Glass Castle: Jeannette Walls

If you think you have had a rough life, then I would recommend reading this to get a little perspective.  I have never known poverty, even when my mother raised us kids as a single mother there was always a meal on the table.  Seeing it through the eyes of a child is fasinating though, where when she is a toddler some things seem like a game but as she gets older she is literally fending for herself by rumaging through garbage.  Likewise seeing how her parents use various rationalizations to be the ay they are is frightening really and yet we get a glimps of their childhoods and why they believe the things they do.  I had a step-father who was a drunk and, frankly, I never had any use for him.  Walls' father is also a drunk but even though he cannot hold down a job (which is not his fault, it is the mob or some other wierd work complication) she still idolizes her father for his dreams and for his brilliance.  Perhaps the greatest gift these parents gave their children was a love of knowledge, reading, dreams and creativity.  Although I can relate to her father ruining holidays, since that is something I remember well.  Yet for all their struggles the children break the cycle, maybe it is because they leaned on each other so well while growing up.  The parents do not fair so well when their children leave to make their way in New York on by one.  In the end the parents follow them but end up homeless and pretty determined to stay that way.  The book is heart breaking in some places and I cannot help but feel relieved that she makes it through to the other side, when some trauma could have been worse or marked her forever.