The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Title: The Glass Castle

Author: Jeannette Walls

Genre: Memoir

Summary: Jeannette Walls tells how her family survived in extreme poverty and how life provided for them.

The Take-Away: I cannot relate in any fashion as to why a parent wouldn't want to do whatever they could to feed, cloth and provide for their child. Both Rose Marie and Rex Walls routinely avoided work, preferring a free spirited lifestyle of artist and inventor, respectively. The extremes that Ms Walls and her siblings went through to make sure that they had food to eat astonded me. The tale changes as Ms Walls grows up and understands exactly what choices her parents are making. Seldom is there any animosity or anger in her voice. When there is, specific situations pull it out, rather than every action.

I could not have been so forgiving or tolerate. Poverty is presented in a very different way than most of us are willing to look. To say that this book is eye-opening would be understating the memories that it left me with.

Recommendation: Read it and realize the obstacles that can be overcome, if one is willing to try.