The story is about personal commitments explored through love, betrayal, forgiveness, and understanding. When the chance of a profitable job presents itself, Greenie Duquette who is a pastry chef in West Village grabs the opportunity and leaves her life, which has become monotonous, to work in the house of the governor of New Mexico. Alan, her psychiatrist husband, opposes to this move especially because Greenie is taking their young son George with her, although Greenie asks Alan to come with them to New Mexico. After a year and many twists and turns that also include the 9/11 disaster, all loose ends are tied.

The anticipatory lines to Greenie’s decision shows up in the first chapter as, “Is That All There Is? Greenie did not know what to do about this. She would have attacked the problem head on if the sufferer had been one of her girlfriends, but Alan was a man, chronically resentful of direction…”

There are many characters in the story; even if their backgrounds seem to be so different from each other, the plot connects them in a way that their unrelatedness becomes indiscernible. Most of the numerous characters in the story are unique and richly developed with their quirks, foibles, backstories, and humanly sides--even the governor Ray who, in the beginning of the book, feels like a cartoon character, and at times, acts like a clown. Although Greenie’s character appears to be selfish at first, the eventual display of her husband’s internal life and his past make the reader absolve her actions and understand her predicament. Just as Greenie cooks and experiments with her cooking, the different kinds of love and relationships are also explored for the reader.

readers and writers alike. Readers will enjoy the different twists and turns and the writers will be amazed at the free yet skillful hand that penned such quirky and interesting characters.

the various settings created with much charm, clarity, and brilliance--from West Village in Manhattan to Santa Fe, to Berkeley, to Connecticut, and to an island in Maine. The writer has a good eye for making the different settings influence the personalities and lifestyles of her characters.

read everything Glass has written and will write in the future.

Julia Glass is a New Yorker, living in Massachusetts. After graduating from Yale University with an art degree, she received a fellowship to study figurative painting in Paris, and afterwards settled in New York City. Her first novel, Three Junes won the 2002 National book Award. Her talent as a writer has won her the Tobias Wolff Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, three Nelson Algren Fiction Awards, and the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal for Best Novella. Her second book, The Whole World Over, was published in May, 2006.

The Whole World Over reads like a fairy tale, playful, rich, complex, and with taste and texture akin to the cakes Greenie creates. It is a book one should not miss reading.

The Whole World Over has 576 pages, three parts with many chapters. Although a long book, the recipes and the masterpiece pastries can make anyone drool. Those who love baking will enjoy this book.

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Created Sep 13, 2007 at 5:07pm • Submit your own review...