"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

I. forgot. to. review. a. book!  I knew there was one I had read during the busy part of summer that I never wrote about! I recently asked for memoir/biography recommendations on Facebook and my cousin said "The Glass Castle" in a comment, then it hit me like a flash of lightening!  The title I forgot to review!  I'm glad she brought it up, because it really was a moving read.  It's just that my mommy brain has too many holes in it.

"The Glass Castle" is a memoir.  One of Walls' earliest memories is boiling hot dogs for herself for lunch on a gas stove top.  At the tender age of three.  Let that sink in for a minute--a three-year-old handling gas flames and boiling water, unsupervised.  Her little dress catches on fire and her mother rushes in from the other room, where she had been painting.  She puts out the fire but recognizes little Jeannette is in need of medical care.  She borrows a neighbor's car to rush her to the hospital, where she is treated for a few weeks for her burns that cover much of her torso.  Until her father decides he's fed up with doctors and their western medicine.  He decides to check Jeannette out of the hospital "Rex Walls style," grabbing his daughter from her hospital room and heading to a get-away car.  Just one of the anecdotes of Wall's unconventional upbringing.

Unconventional?  Certainly.  Neglectful?  Absolutely.  Abusive?  Too a degree, I'd say.  Many readers would argue that the intensity of the neglect inflicted upon Walls and her three siblings was abuse.  But the children were never beaten by their parents, however, they were put in countless compromising situations that put their mental, emotional, and physical well-being at risk.  Story after story in Walls' arsenal of personal history left my jaw scraping the floor.  I cannot fathom any parent putting their children through the conditions the Walls children had to endure:  not enough food, inadequate clothing, parents splurging money on booze and art supplies instead of providing for basic needs, moving frequently to avoid run-ins with authority, a house so poorly insulated that icicles formed on the inside walls, using a bucket for a toilet inside the kitchen.  It goes on and on and on.  

I was constantly expecting a diagnosis of some mental or emotional disorders for the parents, but it never reached that point.  The children lived with their parents' illogical and selfish choices until they were old enough to fly the coop.  One by one, they left home and went to New York City, where they scraped a living for themselves and finally got to live in a way they chose.  Just when they thought they're getting control of their lives again, Rosemary and Rex follow their children's lead and come to New York, also.  Jeannette has to learn how to deal with her parents in her new life and the new roles she's adapted to.

This book will constantly surprise you.  Truth is stranger than fiction in this case.  And the story-telling is so comfortable for the reader to dive into.  Despite the horrific tales, you can also cheer when Jeannette overcomes her obstacles.  I can't overemphasize how impressed I was with the almost objective way Jeannette recreated her childhood experiences.

"Letters in the Jade Dragon Box" by Gale Sears

"Letters in the Jade Dragon Box"

Micaela recommended this to me, and she read it first, but I got my review up first!  Neener neener!  I read this one because of the biography/memoir kick I'm on.  

Chen Wen-shan is a fifteen-year-old girl living in British Hong Kong in the 1970s.  She lives with her stoic great-uncle and she likes Western culture, specifically cornflakes and rock 'n roll.  One day a messenger delivers a request for Wen-shan and her uncle to visit the Smythes, British museum curators living in Kowloon.  Wen-shan knew of her mother and grandfather still living in mainland communist China, but she had been smuggled to the safety of her great-uncle when she was five years old and she had no memory of her life there.  Mr. Smythe informs Wen-shan and her uncle he had smuggled out a box full of letters from her mother and paintings from her grandfather.  Over the next several months, Wen-shan and her uncle read the letters and view the paintings and learn of Wen-shan's past.

For me, the greatest value of this story, based on real events and people, was the story of the beginnings of communist China and the devastation wreaked  upon tens of millions of people.  It was a history I knew nothing of and I was often moved beyond expression at the horrors inflicted upon the Chinese by Chairman Mao and his socialist regime.  I wondered why on earth I don't remember studying this in school.  How come I know about Hitler and Nazi Germany and concentration camps, but I didn't know about Mao's campaign to make himself a vengeful and all-powerful god to the Chinese?  My naivete baffles and embarrasses me.  I guess that's why we must always seek learning and knowledge.  

"Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt

"Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt

A friend suggested this title to me because she knows I've been interested in biographies/memoirs lately.  I'm really glad she told me about "Angela's Ashes" because it was a gritty, honest story.  It took a little while to get used to McCourt's voice because the style of this book is completely different from the  majority of books I've read.  Once I got used to his cadence I felt I could hear his voice and see through his eyes as he recalled his childhood and adolescent anecdotes.

McCourt was born of Irish parents in New York in 1930.  When his infant sister died, the family returned to Ireland to be close to family.  But survival was a bigger challenge in Ireland than anything they had faced in New York.  McCourt accounts the challenges of growing up in Limerick, Ireland with a Yankee accent and having a father from the north and therefore distrusted in Limerick.  McCourt's father's alcoholism forced the family to live in ruin for years because he drank every rare penny that fell into his hands.

This was one of those books that made me ask myself where do I get off complaining about my insignificant problems when countless people like the McCourts had to endure inexpressible poverty, living life as the dregs of Irish society.  Similar to "Unbroken," this book made me ask myself how much can a man endure and survive and come out of it a decent, compassionate person. People are beautiful, as his is a genuine "diamond-in-the-rough" story.  His words and perceptions could be delicate and insightful despite the coarseness of his environment and upbringing.  Overall I appreciated how he was able to tell his story in a straightforward way, almost charging like a train, saying it how it happened and not thinking too much about it or what it meant.  It was what it was and then there was something new to share.  

