So is Carter's debut, a collection of 21 linked short stories that, much like the title character, scream to be heard. She has walked east on Houston Street many times, and the story tracks her memories of previous journeys. As she walks, catcalls and screeching horns come from passing cars and pedestrians. This is her life.
Glory stops traffic.
After a lifetime of addictions and dependencies ranging from men to heroin, Glory has been shipped from the Big Apple to a treatment center in Minneapolis. She befriends the immigrant children next door, other recovering addicts, and a host of pathetic males. Here, in the middle of the Rust Belt, in her mid-30s, she finally comes of age. Carter endows Glory with a voice of her own, independent of her creator, making the reader forget that Carter is to blame for the sex, drugs and philosophical ramblings that make up Glory's well-voiced existence. Carter refuses to let Glory play into the common stereotype of the pitiful, uneducated addict.