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Glass Castle: A Memoir (Audio CD) (Audio CD)
by Jeannette Walls
| Category:
Biography, Memoir |
| Market price: ¥ 368.00
MSL price:
¥ 348.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An amazingly touching and heartwarming story about human victory against odds and frustrations. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 12 items |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-25 00:00>
Thanks, Jeannette, for refraining from shooting rampages in public places, a lifetime of welfare at taxpayers' expense, and scams aimed at cheating retirees out of their savings. Because upbringings far rosier than yours are the stuff from which most of the world's criminals, perverts, porn stars, cheats, government-assistance leeches, and garden variety jerks are made. That you haven't chosen a life of crime, and enabled it in view of being raised by your villainous parents, is a testament to your strong character, grit, and integrity.
Antagonists from the creepiest movies and scariest made-for-TV dramas have nothing on the author's parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls. The Glass Castle describes Jeannette and her siblings suffering a lifetime of criminal neglect and recklessness that constitutes mental and physical abuse by anyone's definition. Jeannette burns herself seriously while cooking hotdogs on a stove at age 3. Kids are taught to keep themselves afloat via a "sink or swim" game, when Rex tosses them in the water over their heads. Sister Lori's vision problem isn't addressed until grade school teachers force the issue. Food is scarce and nutritionally-lacking at best, and heat in the winter is non-existent, despite the family's having plenty of inherited money and property (funny how Rex always seems to make ends meet to support his drinking habit). Homes, too, suffer from neglect and end up holey and with exposed electrical wiring (made safe only when the utilities bills went unpaid). Rex attempts to whore teenaged Jeannette away to an older man to pay off a gambling bet.
Insult to the Walls' kids injuries comes in the form of their parents' goofy life-philosophy and justification for their actions. The kids were placed in awful situations that were allegedly good for them, to make them tougher, while the parents secretly lived better off. The parents horded food from the kids, bought themselves art supplies while keeping the children in rags, nurtured expensive vices, and demanded high academic performance while failing miserably in their own careers and ambitions. Rex and Rose Mary were very principled while preaching to their kids, as long as their "principles" allowed them to behave exactly as they wanted to at any given moment. Mom Rose Mary was an alleged animal lover, except for when it was expedient to let old Rex take a couple of bagful of too-numerous kittens out for disposal- suddenly, it was explained to the kids that the kittens should be grateful that the Walls family "gave them a little extra time on the planet" (and that it was in the animals' best interest to leave it).
Walls' writing is excellent, and she somehow is able to describe her upbringing objectively, yet without detachment. More impressive, still, is her creating moments when you actually begin to feel warmly towards the parents, particularly in their old age; you need to stave off sympathy for them in a few instances by reminding yourself of the story's earlier horrors. Jeannette's love for her parents is unconditional, put to the test throughout The Glass Castle, and freely given time and again. |
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Ellen Foster (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-25 00:00>
As apallingly neglected as Jeannette Walls and her siblings were by their alcohol father and their selfish and probably bipolar mother, this book lacks the sense of victimization and dispair found in so many "My childhood was worse than yours" books. It was left to the reader to be outraged on their behalf. At times Walls seemed to enjoy her unconventional upbringing and think of it as an challenging adventure. One example of many of how she grew up- Walls set fire to her clothes when she was 3 while she was cooking hot dogs for herself on a gas stove. Her mother was too busy with her artwork to prepare any food. Besides, she thought it was good for children to be self-sufficient. Then, her father "kidnapped" her from the hospital before she was ready for release, because he disageed with keeping the burns bandaged to prevent infection. She had received several skin transplants and infection was still considered a serious risk. I did find that the account of her late teens dragged on. The editor could have been more agressive, so I really would have given it a 4 and 3/4. Nonetheless, this is a minor flaw in a terrific book. I highly recommend it. |
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1 2 Total 2 pages 12 items |
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