Looking Back - Glorie

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Glorie by Caryn James

Fiction

1999 Penguin Books (first published in 1998)

Read in November 1999

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

The unlikely heroine of this remarkable first novel is Glorie, an independent-minded octogenarian widow who still talks to her dead husband. Pampered by fifty years of marriage to a man she truly loved, Glorie finds that coping with life alone is a lot easier if you have some company. Despite her daughter's and other friends' well-meaning attempts to console her, Glorie is doing just fine, thank you very much -- except that sometimes things just seem to be slipping out of her grasp. Poignant and wise, funny and real, this portrait of an indomitable, fallible, and fragile woman will pull at your heartstrings as it buoys your spirit. With Glorie, New York Times critic Caryn James has written an unforgettable tale of memory and the persistence of love.

My Original Thoughts (1999):

Quick read. Funny. Cute. Octogenarian widow lives in her home during the day, but spends the night across the street at her daughter's house. She worries about burglars. She carries on conversations with her dead husband. Not great, but it held my interest.

My Current Thoughts:

I wonder how in the world I came across this novel. I'm not familiar with the author and am pretty sure I never noticed the book on the shelves in all the years I worked in a bookstore. Someone must have recommended it to me. I think, in spite of my average rating, I would like to reread this one.