The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wallis
I actually enjoyed this memoir, by Jeanette Wallis, about a totally complete dysfunctional family growing up throughout the United States..... a group of totally innocent children being dragged through a life of homelessness, aided by addiction, mental illness and just plain neglect. Oddly enough, there is still to be love to be found in the family, however, the picture we are given simply could not be much worse in terms of the survival of these children. How they escaped social services, could only be descrbied by frequent moving, and the fact that a mom and dad (more or less happlily married) head up what might just look quirky until you took the time to open a door or two, which apparently did not happen.
It is a memoir, so snippets of her memory and not the entire biography. I have to wonder how much liberty she took with the story, HOWEVER, unlike some of my friends, I did find the story to be believable, I do believe there are children living in these circumstances.
The most amazing thing is that the children have mostly grown now, stumbled along, one or two has sort of thrived, the rest are still being watched over by the other siblings.... And the parents CONTINUE to choose to live on the street, even when they no longer have to.
The book is well written and very readable, and gives an excellent glimpse into another world entirely. Made me remember once again about the determinents of health, and how poverty, ignorance and mental illness just negate any effort to provide relief to a family in need.
I recommended it, even knowning that many people I know did not like it very much at all. Maybe they'll post with the other side of things! Hope so!
Joanne's rating (completely gut based): 7.5/10 Worth it.
2 comments:
I have to say that I neither liked nor disliked this book. I too, believe there are people living in abysmal conditions, based on our standards and that some must fall through the cracks of the social system. While I found it somewhat believable,I too think there was liberty taken for literature's sake. I marvelled at how the children were strong enough and insightful enough to choose to leave their home circumstance at fairly young ages to pursue a better life. It was worth the read and I would give it a 6 or 7.
Peggy
I agree with your assessment of this book. I really liked it too although I do believe there was some embellishment on the author's part (mainly related to what a small child would actually be able to remember in so much detail??). Our book club had a lively discussion on this one - mixed bag on liking/disliking selection. I saw this author interviewed on TV and she seemed pretty believable as she told her story orally.
Lorraine
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