The Glassmaker
by Tracy ChevalierGenres: Fiction / Historical / General
Published on June 18, 2024
Pages: 416
Format: eBook Source: Library
It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make glass beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.
I like Tracy Chevalier’s books but the conceit on this one is just weird. Honestly, I didn’t really get what was going on for probably the first quarter of the book but then I realized how odd it was.
This book follows a family of Murano glass makers through time from the 1400s to the 2020s. I don’t mean it follows generations of the family. I mean it follows the same exact people through that time. There will be little interludes in the book where it will say something like the world has moved forward to this time period a hundred years in the future but the family has aged 18 years. I’m not sure why she chose to make this storytelling choice. I think it was supposed to say something about Venice and Murano being timeless or something but it was just weird.
If you put that weirdness aside, the story was well told as is expected from a Tracy Chevalier book. Obviously with this type of historical book you end up feeling very shabby towards men based on their treatment of female family members over time. I had to stop and take a few cleansing breaths. No sexual assaults or anything like that. Just a lot of dismissal of their value. This is a family like many where the women hold it together but are considered to not be important. They tip toe around the delicate feelings of the men so they don’t upset them as they do what needs to be done to kept everyone fed. Unfortunately so relatable.
I bought The Glassmaker audio book because I am fascinated with glass making. I am an artist and listen to audio books as I work. The story started in the 1400’s then kept jumping forward in time up to 2020 with the same characters. Huh? It was very confusing. I liked the glassmaking history a lot. The 500 year jump in time was hard to comprehend.