The Glass Eye: A Memoir - Softcover

Jeannie Vanasco has crafted a book that will worm its way under your skin, a book that will not give you easy answers or heartwarming takeaways, much in the same way that life will not give you easy answers or heartwarming takeaways. Jeannie Vanasco has created a book that I cannot stop thinking about.--Emily Ballaine, Green Apple Books

An unfettered dive into a brilliant, unraveling mind. Vanasco's memoir is visceral, poignant, and ultimately an affirmation of the healing power of literature and the resilience of the human soul. Astounding.--Keaton Patterson, Brazos Bookstore

A deceptively spare life story that sneaks up and surprises you with its sudden fecundity and power.--Kirkus

Powerful and ruminative . . . This is an illuminating manual for understanding grief and the strange places it leads.--Publishers Weekly

An absolutely beautiful exploration of family, grief, memory, and madness, this book is outstanding. . . . The layers found in this memoir are as plentiful as the layers found in the human eye; ultimately, it is as deeply layered as the human experience itself.--Jamie Thomas, Women & Children First

This is memoir at its best. The prose is powerful and often breathtaking--it'll make your heart break, it might make you cry, and you'll probably even laugh a few times. This is an elegy fierce and lyrical and raw, like none I've read before.--Sarah Malley, Newtonville Books

Wildly innovative.--New York Magazine

[A]n intense and unforgettable memoir, as fascinating for its artistry as for its subject matter. . . . Lyric, haunted, smart and tortured, this is an obsessive love letter to a dead father as well as a singular work of literature.--Shelf Awareness

Vanasco's candor, curiosity, and commitment to human understanding are not to be missed.--Booklist, Starred Review

Vanasco explores the intricacies of the human psyche with stunning poignancy.--Newsweek

Jeannie Vanasco is the author of The Glass Eye: A Memoir (Tin House Books, 2017). Her work has appeared in The Believer, the New York Times Modern Love, Tin House, and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore and is an assistant professor at Towson University.