"The Glass Castle"

     Recently I finished the book "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls.  "The Glass Castle" is a memoir of Jeannette Walls's life, and it is one of the most fascinating, page-turning books I've ever read. You're probably thinking "Yeah, I doubt that".  Memoirs are boring, right?  No.  Nobody sits down and says "Wow, I've had one heck of a boring life.  Let's write about it!"  Jeannette had the opposite of a boring life, and she was persuaded by her husband to put it out there- to write about it.  She is a journalist, and so writing wasn't new to her, but writing a book was.  In an interview, she said that her first draft of "The Glass Castle" was like a news article- it was like reading something that had happened to somebody else, not to her. Well, she fixed that right up, I can tell you that.  Jeannette Walls's writing is nothing short of beautiful.  When she is writing about herself as a three year old, she is a three year old.  The way she perceives her world is through the eyes of her younger self, not the grown woman she is now.  I don't know how she does it, but at every stage of her life, you are there with her in the book, feeling her struggles and her joy.  The way that she describes each place her nomadic family lived makes you feel like you are there- especially how she describes the desert.  When she describes lying under the wide open night sky with the zillions of stars, or walking bare-footed on the searing hot desert floor, or hunting through the desert for treasures, it's as if you are watching it all happen.  You're not reading a book about someone's life- you're practically living it, watching it unfold, and on-edge every step of the way.
     On the beginning pages of the book, there are reviews, and the first one says "On the eighth day, when God was handing out whining privileges, he came upon Jeannette Walls and said, 'For you, a lifetime supply.'  Apparently, Walls declined His kind offer." (Chicago Tribune)  This could not be any closer to the truth, or any better put.  I thought about this quote a lot while reading the book.  Jeannette's whole life could have been one long complaint.  The book could have been one long complaint.  But it wasn't.  It was stunning.

Day Thirty-one Song Recommendation: "Mele Kalikimaka" by Bing Crosby.  I don't know why this is a classic Christmas song, but it is, and I like it.

-SE Wagner