A review by jessrad505
The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

4.0

Being a native New Mexican now living in New York, this book obviously intrigued me. I am always skeptical of books that have anything to do with New Mexico because, often people do not accurately depict the landscape, atmosphere, people, food, etc, etc. I was especially wary since the writer does not live in New Mexico. But, Julia Glass did a fairly good job with it. There wasn't as much detail about Greenie's surroundings in New Mexico as there could have been, so maybe the author was playing it safe. At first I was bothered that the Governor was depicted as more of a stereotype and also more of a Texan than a New Mexican. But, I told myself he was from the Texas/New Mexico border, from a town like Hobbs or Portales, which would explain his twangy speech. Overall New York was the stronger backdrop throughout the book which was a little disappointing.

I really liked the way Glass was able to intertwine all the story lines. A lot of the reviews mentioned that the characters were boring, but I didn't think so. I had no problem caring about them and what happened to them. I did feel more intrigued by Walter and Saga's stories, however, rather than the main story of Alan and Greenie. I actually liked the part about 9/11. Maybe because I didn't live in New York when that happened, I find it fascinating rather than contrived. I would have liked the Cerro Grande fire in Los Alamos to be more of a presence than it was.

Overall I would recommend this book. I am interested to read some other books by Julia Glass.