Under Glass

Cynthia Whissell is a psychology professor at Laurentian University.

This slender novel is repetitive in spite of its brevity. Its
simplistic, emotional storyline can be summarized as follows: “There
once lived a color-blind man who loved glass, but glass can be awful.
His mother might have nurtured him, but she was awful. He lived many
years with a talented wife. Sadly, talent can be awful—almost as awful
as lack of talent. He adopted a son to his heart, but the son betrayed
him. Betrayal is awful.” The word “awful” does double duty in this
summary, since it should be read not only in its original sense
(inspiring awe or wonder) but also in its popular current one (terrible,
horrible). By using the symbolism of shattered glass to tie together the
loose threads of his protagonist’s life, Buday has oversimplified and
trivialized that life. Under Glass is best read as a long, unstructured
poem that emphasizes emotional coloring over plot.