Whenever I asked around about good books, The Glass Castle is one title that came up often. After acquiring a copy on bookmooch.com (worth checking out if you don't use it already), I decided it was time I read it. I truly loved The Glass Castle, but I must admit I should not have read it so soon after reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Both books are non-fiction accounts of people who lived very hard lives, so both were very depressing and infuriating stories; they made my heart ache for children and my temper rage in anger toward the adults involved. In my latest read, Jeanette Walls presents a memoir of her life growing up with an alcoholic father and a delusional (deranged?) mother. They moved from town to town , typically pulling the "skedaddle" in the middle of the night, and lived in substandard conditions wherever they went. Jeanette and her three siblings had to fend for themselves and learn how to survive despite parents who neglected them and subjected them to dangerous situations.
This was a fantastic book, although it was depressing at times. I found myself getting quite angry at the parents, and feeling sorry for the children throughout the book. The author did a wonderful job of showing how the children just accepted their parents as who they were, and found strategies to get through life in spite of being "dealt a bad hand". I would have like to see a little more depth in the ending, where she explained some of her feelings about her situation a little more, but she did leave the reader with a lot to think about, enabling me to come to my own conclusions about the effects of her upbringing. I highly recommend this book, especially for those who enjoy memoirs.
Bottom Line: Intense memoir, that caused me to think about the effects of one's beginnings.
Overall Rating: 88
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