I See You Everywhere

August 4, 2008
Signature

Reviewed by
Lydia Millet
The fictional palate of Julia Glass, bestselling author of 2002’s Three Junes
, is one of dog-breeding women and foxhunts, tony Manhattan galleries and boutiques, European travel and haute-cuisine chefs. In common with Rebecca Wells’s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
franchise, Glass’s third novel, I See You Everywhere
, has female bonding among the landed gentry, a focus on relationships, and devil-may-care, enigmatically charming women of great romantic allure.
Like Three Junes
, the novel is a series of vignettes across the years, in this instance from the points of view of two sisters with different personalities. Louisa, the elder, is the steady sister on the lookout for love, while Clem is the younger sister, an adventuring, restless spirit with an unfortunate habit of chewing men up and spitting them out. Their parents, too, resemble those in Three Junes
: the mother is obsessed with raising and training expensive dogs on a country estate (this time in Rhode Island instead of Scotland); their father is a good-natured, kindly soul who plays second fiddle to a powerful wife. Louisa, not unlike Glass herself, is an urban woman who inhabits the New York art world and moves from making art (pottery) to writing; Clem, being a wilder sort, has a passion for wild animals and moves around the remoter reaches of the continent as an itinerant biologist to do contract work with charismatic fauna ranging from seals to grizzly bears. It’s not entirely clear how the sisters relate to each other’s livelihoods; Clem seems largely uninterested in art, whereas Louisa alternates between lavishly praising her sister’s work to save animals as heroic and referring to polar bears, in 2005, as “like Al Gore... suddenly all the alarmist rage.”
City and country mouse have a wary, competitive, sometimes antagonistic relationship grounded in affection; they occasionally steal each other’s boyfriends, but are usually there for each other in times of need, up to and including possible drowning, maiming and cancer. Both cook well, though Louisa is the true gourmet. Clem is better in the sack, at least if we take her word for it: as she says in a letter—reminding us, perhaps inadvertently, of the piña colada song—what she likes most in life are laughter, sex, champagne and sunsets. The sisters do have music in common: though both white, they listen almost exclusively to music by black performers, from Billie Holiday to Bob Marley.
I See You Everywhere
has a bourgeois, chick lit sensibility, minus the proud vacuousness of the Bushnell set and plus a somewhat unexpected, sad vanishing act by one of the protagonists. It should prove an engaging and intelligent, though not literary, page-turner for sisters who like to revel in sisterhood.
Lydia Millet’s most recent novel is

How the Dead Dream
(Counterpoint).

August 15, 2008
Sisters Clement (Clem) and Louisa Jardine alternate recounting their lives from 1980 to 2005, literally traversing the globe in pursuit of fulfillment and, sometimes, love. Clem, four years the younger, is a biologist and wildlife specialist who protects various forms of endangered species, herself included. Louisa is a potter-turned-art magazine writer who feels overshadowed by her daredevil sibling. The book opens as the sisters reconnect in Vermont at the home of their recently deceased great-great-aunt. Family secrets and sorrows are brought to light, with perhaps more on the way. But except for one or two episodes (especially Clem's hospital stay, where we discover the true meaning of the book's title), the women seem aimless and scattershot in their relationships, causing the reader to sigh and say, "Enough already." Glass writes exceptionally well, as evidenced by her earlier work ("Three Junes"; "The Whole World Over"), but these dysfunctional family members never quite find their bearings. With questions left unresolved, readers will walk away less than satisfied. Still, Glass is a National Book Award winner, and public libraries should buy for demand. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/15/08.]Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2008
In her third exquisite, piercing novel, National Book Award winner Glass juxtaposes the temperamentally opposite Jardine sisters. Analytical, cautious Louisa is destined to become an art critic and gallery owner. Reckless, sensual Clem is drawn to the wild and becomes a field biologist dedicated to protecting endangered species. While Louisa seeks marriage and motherhood, Clem catches and releases a stream of lovers. As the two women struggle for their place in the world, they embody archetypal struggles between nature and civilization, self and society. As compelling as the many-faceted Jardine sisters are, so is everyone in their circle, from their foxhound-breeder mother to the men in their lives: a history teacher, animal tracker, stuntman, and guru. Glassepisodic, funny, and deeply inquiring novel is inlaid with priceless set pieces involving the sisters great-aunt Lucy; Titus, their mothers kennel man; and Esteban, a Haitian artist who knits enormous sculptures. Terrible accidents, epic heartbreak, petty squabbles, and fatal despair are dramatized with Glass offhanded brilliance and charged with her hunger for enlightenment. Does art matter? Can we protect nature from ourselves? Can we ever truly understand each other, let alone other species? Isnt it our calling as humans to try? Glass is a wisely questioning, ardent, and artful novelist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)