Freelance writer Walls doesn't pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them...
This memoir is a detailed and vivid account of growing up with extremely eccentric parents: an alcoholic yet brilliant father and a mother completely driven by her desire to create Art, who Walls states has absolutely "no maternal instinct". The story begins when Walls was 3 years old and takes us with this extraordinary family of 4 children as they make their nomadic way through the Southwest to finally return to the father's hometown in W. Virginia. We experience the hardship of the family until one by one, each of the 4 children make their own lives in New York City and then the shocking reality of the parents' arrival in New York where they choose to become homeless.
The images and scenes she presents often leave the reader stunned and speechless. The risks these two adults take with themselves, their children, with life itself, defies ordinary understanding. But equally, interspersed are moments of a very rare and unusual display of the best of the human spirit in both the children and their parents. The extreme hardship is juxtaposed with the profound strength of the children that is clearly a result of their parents genuine commitment to their individual and mutual "out of the box" values.
The story itself is astounding but equally worthwhile is the study it is in presenting the story of her family in an objective way that does not extrapolate, and is without opinion and judgment. Also extremely important is her lack of bitterness or self pity.
Of equal interest to the book itself are interviews that can be found by "googling" Jeannette Walls. Three I liked in particular are:
In the interview with Goldberg there is this: "Jeannette Walls has done an extraordinary thing. She has faced her secrets, shared them with the world, and thereby robbed them of their power to humiliate and torment. There can be no freedom like it. It is an enormous personal and artistic achievement."
The Story Circle Network is a national not-for-profit membership organization made up of women who want to explore their lives and their souls by exploring their personal stories. If you would like to learn more about the Network and its activities, please sign up for our free email newsletters!
| Subscribe to the Story Circle Network eLetter mailing list |
|