Brilliantly written and nearly impossible to put down. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls has so far been about
Jeannette’s life as a child. The memoir begins with the author seeing her mom
digging through a dumpster. Both her parents are homeless, so when she sees her
mother she ducks due to how ashamed of her parents she is. After this short
glimpse into her adult life, Walls starts telling the story of her childhood. With
a mother who didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family and an a
brilliant father who became destructive under the influence of alcohol, Walls life and the lives of her three siblings was anything but ordinary. From moving over eleven times before
she turned four to spending over 6 weeks in the hospital due to severe fire
burns, Walls seemed to be living through the worst possible situations. But she
somehow is unshaken even after all these traumatic events occurred.
This
riveting memoir had me hooked after the first page. It reads like a story and
recalls the unbelievable life the author had to live. The memoir appeals more to an older
audience; but I believe that everyone at some point in their life should read
it. Walls’s use of personal anecdotes throughout helps her readers see the
independence of her and he siblings sprout at ages as young as two. For example, she discusses how at the
age of three she could read as well as a six year-old and when she was in
second grade her father made her do her math homework using binary numbers
which Walls would then transfer back to Arabic numbers for class. I can only
imagine what it would be like to be that gifted so young.
The
author’s purpose in writing The Glass Castle is to show her readers that her
life was like growing up in an entertaining manor. I strongly believe that so
far in the memoir Walls is doing a spectacular job achieving her purpose. As of
now, Walls is only seven, so I can’t wait to read what else she has in store.
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