You know those books you feel like you have to read simply because every critic, book club and friend under the sun has raved about them? I usually find them somewhere between anticlimactic and bitterly disappointing (think Eat, Pray, Love, The Da Vinci Code and anything by Jodi Picoult) but, every once in a while, one of these smash-hit best sellers actually makes me think: wow, so that's what all the fuss was about!
As The Glass Castle opens, Jeannette Walls stares out a taxi window and spots her homeless mother rooting through a dumpster. From there, the author chronicles her astounding childhood with three siblings, an ingenious but alcoholic father and her fragile, free-spirited mother. Constantly moving from town to town (to avoid bill collectors) and living in shacks or trailers, the Walls children learn to fend for themselves, eating out of trashcans at school and painting their skin so the holes in their pants don't show.
Although they're completely neglectful and borderline abusive, Walls expresses such affection for her parents that it's impossible not to see the "good" in them. Yes, they make their children walk for miles on the highway when their car breaks down and no, they can never afford Christmas presents but Walls writes from such a positive perspective that you know she was unconditionally loved. Hope always lies beyond her tragic circumstances.
The Glass Castle spent 100 weeks on the NYT best seller list and is being made into a movie...I can see why!
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