This was my reaction to a lot of stories presented in this
book…
That’s the type of father he was. A self-proclaimed drunk gambler, he had a bunch of conspiracy theories medaling around in his brain about the government and how they were all after them. He was a genius though, with great ideas. You could tell Jeanette idolized her father, of course she didn’t know that he was crazy at the time but they had a bond that he didn't have with his other children.They built this dream of a Glass Castle which they would build in the desert financed by gold- one reason they kept moving.
Her mom was an artist. If she ever sold any pieces it was
never mentioned but that is what she spent all the money on. She would rather do something exciting than to
cook a meal for her children- which is shown in the first chapter when
Jeannette burns herself cooking hot dogs. She is 3. 3 years old. Cooking hot
dogs! I didn’t even know how to say hot dog when I was 3, let alone cook one!
There were a few cringeworthy parts; such as when after the dad decided to pack up and leave, one of their first big moves. The dad
came in yelling that they had to pack everything in an hour, to take only what
they needed and while they were in the car, the cat was meowing and the dad
stopped and threw the cat out of the car. He' was all like...
“If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”
Eventually, the money just couldn’t keep up with them and
they had to settle in a small ass dingy town.
The Walls bought a hole. All I could imagine was this little shack that
was more of a death trap. No heating, no electricity, no plumbing that they had to shit in a bucket
and played ‘rock, paper, scissors’ over who got to dump it out. In fact they were so shit poor, forcing
Jeannette and her brother to dig through garbage pails at lunch during school
so they could eat enough. I just couldn’t
fathom that. This was all while the mom hoarded food while her kids barely had anything
but garbage leftovers to eat. I mean Jeannette even called it our and said
“It’s really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide
to do.”
Eventually the siblings all flee to New York to start a new
life. One that didn’t involve starving or picking up and moving every few
months and what becomes of her parents is something. You can tell she is
ashamed of them but never completely ignored them. She still loved her parents and tried to help
them- but you could tell her and the rest of the siblings got to the point of
why try anymore?
“I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that
even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.”
I definitely enjoyed this book and I am really starting to
like memoirs. I couldn’t put it down
once I started reading. However some of the stories hit a little close to home.
Not to say that I ate garbage or only bathed once a week. But the father reminded me of someone I knew
and it made me sad, angry, conflicted I guess. I do recommend
this book, another good book club pick. It’s
an eye opener for sure. I know people live like this. I just can’t believe it. 4.5 stars!
No comments:
Post a Comment