Reviews

Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick

lizawall's review

3.0

Highly enjoyable without being compromised, it is a book for all seasons. And the title!

erstreetman's review

3.0

I didn't get it. The entire plot arc is unclear to me, except in how the main character slowly discovers the story of her host family. The interesting thing about the narrator here is that she's a lower class young woman. That much is clear from her upbringing and career options in the world. She is employed by a family, yet the word servant is little used. She's an interesting, complex character, the type of house servant who is usually relegated to a "good servant" or "bad servant" when the story is told from the employer's perspective. But the focus of the storytelling shifts from who I've just described to basically an unexpected character somewhere in the middle. It lost me.

nerissassippi's review

3.0

This was an interesting book and not what I expected, but in a good way.

ewg109's review

3.0

This was beautifully written but felt off. The story was too improbable and the characters too strange. It felt like forced melancholy.

catmom21's review

The premise was interesting and initially the characters drew me in. I just have to make myself read it, and I'm all for enjoying reading books rather than making it seem like work. That's what school books are for. I am definitely interested in what happens, but not enough to plow through all the musings and drawn out prose. It is well-written, yes, but too dense for my taste.

emma_sky's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

dllh's review

3.0

Pretty standard fare for Ozick but not among my favorites. It's good but didn't knock my socks off.

hbelle01's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really loved the beginning of this book. I thought it was great and shaping up to be a five star read. And then it just didn’t. The promising start just didn’t become what I thought it would. The ending was just a bit disappointing, honestly.

snowmaiden's review

3.0

This book began very promisingly and then just fizzled. Since there wasn't a lot holding my interest, I started paying attention to point of view. The beginning of the story is told in first person by Rose Meadows, then the point of view switches to third person limited omniscient for a while. Finally it switches back to first person, but with a very different-sounding Rose, who recounts things she couldn't possibly know and couldn't even have learned from talking to the other characters. This distracted me a lot, but I really don't think I would have fixated on these problems if the book was interesting. Ozick is a capable writer, and there were many beautiful passages, but not a whole lot happens in the middle section of the book, and the action just sags. The end, when it finally comes, is abrupt and not satisfying at all.

I think there probably was a good story here, but it didn't quite get told. In my opinion, this book could have stood a lot more editing and was released before its time. It's always so disappointing when that happens.

shira243's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75