The Glass Castle
Rating: 3/5
Summary: This is the memoir of Jeannette Walls and her dysfunctional family. She has a very unorthodox childhood, which some may call negligence or even abuse on her parent’s part. It’s the story of how one can lose faith in people after so many defeats. But it’s also the story of how perseverance and determination can get you out of a tough situation. So many things happened in this book, it’s tough to nail down exactly what to say. It’s unlike any story I’ve read and I liked it and hated it for that reason.
This book was good. It is amazingly written and has a solid flow. The story came alive for me, I could imagine living under the stars in the desert to the falling apart shack in Welch. The reason I gave it three stars is because of the parents. I was so frustrated with some of the things they did and said. Especially her mother, I was just so upset. I realized that she didn’t have it easy, being married to an alcoholic, but at the same time I was so irritated with her complacency. She wouldn’t leave him and she didn’t want to help her kids really either. She did try a couple times, but still I wanted her to do more.
To be fair, this wasn’t all bad times. They had some really good times together as a family, but a lot of the time the negative outweighed the positive. I think it took a lot of courage to publish this story and I applaud Jeannette for having the courage to do so. I kind of want to slam her parents some more, but that probably happens a lot, so I’m going to rein in on it. Her parents aren’t all bad, just like most people aren’t all good or bad. I always had this hope that maybe her father would get into the field of physics. He seemed so intelligent and passionate about it, he would’ve made for a great professor.
I resonated with Jeannette as being the middle child, but also for being kind of a leader. She looked out for her family and was her father’s keeper at times. My family has its problems and I’m usually the middle ground person. I also loved how dedicated she was to her studies and keeping her family fed and ultimately planning to get out. I also loved Lori for her weirdness. I was shouting in my mind “Yes! Be unique, I love it!” This story was full of unique characters and some of them I loved and some I hated.
Read this by the pool last summer. I share your visceral reaction to her mother, who refuses to work so she can feed her family because she feels hampered in her freedom. What an awful person. The book itself is pretty solid, though!