All This Heavenly Glory

by Elizabeth Crane
All This Heavenly Glory
book data
107 ratings, 3.57 average rating, 25 reviews (more data...)
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published
2006 (first published 2005) by Back Bay Books

binding
Paperback, 256 pages

isbn
0316014214    (isbn13: 9780316014212)

description
In All This Heavenly Glory, Elizabeth Crane's second collection of interconnected stories, readers are taken on an amusing, if slightly disjointed jou...more




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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 173)

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Becky
04/14/09
Becky rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2009
I was given this book in June when I was preparing for a week-long vacation...and I finally got around to reading it two weeks ago. That being said, I found this book to be worth the wait! It could probably fall in the 'chick lit' category, but I think it's chick lit with a brain. The main character is certainly easy to identify with, and the timeline of the book (alternating between past tense and present tense with each chapter) kept me very interested. I would recommend this book to any gi...more
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Trish
12/09/07
Trish rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2006
These stories are more tightly coupled than those in When The Messenger is Hot -- in fact, Glory might even be a novel. Each story/chapter deals with the life of Charlotte Anne Byers, who is probably mostly Elizabeth Crane: New Yorker, transplanted to Chicago, former alcoholic, divorced parents, opera singer mother who dies of cancer, hapless in matters of romance ... These are also the characteristics shared by the protagonist(s) in When the Messenger.

This time, the writing style i...more
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Marcy
11/26/07
Marcy rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: book-club
Read in January, 2008
This book did not go over well with my book club. I think I was the only one who actually read the whole thing. I surmise that the style of writing and lack of an obvious plot line was frustrating for the other clubbers. I also found myself having to stop and take a breath while I was reading many of the passages. It was an exhausting read for me due to Ms. Crane's writing style and copious use of semi-colons, parentheses, and brackets, but I found that I identified with Charlotte in several...more
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Donna
12/18/08
Donna rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008---2009, book-club
Read in November, 2008
Possibly the worst book I've ever read. The writing style is annoying, the main character not likable, and the plot nonexistent. Reads like a too long text message. Only finished it because it was a book club selection! Our whole group really disliked this book.
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gwen
08/17/08
gwen rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0316000892)

Read in August, 2008
Hard to pinpoint exactly why I liked this book so much -- maybe partly because it was a break from all the heavy, heavy stuff I've been reading recently, and this didn't take itself seriously, and it was one of the first "funny" books I've read recently that truly was funny. Sometimes laugh-out-loud-on-the-bus funny.

Charlotte is a really recognizable character, and she is written self-consciously in these interconnected stories. But there was just something fresh and wonder...more
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Jenna
07/17/07
Jenna rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2007
You have to love Charlotte Anne Byers, or at least identify with her trials. Her life isn't pretty, and at times can feel a bit contrived, but I buy it all, because the narrator's voice is so convincing. I never use the term chick lit, even disparagingly, but if I could assign a book for any woman who is struggling with who she is and where she is going, All This Heavenly Glory would be it. I can't wait to read Crane's first collection, which is apparantly debuting on stage at Steppenwolf nex...more
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Adam
10/22/07
Adam rated it: 1 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0316000892)

I only bought this because it was in the bargain bin, and a blurb mentioned David Foster Wallace.

I was ripped off and deceived.

There's a huge difference between what DFW does and Crane pointlessly (and humorlessly) making her sentences elaborate and opulent to the point of ostentation. Technically hideous, and boring as hell.

Here's a bunch of pointless punctuation:

[{[:;((())));)-}]]]
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Holly
02/24/09
Holly rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0316000892)

bookshelves: girls-girls-girls
Read in May, 2009
At first the stream-of-consciousness style was a little difficult ot read, but midway through the first story (different episodes from the same character's life) I got into it. It's as if Charlotte Ann Byers is having a conversation with the reader. I loved her and really wanted her to "get it together"; she's a very real, funny and sympathetic character. I laughed, I cried (a little)....
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Stephanie Wilson
11/01/08
Stephanie Wilson rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction, short-stories
Read in October, 2008
This was a tough one to get through. There were only a few of the stories that I really liked (fantastic stories) I read one of them several times because I loved it so much. She has a particular tone in her writing that halfway through the book started to bore me. On the other hand she is clever and her stories perspective unique. I am on the fence with this one.
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Liz
05/05/08
Liz rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
I had a really hard time getting into this story because it is stream-of-conscience writing. The first chapter is one long thought and sentence, I almost put it down after that. But, I powered through and liked it by the time I got toward the middle. The character is quirky and honest and struggles. Who doesn't relate to that!?
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Marian
09/22/08
Marian rated it: 4 of 5 stars

It took me awhile to get into the swing of this book, which is a bunch of different stories all about the same character, Charlotte Anne, who ranges from 9 to 40-something throughout the course of the book. Excellent writing, funny, quirky, hopeful -- I really enjoyed it and it made me want to read Crane's other book.
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Kim
01/26/08
Kim rated it: 2 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0316000892)

bookshelves: 06books, short-stories
Read in March, 2006
She is doing what Wallace and Saramago do with the interminable sentences, but not as well and with less of a story to tell. The main character is pretty irritating. We really don't need to see that. It's also kind of hard to feel compassion for a Manhattan-bred poor little rich girl.
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Jillain Foreman
06/05/08
Jillain Foreman rated it: 1 of 5 stars

i don't know...maybe i'm not deep enough...or hip enough...or maybe my life isn't as messed up as everyone elses (who would have thought that????) this book did NOTHING for me...i'm amazed i finished it...i kept thinking it would get better...it didn't.
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AC
04/12/08
AC rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2006
Sometimes a little too absorbed with sounding like a confessional for the sake of pity, overall the book succeeds well and there are some good moments that are without affectation and whose power grows the more you consider them.
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Megan
09/13/07
Megan rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2007
at first, i didn't think i would ever feel connected to this story simply because of elizabeth crane's writing style (run-on sentences, no dialogue, etc.), but then i started loving and identifying with charlotte, the main character.
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stillme
01/24/08
stillme rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2008
When I opened this, I thought it was short stories, but the stories ended up being more like not-so-continuous chapter. It was really quite enjoyable to read. I liked the main character a lot, especially as a child.
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Sheila
09/12/07
Sheila rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0316000892)

Read in September, 2007
Liked her style and want to read 'When the Messenger...' but not sure the plot is completely fulfilling. The characters can come across as really warm or really cold, so it can be disjointing.
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Josh
02/24/08
Josh rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
I can't tell if I liked it despite or because of the fact that it's written almost entirely in run-on sentences. But it's good, and I'm getting another of her story collections.
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Jennifer
Read in August, 2007
For some reason, this book just spoke to me. I loved it. I especially enjoyed the train of thought, running on and on sections. It was funny and touching.
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Danielle
01/28/08
Danielle rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction
Read in March, 2007
I loved this- but nearly as much as "When the Messenger is Hot." She reminds me of Lorrie Moore.
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All This Heavenly Glory (Hardcover)






quotes from this book

"Charlotte is the sort of person who's inclined to feel guilty imagining so much as a kiss between her and someone who's already involved, the sort of person who can't really even manage a fantasy about a movie star who might be married, much as she finds, let's say, Andy Garcia to be worth imagnining, Charlotte is the sort of person who will have to get Andy Garcia divorced, within the fantasy but having nothing to do with having met her, he has to be divorced prior to having met her in order for her to think about kissing him, and so Charlotte tends to find it easier to just fantasize about celebrities she knows are single than to go to all that trouble. " More quotes...


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