Point of View

Glassworks deploys a consistent third-person point of view, although the narrator shifts perspectives between four characters throughout the runtime of the novel. In "1910," the narrator works through the limited perspective of Agnes Carter; in "1938," Edward Novak; in "1986," Novak; and, in "2015," Flip Brightman. The shifting perspective of the narrator allows Wolfgang-Smith to explore multiple eras within the generational story of her novel's characters, and also helps her tease out the personalities and psychologies of her perspective characters as the narration molds itself to their trains of thought. The decision to use a limited third-person perspective, meanwhile, helps Wolfgang-Smith create tension while preserving this interiority.

Given that the novel is interested in examining the broad social movements of the twentieth and twenty-first century in America, it makes sense that Wolfgang-Smith would seek to embody the perspectives of multiple individuals throughout this period of time. In some cases...