Book Update

I've read two books I would like to tell you about. The first is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. The book is a memoir recalling the circumstances in which the author grew up. It's told in first person. Jeanette's father was a drifter who could not keep a job. He moved his family from town to town where they lived hand to mouth. The scavenged for food while their father drank what little money he earned, until he lost a job and they had to leave. Jeanette survived her childhood because despite the circumstances her parents loved her. They did a poor job taking care of her, making decisions and choices that were not in her best interests. But throughout the narrative the love her parents had for their children shines through. Jeanette and her siblings became successful adults despite their upbringing. I don't know how Walls wrote the memoir without traces of bitterness showing. It is an excellent read.



I also read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. (Please see J's excellent review here.) The Road is the story of an unnamed man and his son trying to survive in a "post-apoclyptic hell" from some undescribed event. Their are few survivors. The man and his son are among the few "good guys" hiding from roaming bands of murdering thiefs as they make their way south. The catastrophic event is years in the past and little is left of the burned out land upon which to survive. I read the novel in only a few hours. It is written in a slightly unusual narrative syle. It is depressing but captivating. It has been called a masterpiece and honored with several awards. It is indeed a good piece of literature and worth your time to read.