The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The memoir of a childhood haunted by alcoholism (dad’s), complete narcissism (mom’s), and crazy inventions designed to get-rich-quick, all the while coupled with conspiracy theories designed to entertain the children as they move from one squalid place to another in evasion of bill collectors (again, mostly dear old dad).
If ever there was a case for why some people shouldn’t reproduce, it’s Rex and What’s-Her-Name Walls (the mother, who I hated for her endless kowtowing to her alcoholic, uprooting, thief of a husband, has become nameless in my head for some reason, and I don’t have the book in front of me), but amazingly, if it is all to be believed, 3 of the 4 children come through with flying colors (I’ll leave you to discover which 3, and how. Stop yelling at me, I didn’t ruin the damn ending,ok?)
But here’s the real question. As a “memoir,” (and just ask The Reader Mom, we had a 20-min debate about this!) can we really believe that all the events played out like this? Here’s the points of the debate:
The Reader Mom’s side of things: Bullshit. TRM holds a mostly skeptical view on the story, which she described as extremely well written but nonetheless, mostly fiction. As a former hospital worker, she simply cannot believe that these children weren’t reported to Social Services more often, or earlier, especially given the scrapes described. She also has a lot of trouble believing the parts about how quickly they gained success after flying the proverbial coop (RELAX, that was not a spoiler).
The Reader: I tend to err on the side of, “Well….probably it’s mostly true?” given that when people say things happened to them, I want to believe them, especially when they are writing it in a form that implies truth (autobiography, etc). I feel that, while many of the parts of the book seemed unbelievable to us, we also have to consider that she was writing for memories of her childhood, and with a child’s perspective on things.
This, however, led to the GREAT DEBATE O’ THE GLASS CASTLE, and that is of memoir versus autobiography.
People just can’t fake it in autobiographies these days, especially given the industry uproar over books like James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” which, for heaven’s sake, got him scolded by OPRAH for lying about. Bad, James Frey, bad! But now, thanks to the Catholic school-esque hand slap Frey over there got, everyone knows if you make half of it up, you don’t call it an autobiography, you call it a memoir. Say it with me, memmmmmmmoir. Based on memory, which is entirely subjective, which means you can claim, as Ms. Walls does, that she never knew what a thermostat was until her teenage years. (Again, TRM calls Bullshit on this.)
This was a book-club pick for The Reader Mom’s book club, and I imagine it sparked a lively debate there as well. In fact, I think I’ll ask her about it before I post this.
So in the end, dear readers, the question of whether or not you can believe everything you read remains a mystery. But the question of SHOULD you read “A Glass Castle” is as crystal-clear as the title suggests: Yes, yes you should, and as quickly as possible.
Just Can't Stop Reading 