So we've been on hiatus for a hot minute. I was finishing my dissertation, we moved, Leslie was finishing her summer classes, we were both starting a new school year...and our books went by the wayside. BUT! We are back in the saddle.
This weekend I finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
Wow.
That story was out of control. At fist I was just so floored by the never-ending tragedies that seemed to befall her family. And then I got mad. I tried to give her parents a LOT of leeway in the beginning. I didn't want to label them "bad parents" but instead tried to really think of them as eccentric and free-spirited. But after a certain point, I really just couldn't do it anymore. They were absolutely horrid parents. My parents are fairly eccentric. Her parents were downright neglectful and abusive. And maybe my upbringing had something to do with the way I felt about her parents. My parents have always been a little on the weird side, and our family did a lot of things differently than other people. But my parents were still parents. My mom was also an artist, like Jeannette's, but unlike Jeannette's she realized that being a starving artist wasn't good for her family, and whether it was her life's dream to be an art teacher she did it because her family needed to eat (and have clothes, books, etc.). She committed to being a parent. Jeannette's mom just wanted to cry and moan about life's injustices and in the process, made her children suffer. It was just appalling. Her father was also appalling, but I think for a number of reasons I am less "shocked" by this. First of all, he's an alcoholic. Not that being an alcoholic is an excuse to be a crappy dad, but at least I can recognize that he has a disease. Secondly, he's a dad. Again, that's not an excuse to be a terrible parent, but it's less surprising when dads fall down on the job. When a mom falls down on the job it's pretty big. When my parents divorced and we lived with our dad it was pretty abnormal, and our mom was still involved with us, we just didn't live with her. So to have a mom who so clearly sucked at all things mom was pretty alarming. I was thinking about this after I finished the book and I was wondering if Jeannette's mom has an undiagnosed mental health condition. This is the only reason I can even begin to understand as to why she would behave the way she did. But maybe that's just me trying to come up with an excuse for her (like her father's disease). When Maureen loses it at the end it made me wonder if there was a history of mental illness in the family and maybe her mother was mentally ill as well.
Overall I liked the story, but I'm not sure if I want to read another book by Jeannette Walls. At least if it has to do with her family, and especially any more stories from her childhood. This book seriously disturbed me. I woke up with bad dreams three different times last night. I hate the thought of children being abused and neglected. It makes me so sad. If you can get past the horrible neglect and abuse I would very much recommend this book.
