So good! It's nice to find a book outside of your normal genre that you really enjoy. ( )

Great story of the glass blowers in Lauscha, Germany ( )

The story was OK, Not great writing, but a good story about 3 sisters in Germany in the 1890's. Their father, a glassblower in a town known for this art, passes away and the women must decide how to support themselves.

The characters seemed out of context-a little too strong and opinionated for the time period. Even with that flaw I was well on the way to giving this book 3 stars for the "cuteness" of the tale. Then WHAM-mid way through the book a really ugly piece of violence occurs -I was gob smacked-it just came from no where. I can handle "ugly" in a book, however this just seemed as though it was thrown in there for the shock factor. Before writing this review, I checked some others that are posted and was satisfied to know that it just wasn't me.

Find something else to read- ( )

Honestly, nothing special-- although there were some highlights in this book with the characters and description. ( )

The Glassblower - Petra Durst-Benning
3 stars

One review that I read for this book called it a ‘costumbrista’. I’d never heard that term, so I looked it up. The literary costumbrismo is a composition that portrays the popular customs of a country or a region. In this case, the region is a German town called Lauscha in the late 19th century. The popular custom, as well as the town’s sole industry is, as the title says, glassblowing. This is the first book of a family saga about the Steinmann sisters who must find a way to support themselves after their father dies.
They deal with the customary gender discrimination of their time. This includes not only being underpaid and overworked in the few occupations allowed to them, but also domestic violence and workplace rape.

The book supplies many details about the business of glassblowing. I did actually find that interesting. Unfortunately, I never felt myself engaged in the personal lives of this family. It’s possible that the story suffered in translation, but there was too much methodical ‘telling’ and not enough emotional ‘showing’. When one of these sisters made a self destructive decision, I could see the consequences so far in advance that it was tedious to continue reading. The fortuitous spurts of good luck and success were also predictable. I won’t be reading the other books in this series. ( )