The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

Charles Blackman, Children Playing

(April 24) Riveting account of what it’s like to be raised by two free-spirited, 1960s-style full-blooded hippies, who aren’t going to follow society’s rules, work for the man, poison their bodies, compete with fellow human beings, etc. -- they were going to use their genius to make their fortune and live self-sufficiently and high-mindedly ever after.

Andrea recommended it -- but she was horrified by the story because she is a mother with young kids, and she can’t imagine exposing children to the danger, deprivation and instability that the Walls kids experienced.

I on the other hand was kind of swept up in the romanticism of their life -- the kids got to do a lot of amazing things and developed some really amazing skills -- and they weren’t really in a lot of danger a lot of the time. LOL. They certainly all turned out well.

It’s clear that Jeannette Walls herself is bitter about the way she grew up -- in telling the story, she belabors certain hardships, quotes her parents as ironically as possible and is proud to have ultimately led the charge to escape from the parents. In fact, it’s kind of a case study of how kids turn out exactly opposite to their parents.

Later on, though, the parents seem less creative and more self-serving. The mother lost me when she hid a chocolate bar from her starving kids and the father when he stole the kids’ hard-earned escape money.

Also, I feel bad for ever suspecting in school that kids who took food from the garbage cans were gross and / or pigs. How can we ever have thought of them that way? They were starving children, for god’s sake.