West Virginia-grown roots and wings: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Half Broke Horses, also by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle was a title I'd seen time and time again on reading lists and book reviews and heard about several times in conversations about West Virginia authors and all-around good reads. I finally picked it up recently and once I did, I couldn't put it down (okay, truth be told, I did put it down momentarily, but only because I was sooo into the John Edwards book. . .once I finished that and I then picked up Walls's book again, THEN I couldn't put it down. I flew through it in the next few nights). In her memoir, Walls takes us on the journey her parents took her and her three siblings on from Phoenix to Texas to West Virgina, where they eventually settled (as much as this family could "settle," as you'll understand once you read it) and where the Walls children spent the majority of their childhood. Walls not only paints the picture of her upbringing and lifestyle in impoverished Welch, West Virginia, so well, but also vividly takes us through the emotions she and her siblings went through as their father battled alcoholism and their mother led a lifestyle so flighty that at times, I felt like she was just two steps short of growing her own wings (and, I'm getting off on a tangent here, but wings = flashback to The Black Swan) and flying away from the family.

The anecdotes Walls shares with her readers induce a range of emotions, sometimes stirring multiple emotions at the same time! She recalls when she first learned to swim: her father basically took her out to the middle of a local pond and dropped her, arms flailing, until she was just moments short of drowning. He then grabbed her and threw her back in the middle. This process continued until Walls, in an effort to avoid her father's hurls, began moving her body about on her own until she realized that she was swimming. I remember feeling such angst for her, frustration and disbelief toward her father, but then triumph--and relief--when she found herself afloat in the middle of the muddy water. As they were leaving the pond, I continued to feel frustration toward her father as he smugly told her how proud of her he was for learning how to swim, but admiration toward Walls for holding her tongue and quietly holding in her own disbelief at how it all went down.

Aside from some of the crazy family antics, there are many, many touching moments in her story as well. We see how much the children loved and respected their parents, in spite of their shortcomings, but at the end, maintained their perseverance to break away from their unconventional and unhealthy lifestyle. (I won't provide any other details or examples for fear of spoiling!!)

This is an excellent story overall. I thought it was interesting that it seemed like she matched her writing to her changing age throughout the book. For instance, at the beginning, when she is still a child, much of the writing is spoken in short, simple sentences.

One quote I enjoyed reading in the story came when Walls met a man outside of West Virginia. After a brief exchange, he said (something along the lines of), "My, you West Virginian women are mighty strong."

And although that is true, we learn in Half Broke Horses that much of Walls's strength must have come from her grandmother.

Walls gives an account of her maternal grandmother's story in Half Broke Horses. Although we only meet her mother's mother very, very briefly in The Glass Castle, the glimpse we are given is enough to know that her grandmother must have lived a very rich life, full of zest and absent of regret. Walls writes this story in the first-person, in what she explains in her notes as how she would have imagined her grandmother to have told her story. There are parallels between Jeannette's life and her grandmother's. Both are strong and determined women who grew up with unstable parents, but value their past and appreciate how it contributes to their future.

Walls writes Half Broke Horses just as colorfully as she did her own memoir. Although it is a bit shorter, the adventures her grandmother enjoyed, the hard work she endured, and the emotions she portrays (at least, by Walls, according to her research through her mother's recollections) bring Walls's own memoir full circle. This read is just as uplifting and inspiring as her first.

(Faith, I can't wait until you read these so we can discuss in more detail!!)

The next grouping of books I'd like to read and review together are: The Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu (and translated by Stephen Mitchell), The Dalai Lama's Book of Inner Peace, The Imitation of Christ, and The Analects of Confucius. So far, I have finished the first two, and am working on finishing up the second two.

Also next up: I have begun reading Knit Two, which is proving to be just as delightful as the first Knitting Club book.