The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

I finished this book awhile ago and there have been many shiny things distracting me this month, so now I'm finally getting around to writing about what I've been reading. 

InThe Whole World Over Julia Glass once again sucks you in completely.  The unlikely plot (NYC pastry chef becomes chef for governor of New Mexico) seems completely believable as she writes it.  And that's just the primary character.  The book had amazing breadth with several other interconnected stories running simultaneously.  It was wonderfully easy to keep the characters and all their stories straight.  You know how sometimes multiple complicated storylines can be difficult to follow?  Not at all a problem here. 

Fenno from Three Junes appears in the book near the beginning, around page 45 or 50.  He seems to have matured out of his angst of the first the book. I read an interview with Glass, where she says that she was surprised to have him show up. 

Love and relationships are the centerpiece of this book.  But more specifically, I'd say it is about connections and connecting.  What brings people together, keeps them together and splits them apart.  And like connections and relationships, the end of the book just sort of happens, there isn't any miraculous coming together or resolutions to the issues of the characters. 

I continue to think about the characters of this novel, as if they exist out there in a world not unlike my own.