No one who read Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, can forget her riveting opening sentence:
“I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster . . . Mom stood fifteen feet away. She had tied rags around her shoulders to keep out the spring chill and was picking through the trash while her dog played . . . at her feet . . . ”
Not your typical memoir! The Glass Castle is the story of Jeannette Walls’ life…her childhood primarily, in which she describes with beauty and matter of factness, what life was like growing up with her three siblings and their parents. Her family was at once deeply dysfunctional but also unique and surprisingly vibrant. Her brilliant, gregarious father taught them about physics, geology and how to make the everyday seem like an endless adventure, all the while moving from place to place to place. When he was drunk, though, he was dishonest and destructive.
Her mother was a free spirit who never wanted to take on the responsibility of being a parent. She was far more interested in pursuing her dreams of becoming an artist. The Walls children learned how to raise themselves; they fed, clothed and protected each other. The huge majority of this fell to Jeannette as she was the oldest. They were seemingly always on the run–from bill collectors mostly! They traveled from town to town, staying just enough ahead of all responsibilities. Schooling for the children was erratic at best. They lived in shacks without electricity or plumbing and their food came by way of scrounging or scrapping together nothing and making it into something. Yet, in spite of the hardships, Walls comes away with a belief that her childhood, though far from ordinary, had its moments of thrills and unusual freedom. The children eventually grow up and migrate to New York where they go their separate ways. The parents also move to New York and choose a life style of homelessness which Walls refers to in that gripping opening sentence. Making peace with her bizarre life and her parents’ choice to live the way they do is the journey she takes us on. I honestly can’t recommend this book enough.
Glass Castle sold over 2½ million copies and has stayed on the best sellers list for several years.
In Half Broke Horses, Walls takes us on yet another remarkable family journey, that of her maternal grandmother, Lily. Now, here is a real character, just as rich as any I have come across in a long time. Lily lived out west and was a “rifle toting, horse breaking Annie Oakley in a biplane” says USA Today. She left her New Mexico home at age fifteen, and rode five hundred miles alone on her pony, to teach in the frontier town of Red Lake, Arizona. She lived through everything from droughts to floods to the Great Depression. She will remind you so much of Jeannette that it answers a lot of the questions we were all left with after reading Glass Castle. Walls’ mother makes so much more sense to me now after learning how she was raised (by Lily) and what she was like as a child. I would almost be tempted to suggest you read Half Broke Horses first and then Glass Castle.
Jeannette's Grandmother Lily
Resilience is the trait that seems to best describe these people…. three generations of a unique, fascinating and eccentric family. None of them seem to have had expectations of an easy life. Lily, in particular, was determined to take her fate into her own hands. She was a rebel with a cause, wanting to live and experience everything she could and always pick herself up when she was knocked down. Hard work was her trademark as well as a simple, humble acceptance of the world. She was practical to an extreme but could also be quite moved at the beauty of a sunset.
Frankly, in comparison to these women, we are all wimps! This book has been described as Little House on the Prairie for adults and that fits to some extent. But, I came away with a little different perspective. To simply say she was a frontier woman and these were old stories from a time and place we can only imagine cheapens this woman and the women who came after her. This extended family, as unusual as they were, seems to culminate in Walls who has reached a place of purpose and put to rest so many personal demons. She remains respectful of her history and never denigrates or exaggerates the highs and the lows. She shares her grandmother’s tenacity and sheer brilliance for survival.
There is a prevalent belief that our current generation has become jaded and cynical and thereby weak and spoiled; that we know nothing of the hardships previous generations endured. I don’t think that is 100% true. There will always be survivors; those who beat the odds and make their lives work from sheer will and determination. Jeannette Walls and her family will make believers out of all those skeptics time and time again.
In her acknowledgments, Walls writes:
“I will never be able to adequately thank my husband, John Taylor, who has taught me so much, including that its okay not to be completely ‘broke.'”
That’s pretty cool . . .
Jeannette Walls was here Wednesday, January 26th for a signing and reading. Half Broke Horses is now out in paperback.
-Norma
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