All This Heavenly Glory by Elizabeth Crane

But she can carry a tune too.) My own career as an opera singer (in the children's chorus at New York City Opera) was cut short by a massive case of stage fright before I hit fifth grade it may or may not be coincidental that I'd taken up writing by this point, after having read Harriet the Spy (admittedly, at this point, a cliché, but it's true) when I was eight. (My stepmom, with a background in school psychology, is a Mediator and Mediation Trainer. Gisele Toueg About the Author:ĮLIZABETH CRANE I grew up in Manhattan on the Upper West Side in something of a musical family my mother was an opera singer, my father is a musicologist, my stepdad manages classical musicians. If we're lucky, perhaps next time Crane will make these stirring moments of clarity easier for us to find. ('there's nothing but Fat Burgers and short pink buildings and more freeways on the freeway.'), or the imaginary Midwestern town she hopes to live in during her next life ('.I sit on the stoop and smoke my one (stale) cigarette of the week from my gold vinyl cigarette case under the almost dark five o'clock sky.'). It's not nearly as simple as booking a one-way flight. She's at her best when describing Charlotte's feelings about particular places, be it New York ('Charlotte has been trying to get out of New York for years. Still, Crane makes it wrothwhile for readers who can navigate the choppy waters of her writing style.

This first story is a template for much of what follows in the next 17 vignettes-witty, heartfelt and graceful sentiments are often marred by a chaotic rendering that makes it difficult to actually follow along with the protagonist. The ad itself is quite hilarious, it begins with a physical description and ends with a hilarious tribute to Owen Wilson however, the lack of sentence structure may begin to confuse readers after about two pages. When we first meet Charlotte Anne, she is in the middle of penning a seven-page personal ad that is actually one long sentence, complete with tons of semi-colons and a few alphabetical lists thrown in for good measure. Those who enjoyed Crane's debut, When the Messenger Is Hot, will surely recognize and appreciate her sharp-witted humor and emotional honesty, but new readers may be put off by her somewhat rambling writing style. In All This Heavenly Glory, Elizabeth Crane's second collection of interconnected stories, readers are taken on an amusing, if slightly disjointed journey through the life of Charlotte Anne Byers, a spunky six-year-old who grows into a cynical, yet cautiously optimistic adult.

All This Heavenly Glory by Elizabeth Crane