On Broken Glass: Loving and Losing John Gardner

Rating:
Summary: A "vivid and continuous dream..."
Review: Although On Broken Glass is a memoir, it meets a criterion for fiction set by John Gardner himself. In language that is direct and accomplished, Susan Thornton creates a "vivid and continuous dream," spellbinding us with a sequence of events as fascinating and tragic as the object of her adoration.

What is even more remarkable about this memoir is the degree to which Thornton has "dropped past her psychic defenses toward deeper levels of honesty."* How complicated and demanding it must have been to describe a relationship with a public figure--a sun amid a constellation of literary notables--a man whom many people knew and loved and who are alive today with equally compelling perspectives on his life and loves.

Thornton examines her reasons for allowing Gardner to become her moral compass; her memoir is a cautionary tale to those with similar tendencies. While we may not share her romantic susceptibility to the symbols of love--the ring, the wedding gown, the marriage itself--we come to understand their appeal to her.

If "art begins in a wound," as John Gardner wrote, a good memoir should end in healing. Susan Thornton's perspective on this disturbing period of her life evolves as her story progresses, and her final, wholehearted acknowledgment of the man to whom she is now married is one of the loveliest tributes I have ever read. *from The Art of the Personal Essay, by Phillip Lopate

Rating:
Summary: gripping!
Review: As a big fan of John Gardner's "Mickelsson's Ghosts," I've wondered where the biographies and memoirs of this bigger-than-life figure were hiding. So I was looking forward to Thornton's book. I expected a riveting story; after all, Gardner led the world's most chaotic and colorful life. But Thornton - woo! What a writer! A reader will learn about Gardner, sure. But to call this a "book about John Gardner" is to do it a disservice. It should be a must-read for all of those with addictive personalities, for all of those in dysfunctional relationships, for creative and artistic people in all fields, and for all spiritual seekers. John Gardner may well have been a shaman. Susan Thornton, with this book, has become one as well.

Rating:
Summary: A work of ruthless & absorbing honesty
Review: Susan Thornton should have known, but did not allow herself to know, what she was getting into when she let John Gardner become her emotional center of gravity. She became a passenger on the roller coaster of alcohol, insult, inspiration, and passion that seems to have been Gardner's everyday existence. Anxious to be all things to all people, a hero for every occasion but a realist for few, it seems as if Gardner himself was too in need of approval to give Thornton the nurturing and confidence she craved. In this sometimes-painfully-frank book, Thornton mostly reserves judgment, allowing her memories to speak for themselves; and while Gardner and others make a host of missteps, it is a testament to Thornton's hard work that she appears at least equally confused.

If you do not know Gardner's work or did not experience his charisma, you may well ask, "Why did she bother?" No doubt she has asked herself the same question at times. But Thornton's account, while certainly stripping away some of the Gardner mystique, does not in the end change one's admiration for him as a writer, teacher, and even friend (however unreliable). Gardner strove to be larger than life -- and, given the inherent impossibility of the task, succeeded to a remarkable degree. He inspired thousands of students, launched dozens of writing careers, contributed substantially to medieval scholarship, and managed to insult just about every one of his novelist piers of the 1970s. Oh -- and he also published a dozen or so books of fiction, some of it top-notch.

If you are willing and ready to see Gardner as something other than mythic, and to experience the vulnerability and pain of a young writer for whom he was both lover and mentor, read On Broken Glass.

Rating:
Summary: a well-written downward spiral
Review: This book describes a relationship all of us has either heard about or lived with on some level. It is a well-written, captivating story. I could not stop reading. The great man or woman seduces, lures or entices the innnocent, less experienced man or woman. Neither is aware of the entanglement thay about to begin with each other although it seems obvious to everyone on the outside. The downward spiral that Gardner was on was a tragedy apparently no one could stop. Susan was only one of the victims of Gardner's alcoholic odyssey. I was happy to read that Susan was able to rise from the ashes and put her life on a different road. I wonder how his children and other family members endured.

Rating:
Summary: take your time
Review: this book was writting by a very good friend of mine. i have know her all of my life. It is very couragous of her to be able to write as much as she did but the good times and the bad. It is difficult to let people in your private life but i know she has grown from this experience. She is a beautiful person inside and out. The words are so vivid and you feel that you are experiancing the events right along with her. That is the purpose of writing. If a writer can do that then she has completed her mission as a author of this book and i feel that she has done this quite well.
sign
a good friend

Rating:
Summary: Blind Love, Fierce Addictions, and Fate
Review: This is a terrific, wrenching, oddly self-echoing book. I imagine a lot of women of will find it so. On Broken Glass is the true story of how, in the search for her literary self, one women raised in a genteel setting found herself willing grist in the mill of a self-destructive genius. The parable at the begining of the book, from whence the title comes, should prepare the reader for this story of the agony of physical, chemical and emotional addiction. It can not. Perhaps nothing can. John Gardner, an American Author-Icon and noted Medievalist, lead a troubling, talented, addicted and ultimately tragic life. This book, however, is not the story of John Gardner so much as it is the story of Susan, a niave and sensitive young writer with a taste for adventure, success, and a desire to live live to it's fullest. Struggling with her art and coming up against the barrier of love with a literary genius, Susan does everything to cope except battle with her own and Gardner's addicitions and impusive behavior. One week before her awaited wedding to Gardner, she hears the sirens of the summoned ambulance while on an errand in town, and finds the bridegroom has been killed in a motorcycle accident. Even though I knew what was going to happen through the book's deliberate revealing structure, it was still both terrifing and mandatory to read it through. It's not a story one can put down and walk away from. It nags you from across the room. It exhorts you to ensure you raise your daughters to emotional honesty. It is awful in it's truth, and is a story every woman should read.

Rating:
Summary: A Struggle With Death
Review: This memoir of John Gardner's final 3 years is a compelling read (partly because I was his 2nd cousin, his 1st wife:ages 19-43, & mother of his 2 children). Susan Thornton presents a detailed, fair account of Gardner's descent into wild alcoholism. Poe wrote in one of his odd essays that all literature should be written to be read in one sitting, & I found that easy to do here, even though I felt sorrow that such a fine writer, a man I loved for many years, could be so brutal--mostly directed at himself, though of course it affected everyone in his life. She presents her memories in a truthful voice, while admitting that she has had a longtime drinking history, and she includes his own false memories & lies--even the lies he told her. He did not drink because he was a writer or because he could not handle success or failure; he drank because gin gave him the false power to get to the edge of his bizarre, flat universe & lose control without accepting personal responsibility. It is also sad that there is little evidence of his own writing projects during this period. For a writer who worked day & night his entire life, he produced very little while he was joining his demons. I have no idea if readers who only know his work will want to descend the mortal spiral of Gardner's last years and finish the book. However, Susan Thornton has presented this memoir in good faith, and it is an interesting work that hides no secrets and presents the end of a life in a riveting, straightforward account.

Rating:
Summary: Love is Blind
Review: To me, John Gardner was egotistical, self-serving, and liked nothing better than the sound of his own voice. Ms. Thornton was nothing but a doormat, and a doormat who should have known better. Ms Thornton claims writing this book was therapeutic, brought closure, etc. Frankly, I don't think the book served its' purpose. She seems to be the same starry eyed person she was, when John Gardner first appeared on the horizon. And there is no doubt, that Ms. Thornton would have continued on her path of self destruction had John Gardner lived.