NAL (Penguin Group), May 12, 2015
Four Stars
A Southern Gothic setting and a heart-wrenching family drama: we are in classic Karen White territory with her newest novel, The Sound of Glass. This is the story of Merritt Heywood, a widow who inherits her grandmother-in-law’s home on the shores of South Carolina. Along with the house, she discovers new relationships with her estranged stepmother and half-brother, as well as the brother-in-law she hadn’t known existed. While the importance of family is the strongest theme of the novel, there is, of course, a little romance as well.
Starting this novel, I worried that it would be too much like White’s other novels. The plot and main character immediately felt familiar to me – a proud, lonely woman ends up as a damsel in distress in an atmospheric southern home, where she is forced to interact with the perfect man; romance ensues. However, there was also a lot of room for mystery in this plot: locked doors to creepy attics, sudden deaths and an uncertain connection between Merritt’s family and her husband’s. Other mysteries, such as Merritt’s stepmother Loralee’s motivation in reuniting with her stepdaughter, were a little too transparent for my taste.
The sea glass of the title – and the beautiful cover – serves as a metaphor for the multiple abused women in this novel. Fragile glass made strong with the beating of waves, the glass wind chimes stand for survival in the face of suffering and domestic abuse. Healing is an important aspect of this novel, and as the main character discovers, it is much easier with the support of family. Merritt struggles with allowing herself to let people in, and she is terrified that she will not be able to sacrifice for her family as her mother did for her. In facing her fears with the love and support of her newly found family, she is able to accept her past and find peace in her future.
While the mysteries of this novel are multi-generational, so are the mistakes the characters make. However, the domestic abuse cycle was perhaps a bit overdone. Almost every character in the book was either victim or abuser. It was also a little too convenient to kill off the abusers in unrelated events before the novel actually begins – because of this, the act of escaping abuse never needs to be dealt with.
I found the characters formulaic, although at some point without me realizing it, they did become real to me and I truly felt their pain. They were clumsy and emotionally inept, yet still charming. While I would file this novel under escapist fiction, I would still recommend it in the context of the genre. It doesn’t require a lot of thought or participation from the reader, yet I was still emotionally satisfied at the end. I do like my fiction a little more dark and gritty, but anyone who enjoys the women’s literary fiction genre will love this one.
I received this book for free through NAL (Penguin Group) and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
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