3 minute read
LET'S REVIEW!
LET'S REVIEW!
Ashley Holloway reviews THE GLASS CITY by Jen Knox
Mother Nature’s Ransom Note: A Review of Jen Knox’s The Glass City by Ashley Holloway
Winner of Prize Americana for Prose, 2017, this revised edition contains two new stories. Published by Hollywood Books International, with a foreword by Sheila Black.
Originally published in 2017, Jen Knox’s revised edition of The Glass City is a brilliant collection of seventeen stories that fluidly combine seemingly unrelated themes together in unexpected ways. In this futuristic-yet-timely collection, Knox highlights society’s overwhelming sense of entitlement and narcissistic tendencies and their relationship to our changing climate. Each story is a mirror thrust in our faces, urging us to get over our love affair with ourselves, reminding us that “people didn’t need to further distinguish themselves from nature.” With buildings collapsing from exhaustion, virtual races run at home on treadmills, terrorist attacks, never-ending snowstorms, and characters with extra layers of toes from food contamination, Mother Nature acts as an omnipotent protagonist throughout, serving her primitive justice as a warning to society for the perils of continuing along the same trajectory. However, like the art of Kintsugi, Knox leaves us with the thought that what was once broken can indeed be salvaged and transformed into something beautiful.
With strong female protagonists, a signature of Knox’s writing, these stories are rooted in the culture of the Midwest yet remain relatable to all readers. In its own way, each story highlights how life, when viewed up close, reveals all its nooks, corners, and crannies and in the process, loses some of its majesty: while everyone loves the finished product, no one wants to be witness to the scrapes, burns, and bruises collected along the way. And yet, Knox shows us the beauty behind these scrapes, burns, and bruises, using well developed characters, such as Rattle, the hard-won loner desperately seeking connection who appears several times throughout the book, or the unapologetic aging contortionist from The Inconvenience Of It All. The reader cannot help but develop empathy for this motley crew of characters, evoking a full range of human emotions from start to finish, revealing that “No one thing is all one way.”
Knox’s confidence as a writer is evident through the intensity, breadth, and depth of the stories contained in this collection. The skillfully crafted subtext and irony offer insight into social class and the corruptibility of power, creating a palpable sense of urgency and immediacy that implores society to do better while simultaneously celebrating its successes. Overall, The Glass City serves as a brilliant metaphor for society, where “Everything is too perfect now, a touched-up photograph,” and Knox gracefully uses her stories to remind us to refrain from throwing stones in our glass house.
