Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.

This is a novel in search of a plot. Actually it's a virtual "kitchen sink" of plots - just pick one.  Set in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, the story is loosely based on real people and events.  However, I wasn't sure if I should be following the squalid immigrant conditions, Clara's revolving love interests, art vs. manufacturing constraints, emerging gay issues among uptown literary types, trade unions, interracial marriage, suffragettes, Tiffany's business ventures, etc, etc, etc. I should have known it was hopeless after reading the scene where Clara watches the sweaty, muscled, glass-blower hauling molten glass out of the furnace.  It was comically, painfully obvious the author was thinking: why not throw some erotica in?  Multiple plot lines & undeveloped characters kept me reading to the end hoping for some closure.  Didn't happen.