Allan, Christa: Walking on Broken Glass

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TWEETABLE REVIEW: 3.5* Fictional acct. of narrator's stint in rehab. Lovely writing, but 2nd half could be tightened. Christian lit. https://www.book-blog.com/2012/05/allan-christa-walking-on-broken-glass.html

Christa Allan's debut novel Walking on Broken Glass is narrated by 27-year-old Leah Thornton, who winds up going into rehab after a friend makes her realize she's drinking too much. Her Rolex-wearing husband is against the idea--in part because he likes to be the one making decisions, and in part because she won't be available for sex for a month--and we soon realize that he's a large part of Leah's problem. The book covers Leah's stint in rehab--including run-ins with other patients, with therapists, and with her visiting husband--and ends shortly after she gets out. There is no conclusion per se: life goes on, and Leah's still facing the issues that got her drinking in the first place, but she's now doing it sober. Like real life, in other words. There isn't a dramatic story being told here, and yet I found myself reading the book eagerly enough, perhaps primarily because I wanted to see Leah's husband get what was coming to him.

The book is a bit unusual, because it does read very much like a memoir rather than fiction. Allan doesn't tie things up neatly as one expects from fiction: a character who is important in rehab is forgotten once Leah goes home, for example; an issue with her father becomes important near the end of the book, but doesn't really matter to the rest of the story and could have been excised. But again, this is what happens in real life.

Allan's writing is often lovely, particularly in the first part of the book. The story feels more bloated in the second half and could probably have been tightened up. The second half is also more overtly Christian. Leah becomes more religious as a result of rehab, and begins talking about God a lot--and the people she meets talk about God a lot too, more than seems realistic. The conversion feels a bit too abrupt and too extreme, to me at least.