Walls of Glass

by Amanda Brookfield

While many regard her marriage with admiration and a trace of envy, Jane Lytton quietly reaches the shocking conclusion that her relationship with Michael, a successful banker with little time for the nitty-gritty of family life, has failed. Jane's decision to leave a man who does not love her, but who has shown no obvious signs of abuse or neglect of her or their children, is greeted with a mixture of vitriol and uncomprehending sympathy by family and friends. Help and strength come from the most unlikely direction, but then Jane is thrown off balance once more. When her vision at last clears to reveal her best chance of happiness, it seems she may have left it too late.

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1995

About the author

I have two elder sisters and a twin brother who is much quieter than me and with much longer legs. Our Dad was in the Foreign Office so we spent our childhood living in far-flung places like Shanghai and Stockholm. In fact, until the age of 32 I had never spent more than 3 years under the same roof...it's left me with the opposite of 'itchy feet'.
I fell in love with writing aged 11 when my class was asked to write a ghost story - that thrill of being able to make it all up! Studying English at Oxford was a dream come true, but then real life got in the way and I started a career in advertising, climbing the greasy pole for four years, helping sell washing powder and cold remedies.
Aged 25, I got the chance to go and live in Argentina. I left advertising, set myself up as a freelance journalist and wrote my first novel,'Alice Alone' which was published (to critical acclaim!) in 1989. I haven't stopped,or looked back, since.
I am now published by Penguin. At the last count I had produced fifteen novels and two sons. There will be no more offspring, but lots of books I hope.

Reviews

[Maree Slater · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that this book is well written and shares insights into human behaviour. However it was obsessive in the way that two of the main characters were portrayed often and specifically in terms of their appearance primarily their weight! On almost every second page Jane (the heroine) is referred to as small, thin, slim, petite, not eating, not hungry etc etc whereas her friend Pippa’s weight is referred to as large, bloated, rolling as she walks, ugly etc etc. This author needs to review her (imho) unhealthy obsession with body weight and appearance.

[RJC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plain to see plot twists, that then unravel the domesticity, ending up with girl gets guy.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

nothing was really happening 3/4 of the book lol pretty pointless and the plot was so… bland

[Harry Tomos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me tell you what I like about this book, it's the fact that there's no great event that triggers the break up, but a crescendo of noise building up to the point of no more, the fact she leaves for herself, then tries for him, then breaks for good for both of them. That there's a niggle about someone else, where the back of the brain knows something the front of her brain hasn't worked out, and then probably the most poignant part for me, is where there's that almost totally feeling of isolation, but definite feeling of isolation, that we all get when we're grieving either a loss of a loved soul or a relationship, where we feel let down by our friends when we need them most, or even on end of some betrayal of loyalty somehow, but it's in that moment of isolation, you kind of know you've made the right decision or that you have the strength to get through and this seeps through into the story when you're totally invested, worried and then you see it come good. The insight into the thoughts, feelings of the characters just somehow brings out not sympathy but empathy. It's a stealth of a powerful read..