This is a memoir of Jeannette Walls upbringing by two disfunctional parents. I was avoiding this book as I expected another dreadful Frank McCourt slog through misery. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Walls' parents did neglect their 4 kids, but there was a lot of fun and good memories too. I don't suggest that anything in their upbringing was justified anything but just meaning that the book is readable and stays with you, but doesn't deliver permanent scars to the reader's soul) . The parents were dreamers and the mother depressed or bipolor and the father was an alcoholic. They hung on percariously moving constantly on a whim or when the situation was untenable. Finally, as the children fled to make their own way in New York, the parents followed and became homeless willingly. The mother actually had property worth millions, but did not want to sell it.
This is a must read because it is unique in it's subject matter, treatment and readability. Wall's writing is amazing, in so many ways. It is a fast read, every word essential and interesting. The editing is rigorous and skillful. The style is unique and consistent. There is a consistency of design like Jane Austen or Frank Lloyd Wright. Walls describes the facts and some feelings, and through the action.
Other books about bad/odd parents:
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress ** by Rhoda Janzen
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