"The Whole World Over" by Julia Glass

The title refers to bird migration patterns found on a map in a small rest room in a small book store in New York. In the larger sense, it refers to the travels of this book's main characters, who drag their weak, or noble, or ambitious, or out-of-luck selves around the country from Maine to New York to New Mexico, and back home.

This story revolves around Saga (given name Emily), who has been injured and is not quite all the way back. We also have Alan and Greenie and Greenie's lover Chuck, and their son George. George commits the crime of releasing a herd of horses into the wild and Alan and Greenie have to deal with that; this episode brings up the environmental and animal-rights themes which so prevail in this book. (It's almost Kingsolver-esque.) Our friend Fenno (from Glass's prior "Three Junes") finds happiness at the end of this book. I apologize; my notes on the plot are inadequate. Trust me, however, when I say that when you read Julia Glass, you will get graceful prose in the service of touching stories, told with wisdom. Glass is a polished, satisfying, wonderful author, and I recommend anything by her.