Author: Jeannette Walls
Published: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 352
Rating: 3/5
Summary:
In this startling memoir, we meet Jeannette Walls as a child and get to follow her incredible life in the American Southwest before eventually moving to New York and becoming a successful journalist.
Review:
Wow, this was an incredibly vivid and engaging book.
The story is written quite straightforward which works really well; Walls' experience of her childhood is almost unbelievable and doesn't need anything added to it. Just telling the stories she remembers is quite enough, and it's impressive how much she remembers from very early on. I also think she's very good at capturing the story from a child's perspective, and bringing life to the places they went and the people she was around.
Although I think Walls' is good at bringing life to her childhood from a young perspective, I found I got angrier and more frustrated the further into the book I got, and at the end I felt that everything was tied together far too quickly. I would've liked to see Walls' express what she thinks of her childhood now and reflect a bit on what happened. I'm sure she must've felt all sorts of emotions for her parents, other than just love and acceptance, and that tiny bit of shame we get to see as she reached adulthood and independence. It felt a bit as if we just got straight to the acceptance part without all the stuff that it takes to get there, which I think is a bit of a shame.
That being said, as I'm sure you can see, I've given this book 3 stars, but maybe it deserves 4 because it really is very, very good and very much worth the read, especially if you enjoy memoirs. It's unflinching, raw and striking.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
