The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle is a very simple book to read. The author is Jeannette Walls. I hadn’t heard about this book or the author until last week when I was hanging out with a group of friends. The book is the memoir of this girl from the time she was little until she is a grown up. She tells the story from her viewpoint. Jeannette narrates about her life in the Walls family. The author describes her life and her family’s, their experiences, their hardships that each of them encounters, and how each of them deals with it. Her parents try to teach their kids to be very independent and find their way through life, even when life is very tough for the little ones; these kids have to survive on their own.

The parents are both very smart and dumb at the same time; especially in the way they rear the children. Their personal addiction comes before the children. As a result of their compulsion, the kids are the ones that suffer the most. These kids suffer. Kids needs are overlooked because parents always come up with new excuses. Her parents seem to find a new way out to escape from the responsibility that they have towards their own chidlren. The parent’s excuses will change their entire lives, some for good and some for bad.

One thing that I notice when I read this book that the family tries to stay together even when things are not going well. The children try to help one another and be there to go through the mess that the parents have created.

I recommend the book because it gives a different perspective, especially when related to family and children. The beautiful thing about this book is that it tells the reader that no matter how hard life can be, one still can manage to succeed and make something good out of it. One should not just focus on life’s miseries and dissapointments, but should put those bad memories behind the shoulders and focus on the future and trying to have a better one than the one our parents didn’t create or make for us.

picture taken from: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=the+glass+castle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Belle