08/14/2017
"I have never read anything quite like The Glass Eye . . . . I've never read a book where the author is experiencing mental illness at the time of writing, not in retrospect. The writing is fierce and engaging, and I truly couldn't put it down."
"Jeannie Vanasco expertly explores the trinity between grief, psychosis, and creativity in a taut memoir about her beloved father and all that arose in his absence. This book has a blazing lyricism to it, one that’s bound to be a trademark of Vanasco’s limber mind. . . . The Glass Eye —spare, deep, and kaleidoscopic—will make you want to read the first page again after you finish the last."
"A fascinating meditation on loss, and an enduring monument to what remains. Wise, brave and beautifully wrought, The Glass Eye signals the arrival of an exceptionally fine new voice."
"[A]n intense and unforgettable memoir, as fascinating for its artistry as for its subject matter. . . . Lyric, haunted, smart and tortured, this is an obsessive love letter to a dead father as well as a singular work of literature."
"Compelling . . . Vanasco writes about her episodes of mental illness in a way that makes them so accessible, almost seeming rational at times."
"An absolutely beautiful exploration of family, grief, memory, and madness, this book is outstanding. . . . The layers found in this memoir are as plentiful as the layers found in the human eye; ultimately, it is as deeply layered as the human experience itself."
"Jeannie Vanasco has crafted a book that will worm its way under your skin, a book that will not give you easy answers or heartwarming takeaways, much in the same way that life will not give you easy answers or heartwarming takeaways. Jeannie Vanasco has created a book that I cannot stop thinking about."
"The Glass Eye is absolutely brilliant! Jeannie Vanasco taps into her own mental and emotional destruction after her father dies in a memoir that is constructed like no other. Not only did her writing transport me into her world (her mind), but Jeannie’s ability to express the complexities of the human mind in such a beautiful and honest way, made her mania appear almost rational. . . . One of the best memoirs I’ve read in a long time."
"This is memoir at its best. The prose is powerful and often breathtaking—it’ll make your heart break, it might make you cry, and you’ll probably even laugh a few times. This is an elegy fierce and lyrical and raw, like none I’ve read before."
"Wildly innovative. "
"In The Glass Eye the writer asks, in prose that mesmerizes with geometric precision, how we can orient ourselves to the world when our only compass is grief. What begins as an experience of profound loss becomes an obsession, the fierce intensity of which propels readers through this breathtaking book."
"Enchanting . . . Vanasco's humor and intelligence shine through her journey of loss."
"Brilliant . . . Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts . . . As the pages fly by, we’re right by Vanasco, breathlessly experiencing her grief, mania, revelations, and—ultimately—her relief."
"With The Glass Eye , Jeannie Vanasco has produced a debut of incisive vision. In prose as vivid as a novel and as chiseled as poetry, Vanasco shows the reader that memoir can entail an unexpected, ultimately liberating reckoning."
"An unfettered dive into a brilliant, unraveling mind. Vanasco's memoir is visceral, poignant, and ultimately an affirmation of the healing power of literature and the resilience of the human soul. Astounding."
"An experimental memoir that would make Maggie Nelson proud, The Glass Eye is a literary tour de force, a hurricane of language and emotions that fly off the page, a testament to love and loss and how the lexicon of grief, though universal, is always a personal discourse."
"Vanasco's candor, curiosity, and commitment to human understanding are not to be missed."
"In The Glass Eye , Jeannie Vanasco shows us why rules should be broken: because an elegy that pulses with immediacy, a fragment that is inextricable from a whole, a book that comments on its own writing can smash what you think you know into pieces, and expose a piece of truth so bright it might be your own broken heart, handed back to you."
"One of the most inventive and engrossing memoirs I've read in a long, long time . . . If you want to read something that will make you think and that will keep revealing more to you every time you read it, this is the book."
"Hypnotic . . . a haunting exploration of perception, memory, and the complexities of grief. In language that is understated and economical, Vanasco brings to life the father she loved with an almost frightening force . . . Vanasco's characters and settings are vivid, prismatic, and surreal."
The New York Times Book Review
"Jeannie Vanasco's The Glass Eye is memoir as it ought to be, but so rarely is: beautiful and painfully raw, but also restrained and lyrical. Vanasco is brilliant, and this book proves it."
"This powerful, haunting memoir starts off with one of the more compelling first sentences I’ve read in some time: “The night before he died, I promised my dad I would write a book for him.” [The Glass Eye is] a journey that takes Vanasco into the dark depths of her family history, as well as her own psyche, and it shows in an incredibly intimate way the methods we use to cope with loss, disappointment, and grief, and how we can try and make our way out of the darkness and into a place of recovery."
"Vanasco explores the intricacies of the human psyche with stunning poignancy."
2017-08-22
