions So why didn't I like the book. I was prepared for a "cannot put the book down" experience. Started fine and then the story (at least in my opinion) became convoluted and not believable at all. Too many situations that simply made no sense. I will list only one - the medical insurance situation - but there are so many others. I stayed with it to the end hoping for the best. Way too many "headline grabbing issues" for my taste. Would not recommend it. And by the way I am a burning liberal and the issues are important but not all together the way they appeared in this book.
4 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I read the book through but had I lost it on a bus I would not have replaced it nor would I have made an attempt to find out how the story ended. None of the characters were very well drawn. Too many improbabilities and too many convenient plot points. The daughter just happens to be a brilliant oncologist; Ira's boyfriend just happens to be an attorney; some guy just happens to have great insurance and is willing to marry someone so she can get coverage. And really, HE finds the lump in her breast?! Ms. Glass tried to portray the title character as a grumpy curmudgeon whose charm and wit made everyohne love him in spite of his stodgy views and disdain for things modern. But to me he falls flat. As did the book.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 5, 2010
This tale only partly about a widower -- his family and other acquaintances also figure heavily -- is told with humor, pathos, and enormous insight (as always with Glass) into the web of relationships of families and friends. I found the plot of this novel more compelling than those of some of Glass's other works: the too-perfect lives of so may characters could not be sustained; when the bubble of privilege is popped, a very loud and painful noise must result. This book was a pleasure to read -- and I read it as quickly as I could.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I loved this book and I don’t give books 5 star reviews freely. This book captivated me from the very beginning. Most books seem to be written about women and from their point of view. To find this refreshing book that was centered around one elderly man with three strong story lines attached to him by three other men was such a treat. I loved Percy from the first chapter. He was a person I’d love to meet. I enjoy books that have deep characterizations and each of the players in this novel is intricately webbed. The story line feels natural and believable, not exaggerated or overly fictionalized for drama. It just feels, well...real.
I hated to say good-bye to Percy and his friends and family. I have thought of this book often since I finished. This is what you do when you read a good book yes?
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I loved this book and I don't give books 5 star reviews freely. This book captivated me from the very beginning. Most books seem to be written about women and from their point of view. To find this refreshing book that was centered around one elderly man with three strong story lines attached to him by three other men was such a treat. I loved Percy from the first chapter. He was a person I'd love to meet. I enjoy books that have deep characterizations and each of the players in this novel is intricately webbed. The story line feels natural and believable, not exaggerated or overly fictionalized for drama. It just feels, well..real.
I hated to say good-bye to Percy and his friends and family. I have thought of this book often since I finished. This is what you do when you read a good book yes?
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 4, 2011
I don't give up easily on books, but this one kept me waiting...and waiting... and waiting for some hint of what I thought would be brilliant writing. I liked (didn't love) 3 Junes, so expected at least that level of literary fiction. Halfway through the book I thought about dropping it for something more interesting. Nothing exciting or intriguing happens.... dull, dull, and... disappointing.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.The book is very readable but doesn't have the depth and detail that I enjoyed in Glass' last book, The Three Junes... I just could never understand what real connection there was between the widower and his new love. It was all too unbelievable.
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Posted December 28, 2011
When I started reading the story I loved the language. I was excited to be reading a story where the author cared so much about word choice. I really enjoyed the beginning of the story and the introduction of some seemingly interesting characters. I was prepared to enjoy this story from beginning to end. However, about 1/3 of the way into the story it seemed to lose its way. Plot lines came out of nowhere, and as a reader you really stopped caring about many of the characters. As other reviewers have posted, so many things seemed to oddly fall into place. I finished this book, but the ending did not live up to the potential indicated in the beginning. I was really looking forward to reading a very different book.
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Posted December 7, 2011
Too much description about nothing. Could not finish this book.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 23, 2011
I found this book to be phoney & filled with author "wanna be's". Tried to cover too many topics with no firm resolutions. Characters not believable, trying to be too good.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 8, 2011
For anyone who enjoys a relaxing, though capturing fiotion novel. Full of interesting characters and a surprising ending..that does not let you down.
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Posted October 3, 2011
Julia Glass' style of writing is refreshing, clever & insightful. She truly stands out in today's mass-produced literary world. She develops her characters beautifully & weaves them together, and describes the settings so well you feel like you are there. I could not put this book down and eagerly await her next one. It's perfect for book club discussion; there's to much to cover!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Maertel
Posted August 19, 2011
The Widower's Tale is another of those rare books that you never want to stop reading. I'm hoping for a sequel with less of tedious Clover.
It would be great to see The Widower's men finally meeting some worthy women.
Celestino's Isabella could maybe get over her shallow self.
Robert should stop thinking about Clara. She was way too intrusive, needy, and controlling. Would she have enjoyed a boyfriend invading her privacy by rummaging through her drawers of clothes?
And Sarah - geez, however we may admire her strengths, she's lied too much and is rudely ungrateful for way too many things. Obviously, she did not deeply love Percy the way he so richly deserves. He'd be a lot happier and more fun with a woman as intelligent, compassionate, kind, and witty as he is - what wonderful dialogue to look forward to as the new couple hopefully finds another place with a pond.
That harbor is truly uninviting unless the author is foreshadowing a disaster.
It would also be most welcome if the Elves and Fairies owners would build a strong backyard fence so the darlings cannot reach the tempting pond.
Gracias!
MrsO
Posted August 8, 2011
I like the characters, and it was much like a soap opera in that every one of them had some dilemma they seemed to be struggling with, but about halfway through I was counting the pages I had left because now I was the one struggling...to get to the end so I could move onto a new book. Too many huge words that I needed a dictionary for, too many characters. I wish there had been more focus on the likeable ones and left the silliness of the political escapades out of it altogether. When I finally did make it to the last page I was so bored with it all that I am sure I most likely lost the entire meaning of the ending because I felt like I was left hanging in the tree house. So hard to decipher. Wish the author would just say what she means.
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Posted May 19, 2011
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Posted March 27, 2011
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Posted December 27, 2010
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Overview
In a quirky farmhouse outside Boston, seventy-year-old Percy Darling enjoys a vigorous but mostly solitary life—until, in a complex scheme to help his oldest daughter through a crisis, he allows a progressive preschool to move into his barn. The abrupt transformation of Percy’s rural refuge into a lively, youthful community compels ...