Book #11 The Glass Castle

We have been so busy traveling this summer, and doing other fun things, that I have slowed on my reading. However, I recently picked up a couple of new books at the library and am back on the reading wagon. I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I had heard a lot about this book, as it recently made its way through my circle of friends, and many of them told me that I had to read. They all talked about how inspired by this memoir. It’s the tale of a young girl, and her eclectic/eccentric/downright irresponsible parents. I believe, if I were like most people who have read this book, that I would be inspired by how much this young girl overcame to be successful in life. She was born into poverty and stayed in poverty her entire childhood. Man, did they struggle. However, since I am not like most people, I came away from the book really angry and sickened at her parents’ lack of responsibility. This is not the story of parents who just never got a break in life and worked themselves to the bone trying to scrape together a living for their family. These parents were brilliant, able-bodied, and capable of providing a better life, they simply chose not to. They were the most selfish, irresponsible, pathetic parents I have ever heard of. They provided no protection, and their children suffered for it. It is really inexcusable. The book jacket calls them “peculiar”. Really? A man who allows, yes ALLOWS, his daughter to be sexually assaulted is “peculiar”? I must say that I am proud for the children who survived life with these parents, going on to be each successful in their own way. It’s a shame that they had to live the life they did. They should have had nothing to “overcome”.