For a long time, I wasn't interested in reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I think I had read too many memoirs and I was tired of all the "poor me" stories, but after hearing some interviews with the author about her new book, I decided I should listen to the people who recommended it and give it a shot.
Now I can't get it out of my mind. My work as a Guardian Ad Litem exposes me to the lives of people who struggle, but this book was something else all together. The life this child and her siblings experienced is unbelievable and the fact that her parents chose that life for them is even more amazing. But what is truly remarkable is the success Jeanette has experienced despite a childhood of constantly moving, of living in a house with no indoor plumbing and not always being enrolled in school. If you are going to have eccentric parents, it's best that they be voracious readers and encourage inquisitiveness.
Still, the book is well written and is definitely worth getting over an aversion to memoirs to experience.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Brooklyn
I had heard much about the novel, Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, so I requested it from the library. I was able to get it this week and as soon as I did, I devoured it.
Tobin's story is richly told, from the small town of Enniscorthy, Ireland to Brooklyn in the early 1950s. The story centers around Eilis Lacey who is a simple girl living with her mother and sister in Ireland. When the opportunity arises, Eilis heads off to America sponsored by a local priest. As she leaves, she thinks that it is her older sister, Rose, who should really be going, but it is not possible, so she sets of for the journey of a lifetime.
Eilis works in a department store on the sales floor and eventually begins night classes in bookkeeping. She lives in a rooming house, managed by the curious Mrs. Kehoe. Eilis meets an Italian boy, Tony, at a church dance and they begin a romance. Eilis life in Brooklyn is so very different and remote from the life she had in Ireland.
A crisis sends her back to Ireland for a visit and Eilis experiences a pull between the life she has in Brooklyn and the familiar life in Ireland. As she vacillates between which to choose, your heart aches for her - at least it will for anyone who has experienced making the choice of life in the familiar and an independent life where anything is possible.
In the end, I am not sure how I feel about Eilis' decision, but you finish the book hoping the best for her and hoping to see her again.
Tobin's story is richly told, from the small town of Enniscorthy, Ireland to Brooklyn in the early 1950s. The story centers around Eilis Lacey who is a simple girl living with her mother and sister in Ireland. When the opportunity arises, Eilis heads off to America sponsored by a local priest. As she leaves, she thinks that it is her older sister, Rose, who should really be going, but it is not possible, so she sets of for the journey of a lifetime.
Eilis works in a department store on the sales floor and eventually begins night classes in bookkeeping. She lives in a rooming house, managed by the curious Mrs. Kehoe. Eilis meets an Italian boy, Tony, at a church dance and they begin a romance. Eilis life in Brooklyn is so very different and remote from the life she had in Ireland.
A crisis sends her back to Ireland for a visit and Eilis experiences a pull between the life she has in Brooklyn and the familiar life in Ireland. As she vacillates between which to choose, your heart aches for her - at least it will for anyone who has experienced making the choice of life in the familiar and an independent life where anything is possible.
In the end, I am not sure how I feel about Eilis' decision, but you finish the book hoping the best for her and hoping to see her again.
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