Normally I try to steer clear of memoirs. In other instances the people tend to be overly self centered and twisted. I assume that is part of the reason they would have a story to tell. But I kept having this book come up repeatedly in conversations, so I decided it was time to pick up and give it a try.
Jeannette Walls began her life as the second child of an alcoholic father and a mother so free spirited she basically gave birth and let the children fend for themselves.
The family was on the move, or doing the 'skedaddle' for years before setttling in the poor mining town of Welch, West Virginia. The children seemed to be in mortal danger from the moment of their existance. Much of the time they were not supplied with food or clothing. Their shelter was beyond questionable. Yet the children survived and pulled themselves from the dregs that surrounded them and became from what I can tell, bright, capable, and even successful people.
At times Rex (their father) had great depths of widsom and charisma and then he would do something so astoundingly wretched to his family I wanted to reach through the pages and smack him. Rose Mary (mother) did less than zero to protect her children from the ravageous that alcoholism brought upon the family. As a mother this was harder for me to stomach than the baseless acts of the father.
All in all Jeanette somehow found something within herself that in most of us would have suffocated and died. She and her siblings did well in school, took care of each other and their parents, and eventually made their way to New York City.
The clarity and hope that veined throughout the book made it palatable when it shouldn't have been.
Rating 4.5 Only because I don't think I could read it again.
Rating R Alcoholism, child abuse, sexual content, language (The father had a colorful mouth......which I have to say I appreciated most of the time.).
