And the Dark Sacred Night

March 31, 2014
Glass's uneven new novel (after The Widower's Tale) centers around 40-year-old Kit Noonan, an unemployed college professor whoâagainst his mother Daphne's wishesâwants to track down Malachy Burns, the father he never knew (and a character from Glass's 2002 National Book Award -winning debut Three Junes). At the urging of his wife Sandra, Kit turns to his stepfather Jasper for advice on the matter. Though Jasper is reticent to betray Daphne's confidence, he provides Kit with information that ultimately leads Kit to find his grandmother, Lucinda Burns. Glass uses the limited third person viewpoint to get in the heads of five very different characters, and she does it skillfully. Their disparate worlds are fleshed out in great detail, but though Kit is the character pushing the plot forward, he is the least intriguing of the five. Glass's portrayal of Lucinda is by far her strongest; the grief she feels is visible through the family dynamic of her and her other children. Such sections ring with emotional truth while others feel precious. Glass produces spot-on descriptions: one character spends most nights in bed " awake for half an hour or more, his mind, hawk-like, circling and re-circling his life from above." This imperfect work will still reward loyal readers. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

February 15, 2014
An unemployed former art history professor searches for his birth father's identity in the newest from Glass (The Widower's Tale, 2010, etc.). In his mid-40s, Kit Noonan, father of twins, has become an ineffectual househusband with no job prospects, a shrinking bank account and a marriage in deep trouble. But for reasons that never quite become clear, the unsolved question of his paternity takes priority, and prodded by wife, Sandra, a barely sketched character who shares no apparent chemistry with him, Kit sets out on a journey of discovery. Kit's mother, Daphne, bore him at 18 and, now in her 60s, still refuses to divulge his father's identity (although readers know early on that adolescent Daphne's lover was Malachy Burns, the AIDS-infected music critic from Glass' 2002 National Book Award-winning novel, The Three Junes). Soon, Kit has gone to visit his former stepfather, Daphne's first husband, Jasper. Jasper is a lovable creation, tough but gentle, worried that he was not much of a father to his own sons, let alone Kit. Daphne broke Jasper's heart when she left him, but since he promised her he would keep her secrets, he is at first reluctant to share what he knows with Kit. Eventually he does share, and Kit is soon in touch with Lucinda Burns, wife of an aging New Hampshire senator and still-grieving mother of Malachy. A devout Catholic mother of two gay sons, Lucinda went against Malachy's wishes in pushing Daphne to have Kit and then dedicated her life to encouraging single mothers to have their babies. Now she questions her rigid choices with the help of Malachy's last friend, Three Junes character Fenno. While all of the characters Kit encounters have idiosyncratic charm, Kit himself is an overly sensitive, navel-gazing bore. Nevertheless, a new extended family develops, though not without trials and tears. Why Daphne keeps her secret in the 21st century is hard to fathom, and it's just one of the creaking contrivances that fans of Glass' empowering tear-jerkers will have to overlook.

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Starred review from February 1, 2014
Stuck in a nightmare of unpaid bills, dwindling bank accounts, and leaky roofs, unemployed art-history professor Kit Noonan needs a jolt. Convinced that deep-seated identity issues are fueling Kit's inertia-inducing depression, his wife urges him to find the identity of his biological father, a fact his otherwise loving mother refuses to divulge. To solve the mystery, Kit embarks on a journey that takes him across the northeastern U.S., starting with a visit to his gruff and outdoorsy stepfather's home, and ending with a revelation that transforms his life in ways he could never imagine. Woven throughout the narrative are flashbacks to key events in Kit's history, including the tender and beautifully told story of the relationship between Kit's mother and father. Divided into sections written from the perspective of key characters, Glass explores the pain of family secrets, the importance of identity, and the ultimate meaning of family. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Although Glass borrows characters from her National Book Awardwinning Three Junes, it is not necessary to have read that previous book to enjoy this lovely, highly readable, and thought-provoking novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2013

Unemployed, mortgage-trapped Kit Noonan has children to support and a restless wife who wants him to uncover his father's identity. That leads Kit to Lucinda Burns, wife of a famed senator and mother of the journalist who died of AIDs in Glass's the 2002 National Book Award winner, Three Junes. Now in his sixties, Three Junes protagonist Fenno McLeod also appears. With a nine-city tour.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2014

Winner of a National Book Award for her 2002 debut, Three Junes, Glass takes another sympathetic look at the complexities of contemporary life in this novel about family secrets. Kit Noonan was born to teenager Daphne back in the 1960s after she had an impulsive interlude with another teen, Malachy (Mal) Burns, at a summer music camp. Daphne gives up her dream of having a career as a cellist to become a teacher and raise Kit as a single mother. Malachy, who is gay, later becomes an important music critic; he dies of AIDS in Three Junes. Though Daphne eventually marries twice, she never tells Kit who his father is. Now in his 40s, with a wife and twins, Kit feels stymied; his academic career is going nowhere. At his wife's urging, he tries to find his father's family, which leads to some surprising twists and turns, including the requisite big family blowup at Thanksgiving. VERDICT Examining complicated family relationships among several families whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways, this warm and engaging story about what it means to be a father will appeal to most readers. [See Prepub Alert, 10/21/13.]--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.