One of the things I admire about McCourt's story is he didn't directly say he was hungry or he missed his father.  Just talking about the lack of food and his father's absence was enough for me to feel the keen aches and loneliness.

I'll confess it got a little too raw when he got to his puberty and adolescence and he divulged all the things boys experience during that phase.  I appreciate that it was a part of his development and story, but I wish it hadn't been so prominent the last third of the book.  And I was disappointed by the end.  It made sense to end when McCourt returned to America, but to wrap up the story with a romp with a married woman his first night off the boat's just to conclude with, "Isn't this a great country altogether?"  I mean, really?  I would have expected something with more sincerity and not so base to segue from the first 20-some-odd years of his Irish life to a new start in America.  

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

"Unbroken"

I took AP US History in high school, but I don't remember much at all what I learned about WWII.  And what tidbits I do remember all evolve around the European side of it.  Sadly, most of what I know about America's involvement in the Pacific side of WWII comes from the 2001 movie "Pearl Harbor."  Yup, my familiarity with history is pretty sad.

After several recommendations, I finally decided to try "Unbroken."  I actually had it loaded on my iPod for months and months, but didn't start listening to it until a few weeks ago.  It was a wonderful reading by actor Edward Hermann (I recognized his voice, but looked over his filmography and the only movie of his I've seen is "Overboard"--funny I remember his voice from such an obscure and long-ago appearance).  

"Unbroken" is the life story of Louis Zamperini, a first-generation American born of Italian parents.  He was a hellion as a boy, causing his parents great amounts of angst and frustration.  As a young man, his older brother Pete trained him up as a runner, and he found state- and nation-wide recognition for his achievements on the track, ultimately forming him into an Olympic runner in the Berlin games of 1936.

With the onset of the war Louis was called up to serve as a bombardier and served several successful missions over the Pacific.  One sad day his plane was gunned down and he and two of his crewmen were stranded on a raft in the ocean for 47 days.  They were taken prisoners of war by the Japanese, and the following years of interrogation and POW camps where horrific and difficult to comprehend.  But the Japanese lost and Louis finally went home, believed dead by the military for years.  

His post-war recovery was gruesome, but he finally found hope in Jesus Christ through a tent revival by none other than Billy Graham.  He repaired his life and committed himself to helping troubled boys, much like his brother had helped him when he was young.

The strongest impression I got from this book was, "How much more can a man live through?"  I listened to the audio book, like I've mentioned, and it had a total of 214 tracks.  I kept watching as I progressed through the story as it got more and more incredible, stretching the imagination almost by the minute.  And then I'd see how many tracks were left in the story, my jaw dropping to see how much of the story was left to be told.  Again and again I wondered what else a man could endure and still survive.

I'm not prone to tears when I read, but "Unbroken" brought me close so many times.  The Bird.  That's all I will say.  This book will change the way you think about humanity.

Click here to read Micaela's review of "Unbroken."

"Driven" by Larry H. Miller

"Driven"

Stop number three on the biography train!  Toot toot!  (I know that was a ridiculously cheesy into--but I won't apologize for it!).

I picked up "Driven" because, well, like most books, friends and family had talked about it and made me curious.  And because it was an autobiography, I couldn't help myself.  I did borrow it from a friend, but covered most of the book on audio CD.  Thank heavens for my iPod.  (Tangent:  My hubby bought that for me on Valentine's day when our second child was less than a week old.  He said he knew I would just love it.  Truthfully, I had never once thought an iPod was something I needed.  Even though it's an older model, it does exactly what I need it to do, and it is a wonderful little gadget.  It's even my favorite color--green.)

Larry H. Miller is an iconic figure for the state of Utah.  The funny thing is, I lived in Utah until I was 24 and I didn't realize how far-reaching his business and philanthropic dealings were.  That man, through his goodness of heart and talents, did so much for the state of Utah.  He didn't just own the Utah Jazz and dozens of car dealerships.  He had pet projects that benefited groups as well as individuals.  He really wanted to make the community better.  He wanted to do so much good with his life and money there wouldn't be any more good things to do.  He was an impressive man.

But, like all men, he had significant downfalls.  His biggest shortcoming was fatherhood.  He pretty much missed out on his children's upbringing because he confused being the breadwinner as fulfilling his role as father.  But I think after he realized the magnitude of his mistake, he tried his best to make it up to his adult children.  And his poor wife, Gale, taking care of five children and a busy husband.  But I'll have to say, having the kind of resources that were available to her probably made the near-single-parent mode she endured for so many years a bit easier to shoulder.  

I loved the audio book because the epilogue was written and read by Gale Miller.  It almost seemed her voice cracked with emotion several times, but who am I to say that's not what she normally sounds like.  

The book was published posthumously; Larry Miller died on February 20, 2009.  The book was published in 2010.  Doug Robinson, a Deseret News writer, was working on the book with Larry for the last seven months prior to his death.  

I really recommend this read.  Even if you don't know anything about Utah, or don't really care to learn anything about Utah.  I think Utah and Utahns are a misunderstood group of people, and I think this man's life could teach you a thing or two about that unique and special place.