The Glass Castle: Read this book!
This book had been on my reading list for eons. Jeannette Walls writes the memoir of her complicated and oddly strengthening childhood in this book that finds itself on reading lists everywhere.
I found myself routinely shocked by the situations the author’s parents forced her and her siblings into. Her drunkard father, Rex Walls, keeps the family moving so often, the kids are hardly able to form attachments. They are each allowed to bring only one thing with them on their moves, leaving everything they had accumulated (a small number of things at that) behind. But I was also struck by the fact that though her father made her childhood a living hell, she still loves him and it shows in the book. For a long time, Jeannette still hung onto her father’s old dreams that had also become her own.
Her mother is less hurtful, but certainly no less responsible for the condition of her children’s lives growing up. She is quite a free spirit, always wanting to make her mark in the artistic world. She looks at her children’s struggles as necessary to reap the so-called benefits of hardship. Rose Mary Walls is a self-proclaimed “excitement addict” and never seems to struggle with the constant relocation. In fact, she doesn’t seem to have too much trouble with even the constant lack of money and food.
It says something about human nature and the ability to love those that hurt you. Even when the author finds her way out of poverty and into New York City, she still finds herself quite concerned for her parents’ welfare. When the same people who never really fought to make her childhood all it could be follow their children to the Big Apple, she still finds herself looking after them and trying to make sure they had a place to stay and enough to eat. Though the majority of people certainly love their parents just for the simple fact that those two people are their parents, I know a few people who have completely severed contact with a parent with far less reason than Jeannette Walls had. It makes me wonder if forgiveness is something that has been a little forgotten over the years.
Though parts of it are heart-wrenching and difficult to take in, I really enjoyed reading this memoir. There’s something about the perseverance of the human spirit despite all seemingly impassible obstacles that always makes for a good read. I can only hope to have a pittance of the strength young Jeannette Walls had as she was forced to shoulder burdens far beyond the abilities of even some of today’s well-off adults. It’s one of those books that I feel pretty much everyone should read at least once, and saving it for a time when you think you can’t keep your nose above water can prove inspirational. If a child can make it through hell and back, you certainly can, too.
Reading recommendation
Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” was one of those books that I’ve picked up a hundred times in the bookstore but never purchased. Then it was recommended to me by Tim Fletcher, the lead singer of The Stills, and I finally bought it. I don’t regret it.
From the moment I cracked open the book and started the first page, I knew it would be different. But I wasn’t afraid of different, just leery. The story details the travels of a man and his son in a post-apocalyptic world. They dodge strangers who have turned cannibalistic to survive while refusing to do so themselves. Instead, they scrounge for food and water in a desolate ghost world that’s already been completely looted by previous survivors. There’s no electricity, no conveniences and hardly any animals left wandering the earth to hunt. The world is only a shell of itself.
The relationship between the man and his boy is very compelling. It’s painful at times knowing that the boy can only understand so much and the father must make him walk away from nearly everything in order to survive. The emotions are beautifully portrayed and hit your heart, especially from the boy’s perspective. It’s devastating.
But the book provides a lot of food for thought. We are so dependent on technology and electricity. Could we survive through such a disaster? The threat of nuclear war is always in the back of the government’s mind. Should it come to pass, and should it get bad enough, there might not be much of anything left of the world we know. I’ve met people that don’t seem to know any of the basics about taking care of themselves. Would they even be able to make it after an apocalyptic event were it to happen? Maybe it’s time to learn some of the basic survival skills like building a fire from nothing or how to tell if water is safe to drink.
I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind thinking when they read. It was a fairly quick read but not to be shrugged off by any means. It definitely gives you something to think about. And trust me, you will be thinking about it.
