The Glass Castle: A Memoir
CDN$ 8.17
You should read this.... - This was an excellent book. I won t blab on about how great it was, but I highly reccomend it. I m currently passing it around to everyone i know. READ IT!!! :)
EVERYONE INTERESTING HAS A PAST... - This is a beautifully rendered, poignant account of a totally dysfunctional family. It is little wonder that this book won numerous awards and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. I simply could not put this book down, as the author had me transfixed with her story of growing up in such an unusual family. Born to highly intelligent, creative parents who marched to the beat of a different drum, the author and her siblings had a difficult childhood. With a dreamer of a father who battled the bottle and a mother who was somewhat irresponsible and probably mentally ill, family life was a study in contrasts with an emphasis on independence, as well as artistic and intellectual pursuits, while spurning creature comforts, stability, and the much longed for three hots and a cot. This free wheeling philosophy, espoused by the author s parents, subjected their children to hunger, homelessness, and a nomadic existence. Yet, the children were resilient and thrived, even as their parents went on a downward spiral. The author s story is positively riveting. It is a story of survival and eventual prosperity within mainstream society. It is a story about keeping one s head, when all around one others are losing theirs. The author s journey is certainly an amazing one, and I for one am delighted that she chose to share it with others. Those who enjoy reading memoirs and autobiographies will, undoubtedly, very much enjoy this one and be fascinated and moved by the author s singular, well-told story. Bravo!
What am I missing? - I was astounded while reading this book that the reviews were so good. I found it rang false, not because I thought she was lying or exaggerating, but because there was something missing. Accepting one s upbringing as dysfunctional and coming to terms with it is healthy. But this didn t feel healthy to me. It seemed almost romanticized, like her life was a character-building lark. Somebody s in denial: perhaps it s me, since I m so entirely outnumbered.
Inspirational to the very last word.... - This book was simply addictive and is written beautifully! Jeannette Walls has a way of recalling her childhood with such intricate detail to unfold such an inspriational pieice. This book is definiately worth the time & the money! Her memoir allows her readers to appreciate what they have in life and to never give up even when faced with hardship. Pick up the book - you will never regret it!!!
great - this book was really good, and either so well told or so different from my own experience that it s hard to beleive as truth... but i got it in the biography section of the bookstore and it does say memoir right on the front, so i guess it must be so. i really enjoyed the author s writing style. i read a bit of the introduction and bought it, she s a good storyteller. it s like she paints a coat of glaring reality.. or some such thing that makes the story so palpable, over the plot (which is fascinating enough on its own. i thought this book did a great job of outlining the positives and negatives about people and situations. the parents were very interesting. they were learned people, more so than the average joe, and they taught their kids so many things and really stimulated them intellectually. they were inventive and artistic and let their kids be who they wanted to be and discover the world at their own pace. however, they were far from perfect. the mother had a very laiser faire attitude about raising the kids, though this could just be my personal bias as i was raised in a more stuctured household. when the kids are struggling with problems or when something isn t going right, she doesn t get too involved in their lives and either focuses on herself or brushes whatever it is off telling them to be stronger. so while her artistic hairbrainedness is wonderful and fun, it also backfires a bit. and i also didn t enjoy her relationship with her husband who lorded over her. the husband was interesting because he was such a creative, inventive guy. when he put his mind to something he got a solution to whatever it was that fixed the problem (though to be fair kids can be easily pleased, especially without any prior world views to taint the perspectives their parents throw at them) and he was so intelligent and cared so much for his kids, but he was a drunk and used his intelligence poorly in inappropriate settings and he was somewhat pigheaded. also, despite this intelligence he and his family coast along the bottom half of the economic scale.i think they were both wonderful characters and would have loved to meet them in real life. i love their view on the world, if not so much the negative exectutions, and think they re both really metaphorical characters and really display how something can have both a good and bad side well. i think the mother says at one point -life has both tragedy and comedy, you should focus more on the comedy than the tragedy- or something like that. there s a good and bad to everything... though at some point this philosophy could lead to intentional blindness to certain aspects of a situation.