Regular contributor Denise Neary and I have formed a mutual admiration society! Isn't it nice when that happens? She steps up whenever I need a hand here on the blog and comes up with some really interesting stories for all of us. In today's post, Denise shares her book club's experience with THE GLASS CASTLE - and then she gives me a little shout out at the end... thanks, Denise!
Our book club met recently to talk about THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls. The book is the decidedly unsentimental memoir of a young woman’s bizarre and often harrowing childhood, with parents so outsized that they are simply not believable enough for fiction. Only real life could be as bizarre as was young Jeannette’s life.
As the book opens, Jeannette is in a taxi in New York City, on her way to her beautiful midtown apartment, when she spies her homeless Mom going through a dumpster. The book is full of moments that call for self-pity. The reader looking for that would be disappointed. I express more rage when the subway is late for my daily commute than the author expresses when her father allows her to be in a sexually compromising position because he knows she can handle it. Walls’ childhood is so full of neglect that she doesn’t fully register how horrible it is. She simply tells her story.
When the author asks her Mom how she can explain what happened to her, how her brilliant and talented parents became homeless, her Mom tells her to just tell the truth. It is probably the greatest gift Jeannette was ever given by either of her parents (better even than when her Dad gave her the planet Venus as a Christmas gift).
I am so glad she did tell the truth. What a story for any group of readers; it is powerfully and beautifully written. Brilliance, illness, longing, neglect, intelligence, talent, survival, despair, hope and hopelessness---all these forces tug at the reader.
It is a perfect read for a group like ours, of Mothers and (teenaged) daughters. To say that families are complicated is a massive understatement---but all of our families seemed closer to the Brady Bunch then to the Walls family.
How did Jeannette’s parents become the parents they were? How did Jeannette survive, and thrive? In spite of her circumstances, or because of them? How did her siblings fare? What sort of parents are they (or will they be)?
And one of our favorite topics---what was the worst thing that happened in the book? In the parade of awful events, what stood out? For each person in the group, it was something different.
We all came away from our discussion glad that, with our many faults as family members, we knew the value of our connection. And because of Jeannette Walls’ beautiful book, we treasured our “mundane” family moments a little more.
-- Denise Neary, Regular Contributor
PS - Our own Dana Barrett has a great audition for a book related TV show on Oprah's new network, but she needs our help! Check out her video then vote early and often!
