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Title: Great artist stuck in a soap opera
Review: If ON BROKEN GLASS is representative of her talents, one wonders what John Gardner could have seen in her work to praise her the way he did (or at least the way Ms. Thorton remembers it). It's easy to understand way Ms. Thorton would want to go through the catharsis of writing this memoir but it is hard to understand why she would want to publish it. In reality, we learn nothing about Gardner we didn't know before but we get a lot of melodrama and self-serving introspection about a person who simply would not be of interest except that the allowed herself to be manipulated by a man, who while a great writer and teacher, crossed the line once too often, taking advantage of his celebrity and status.The details of Gardner's life are not new; Ms. Thorton's story is not much beyond whining and self-loathing, and she does, perhaps, ultimately reveal or imply more about herself and her role in John Gardner's fall than she intends.
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