The Glass Castle - A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

With a memoir, the plot is kind of a given - would anyone read a book about a normal, uneventful life?

Jeannette's parents prefer the laissez faire style of parenting, which is putting it lightly (I stole that quote from the Amazon.com review, but it is just so perfect). The story begins with Jeannette hospitalized at the age of three when her dress catches fire during her cooking of hotdogs, an activity her parents fully endorse, even after their daughter is critically injured. She is in the hospital for weeks while the doctors graft her skin, but when children's services starts to close in her father "skedaddles" her out of the hospital early and they flee to a new town. Her father later says that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

That's only one of the many dangerous, ridiculous, ill-advised (insert your own adjective) experiences she relates throughout the book. I usually don't like memoirs because the prose is overly dramatic for describing supposed "real life" events, or the author is overly whiny, or try to make you laugh at his/her misfortunes. This book is none of the above - Jeannette sees their homelessness and poverty as an adventure, and believes every word of her parents' aburdities, until she begins to grow older and starts to realize her parents' selfishness and probable mental illness (my words, not hers) are compromising her and her siblings.

I really enjoyed her matter-of-fact writing style. I would recommend this to anyone who likes memoirs, but also to someone who is looking for an easy one. It's a pretty quick read, under 300 pages, split into very short (3-5 page) chapters