Review: The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

Quote: "It's good we raised you young' uns to be tough, Because this is not a house for the faint of heart."~ Dad(Rex Walls) pg. 150

Started: Sept. 5, 2012

Finished: Sept. 11, 2012

288 pages/paperback

From the cover:

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

 The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

 The Glass Castle is truly astonishing-a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

My Review:

Wow! This is definitely one of those OMG books! This is going to be hard to review. There is so much to this book, and more because it is a memoir, non-fiction, no faking, the real deal! Wow!

I have always been intrigued to learn real stories about real people. I am fascinated with learning about other people, places, times. Also, being a parent myself I love reading about people's childhoods. What they perceive their parents done right or wrong. As a parent what did they feel was the right choice at the time and so forth. 

This book would be the "What NOT to do" as a parent handbook!

Seriously, some of the things these children went through(hunger, poor living conditions, criminal activity, injuries untreated, sexual abuse...) that were ALL well known by BOTH parents! These things were brushed off or even laughed at as "learning experiences" that would "toughen them up" while running out of money for booze, cigarettes or art supplies were major issues. To me it was a classic case of book smart, intelligent people who have absolutely NO common sense or the mental ability to deal with any "real life" situations.

I have heard so many people's reviews about how RoseMary(Mom) was raised by a distant, rough around the edges, fearless mother who seems to have taught her daughter(however unintentional) to be a free-spirited, make your own rules up as you go kind of parent. Well, I think that is pure BS! I did read Half Broke Horses and I never got any clue as to that type of parenting. RoseMary(and Rex) were two of the most selfish people I have ever heard of. They had SO many chances, opportunities, ways of making a much better, easier life for themselves and their children who had no choice in the matter. Yet, they CHOSE to live in poverty, involve themselves and their children in criminal activity and let them be exposed to so many things no human, let alone a child should ever have to face. For what? All because they wanted to be greedy, make their own rules, and defy laws and society and how they felt society viewed and judged them. To prove a point to who? America, civilized people, their parents....

I will call this book sad, tragic even, but I have absolutely NO pity for RoseMary or Rex Walls.

*5 stars* for an amazing story written with complete honesty and heart

Review: Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses

by Jeannette Walls

Quote: " We're not so darned broke that we need our daughter digging around in someone's garbage for a two-sent bottle." ~ Jim pg. 160

Started: Aug. 8, 2012

Finished: Aug.11, 2012

Hardcover/272 pages

From the cover:

" Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith. Jeannette Wall's no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town-riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get her job. She learned to drive a car("I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn't need to be fed if they weren't working, and they didn't leave big piles of manure all over the place.") and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

  Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds-against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or Beryl Markham's West with the night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.

My Review:

I loved this book from cover to cover. I could rarely put it down and when i wasn't reading it, i was thinking about it. This entire book was real! There was never a question of its accuracy. Walls did a wonderful job of retelling the life of her grandmother. I loved that it was written in first person and made you feel as if she herself were telling you a story, her story. This book included a few pictures of the actual characters, which was a wonderful addition. You could actually picture them living, doing the things she tells you about. From the adventure, blessings and tragedies, her life was real. She never sugar-coated how things were and how it made her who she was.

I only wish it had told more about her brother and possibly her own parents. It seems after moving away she had a faded relationship with them. although she does tell that she visited them roughly twice a year. I also felt that lil Jim got left out. I know he was away at school most of the time after a certain age. It just felt like there was too much emphasis on Rosemary(author's mother). Almost as if she were an only child. Otherwise it was a nice read.

 Awesome book!

* 4 stars*