a worthy read: the glass castle

I was hooked soon after I began reading this captivating memoir. It's not a book I would have normally selected so I'm thankful my mother-in-law gave it to me.

The Glass Castle tells the heartbreaking and inspiring true story of four small children who endure and ultimately survive the immeasurable failure of their parents during their childhood.

Jeannette Walls, the second eldest of the children, takes her readers on an inconceivable journey... where parents are a contradiction of love and neglect: on the one hand, attentive and intellectually nurturing; on the other, negligent in providing for basic needs such as food, shelter, and protection.

Walls's parents, Rex and Rose Mary, are non-conformist rebels... adventurous, idealistic dream-chasers. You will sometimes like them. You will mostly hate them.

They are sometimes amusing, sometimes inspiring, sometimes practical. They are always brilliant. They are also reckless, irrational, shocking, self-destructive, and categorically selfish.

Their children are the victims.

Strangely, they do love their children and, through the years, they teach them the importance of kindness, compassion, individualism, curiosity, and self-reliance. But, paradoxically, they demonstrate little kindness and compassion toward the needs of their children, and ultimately, the children must struggle day-after-day to survive them.

Throughout their ordeals, the family's experiences raise some provoking questions:

• Are we better as individuals when we have had to suffer hardships and adversity? Is there more to be gained from a life of struggle than from a life of ease and comfort? If so, should we then seek ways to push ourselves out of our comfort zones?
  
  
• Who are the homeless, really? Are they, for the most part, people who live in poverty by choice, and ultimately would not want to live any other way? Or are they, mostly, people who are truly unable to provide for themselves?
  
  
• Why did Walls's parents, with all their amazing intellect and ability, reject opportunity after opportunity to integrate normally into society? Why didn't their parental instinct to care for their children trump their renegade values?
  
  
• In a time where over-protective parenting is perhaps the more common trend among sensible parents, were there any worthwhile parenting values promoted by the mother, Rose Mary Walls?

The Glass Castle will make you think about all these things and more.

And if you're like me, when you've finished the book, you'll be awed by how unusually intelligent the parents were and you'll be inspired by some of the valuable life-lessons they imparted; but mostly, you'll be astonished and grieved at what these children suffered and conquered. And, you'll fully admire, maybe even covet, the grit, endurance and courage they developed as a result of their circumstances.