The Glass Castle

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This book has been recommended to me for years and because I knew it would be disturbing, I sort of avoided it.  But I finally resolved to read it and I’m glad I did.  This is a true, autobiographical story about a girl raised by 2 parents who were, to say the least, unconventional in their philosophy on child-rearing.  It begins with Jeanette, at the age of 3 years, trying to make herself a hot dog (because her mother was busy with her art) and burning herself on the stove to the point of needing to be hospitalized for weeks for burns and skin grafts.  When she returns home, she is back at the stove, making another hot dog and cheered on by her mom who claims she should not be afraid of anything!

So begins a life of chaos.  Jeanette’s mother is an artist and writer who does not believe in rules, structure or discipline and who clearly wrestles with depression.  Her father is a brilliant man but cursed with alcoholism and is unable to maintain a job for any length of time.  Whenever the family begins to get behind on paying the few bills that they actually pay, or gets in trouble with the law, the family picks up in the middle of the night, without packing anything, and moves to a new town to begin anew.   The children frequently are hungry and forced to scavenge for food, in dumpsters, in the cafeteria garbage cans at school.  They are frequently the target of derision and even violence by their peers, because of their abject poverty.  What enables her to survive is the powerful bond between Jeanette and her siblings who protect each other fiercely.

And yet, what makes this story so moving and so engaging is the complex nature of the relationships between Jeanette, her siblings, and her parents.  Like all people who do bad things (or make poor decisions), her parents are complicated.  Her father, for example, who often drinks away the family’s money meant for food, also imparts wisdom to his children.  On a particularly touching and moneyless Christmas Eve, he takes each of his children out to look at the stars and “gives” each of them their favorite star as a special present.  There are these very touching moments that he does share with his children that make him a somewhat sympathetic figure.

So while I found myself yelling out loud at her parents and feeling aghast at some of her experiences, I understand why Jeanette had sympathy and love for her parents.  They were still her parents, no matter how neglectful or irresponsible they were.  She tells her story honestly and simply and vert clearly presents her struggle to love them in spite of her knowing even very early on that her parents were often wrong.  Her story is probably more common than we would like to think as is this struggle.

I am glad that I finally made myself read this.  It’s not easy, but I think it’s an important book to read.

The Long Way Home

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Long Way Home, by Karen McQuestion

This utterly forgetable but mildly amusing story is about 4 women (strangers) who agree to take a road trip together to help one of them reconnect with her (sort of) stepson.  The women are different ages and have almost nothing in common, one is a recluse who on a whim decides to break her years of solitude to join in,  and —  of course! —  one is a psychic.  Basically, this story is as realistic as me winning the Miss America Pageant and the lottery combined!

There are a few funny moments and little surprises, and if you’re looking for a light, mindless read, this may be for you, but it’s not a must-read by any stretch.  Just my opinion…!

Lone Wolf

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Lone Wolf, by Jody Picoult.

I LOVE Jody Picoult.  She has the uncanny ability to delve into the stickiest of ethical dilemmas and to elicit sympathy on the part of the reader toward each side.  I believe it is because she creates such beautifully complex characters, each of whom you want to win.

And in this book, she does it again.

The book revolves around a man who in order to fully study the habits of wolves, leaves his family to live in the wild among them, becoming part of a pack of wolves who take him in as one of their family.    After he returns to his own, human family, he has difficulty fitting in and circumstances lead to the breaking up of his family.  When he later suffers a severe head injury and is on life support, his son and daughter take up a legal battle to determine who will make the decision of whether or not to end life support.

In addition, throughout the book, the author weaves in various facts about wolves which make them appear more human than we are.  Each tidbit is actually quite profound and provides a metaphor for what is happening to the characters in the story.   I’m no naturalist, but I do find these facts very interesting.  Each little factoid also serves to increase the suspense in the book with each further delay in the progression of the story.

This is yet another craftily woven story by Jody Picoult.  You easily come to know and love her characters, you empathize with each side because each side is made valid, and you can’t help staying up late — no matter how late it is and no matter how important your work is the next day! — because you have to find out what happens (and there are a few major surprises!)

While some say Ms. Picoult has something of a formula, I say she uses what works —  and it always does!

The Great Gatsby

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Welcome back!  I just finished reading The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I had never read before.  My kids were more fortunate than I — they just finished reading this book in school and had the benefit of discussions with a  teacher who was trained to help appreciate all the symbolism and deeper meaning in the book.  I might have enjoyed the book more if I’d had the benefit of this.  As it was, I did not like really any of the characters in the book enough to really care about what happened to them, so it was challenging to get through it.

Just to review the story for those of you who haven’t thought about this book in awhile…

The narrator is a man who is a neighbor/tenant of Mr. Jay Gatsby.  He observes that Gatsby has frequent elaborate parties in his ostentatious mansion on Long Island.  What we come to learn is that Gatsby’s innate drive for wealth and notoriety is propelled to new heights by his love for a woman, Daisy, with whom he’d fallen in love 5 years prior. Daisy is now married to Tom, who is cheating on her, and Gatsby’s goal is to lure Daisy away from Tom. Without giving away the whole story to those of you who have not read the book (or those of you who want to read it again), suffice it to say there are complicated relationships and Gatsby comes to a bitter end.

There is a lot in this book about class relationships — essentially, about the callousness of the “haves” and the jealousy of the “have-not’s.”  What seems to matter less to everyone in the story is love, and the denial of the importance seems to bring everyone to their piece of the tragedy.  This idea, basically that money can’t buy happiness, is what I see as the take-home message for the reader, but it is almost painful to get to that end.

Unfortunately, each character is almost completely unlikeable.  The narrator is a kvetch and is fairly self-righteous in his telling of the story.  He frequently promotes his own virtuous honesty but is hypocritical in each of his relationships, appearing to like the other characters but secretly hating them all. Gatsby is probably the most sympathetic character, but he is distracted and uses people to his own ends.  Each of the other characters lacks depth and feels very flat, including Daisy.  In fact, it is frequently noted that everyone loves her, but it is very unclear — at least to me — why!  The conversation between characters is either trite — boring, even — or just outright blunt and vulgar.  Worse, though, there is also a lot of chatter about the other incidental characters that feels superfluous and drags out the story without giving it any more substance.

I understand that there is a remake of the movie in the works.  I pray they find what I could not in this book in order to make it worth seeing!

Welcome to Kindread spirits!

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Formerly bookblogger62.blogspot.com, I am now officially kindreadspirits.wordpress.com.

WordPress enables me to continue to blog and you to follow me with ease.  You can either just follow me or you can submit your email address and receive an email each time I post a review of a new book I’ve read.

More importantly, you can comment on my reviews and begin a discussion of the book, if you’d like.

So welcome again to this virtual book club — and I hope you’ll follow me!