Book Review: 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Reading Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle brought me back to the 1970s and growing up not rich in material things (We did not ski in Aspen; we sledded at the junior high up the hill from the house.) but rich in story.

That point hit home last weekend, when mom and I narrated the stories behind the photos in several very thick albums for my beautiful and patient daughter, who seemed happy to know why we are the way we are.

I came to Walls's memoir by way of a colleague with whom I had been discussing Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson--another 70s memoir of a woman whose life was more like The Beverly Hillbillies than The Brady Bunch.

As writers, these women have created a genre that presents memoir as a cross between family story, the Waltons, and Everyone Loves Raymond. Which is to say these are compelling books that make you think, make you feel good, make you take another look at your family and say, "Damn right." We are who we are, and we don't need to apologize.

But we can laugh. Walls is the daughter of an alcoholic father whose grandiose dreams befit his idea of himself but fall far short of reality and a mother who never quite delivers the maternal goods even if her heart is in the right place. Caught between keeping her husband happy (quiet) and her children quiet (disillusioned), this woman delivers aphorisms where her children want food.

The Wallses are as maddening as they are strangely loveable. Perhaps this is because Jeannette

Walls has such an honest heart that the reader wants to embrace them because she does. More often than not as I turned the pages of this book I thought, "Damn it; do right by these kids." My heart sank when they did not, and I felt for myself her own disappointment and frustration.

The miracle is that despite the parents, the kids do right. The miracle is also that because of the parents, the kids do right. Gifts are strange things. It really does come down to how we receive them.

Looking at family photos with my daughter and my parents, what became obvious to me after three very thick binders were these consistent themes: my parents were present in a sound and stable home; they smiled even if we didn't; they took pictures at every blessed event we had, and they kept them. All these years later, they can tell us what those pictures are about.

The lesson: life is as important as it is beautiful; live it well. And as soon as you can, read The Glass Castle.

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