Life: Its Crushing Heartache and Wild Joy, a review of "I See You Everywhere" by Julia Glass

I See You Everywhere
Julia Glass
Pantheon Books
ISBN: 978-0375422751


The best indicator of a good writer is someone who upon telling a story can cause the reader to suspend belief that the characters who inhabit the book are mere fiction. For me, I See You Everywhere did just that. I can honestly say that at one point while reading the book, I actually began to cry, and I can’t remember the last time a book had that impact on me! It may not have the same driving emotional force on everyone, but Glass’s powerful storytelling will engage you and deliver.

While Three Junes, Glass’s award winning first novel, was a smashing success, this book may be quieter but more revealing, more vibrant with the core of what makes us each human. The two main characters of the story are sisters: Louisa, the older more serious sister, a potter who becomes the editor of a tony art magazine in New York, and Clem (Clement), the rebellious younger sister who gives her life over to the study of animals in the wild, leading her own life of reckless abandon.

The two sisters could not be more different. They’re opposites in most aspects of their lives: who they are (one careful, one wild), what they love (one art, one animals), what they want (a loving marriage, a life free of commitment), and how they cope (one self destructs with accidents, one gripes and complains). They love each other, but they rarely get along. This is what families are: unconditional love and competition, joy and heartache, two sides of the coin that makes a life worth experiencing.

Some readers may not like the format of the novel, but it worked perfectly for me. The storytelling alternates between the two sisters’ points-of-view over a span of 20 years. What this enables author Julia Glass to do is show the arc of the family’s relationships and the growth of these two people from girls to women, yet still leave them wondering when they will feel “grown up.” Do any of us ever reach that stage? The plot may seem disjointed but do any of our lives run a smooth course?

It is the unevenness, the bumpy spots in the wilderness road that speak to the heart of this relationship, this story. Glass has written a novel that speaks to the essence of life and all its crushing heartache, all its wild joy. You can’t ask for more from an author.