Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls p 1-230


This is a memoir of a young girl growing up in a very disfunctional family. It is an amazing story of how a young person had to fend for herself against very challenging odds: a father who is beyond the point of alcoholism, a mother who refuses to work and support her family, moving houses several times to avoid bill collectors, having to eat thrown-away food from her school trash cans . . . only the beginning.


Jeannette Walls tells the story in a way as if she is telling readers not to feel sorry for her. She is proud of what her past helped her become. This is not to say that I believe she would not have changed all the awful details of her childhood.


She does a great job describing her parents and siblings -- so well that they seem to leave the book and become real people you can empathize with or hate their guts. I would recommend this one.


Jeannette Walls is now the gossip writer for www.msnbc.com

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