Audiobook6 hours
The Glass Eye: A Memoir
Written by Jeannie Vanasco
Narrated by Julie McKay
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The night before her father dies, eighteen-year-old Jeannie Vanasco promises she will write a book for him. But this isn't the book she imagined. The Glass Eye is Jeannie's struggle to honor her father, her larger-than-life hero but also the man who named her after his daughter from a previous marriage, a daughter who died.
After his funeral, Jeannie spends the next decade in escalating mania, in and out of hospitals-increasingly obsessed with the other Jeanne. Obsession turns to investigation as Jeannie plumbs her childhood awareness of her dead half sibling and hunts for clues into the mysterious circumstances of her death. It becomes a puzzle Jeannie feels she must solve to better understand herself and her father.
Jeannie Vanasco pulls us into her unraveling with such intimacy that her insanity becomes palpable, even logical. A brilliant exploration of the human psyche, The Glass Eye deepens our definitions of love, sanity, grief, and recovery.
After his funeral, Jeannie spends the next decade in escalating mania, in and out of hospitals-increasingly obsessed with the other Jeanne. Obsession turns to investigation as Jeannie plumbs her childhood awareness of her dead half sibling and hunts for clues into the mysterious circumstances of her death. It becomes a puzzle Jeannie feels she must solve to better understand herself and her father.
Jeannie Vanasco pulls us into her unraveling with such intimacy that her insanity becomes palpable, even logical. A brilliant exploration of the human psyche, The Glass Eye deepens our definitions of love, sanity, grief, and recovery.
Author
Jeannie Vanasco
Jeannie Vanasco is the author of The Glass Eye: A Memoir (Tin House Books, 2017). Her work has appeared in The Believer, the New York Times Modern Love, Tin House, and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore and is an assistant professor at Towson University.
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Reviews for The Glass Eye
Rating: 3.8333334222222217 out of 5 stars
4/5
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirist Jeannie Vanasco and her parents were a tight-knit, isolated unit while she was growing up, so when here elderly father passed away, she fell into a protracted period of grief, exacerbated by her severe bipolar disorder. She grew obsessed with the mystery surrounding her older half-sister, also named Jeanne, who died before the younger Jeannie (with an "I") was born. The Glass Eye is Vanasco's memoir of this difficult period of her life. It is a fragmented, but very readable study of mourning, mental illness, and the writing life, with a hint of mystery thrown in. If you are interested in these topics, I recommend this book to you. If it sounds too sad or self-indulgent, you might want to pass.