Upon Reading First 50 Paged of The Glass Castle

Image via Wikipedia It's always struck me that people who are more reticent to ride on roller coasters seem to have rockier lives, or at least that seems to be their self-perception.

It's also struck me that those of us who have had relatively functional childhoods are somewhat fascinated by the sometimes extreme dysfunctional childhoods of others, while those of us who have had sometimes extreme dysfunctional childhoods are somewhat uncomfortable reading about them; yet it is exactly the people discussed in such books as The Glass Castle, who seem to have the best coping strategies when the shit hits the fan. They would probably be the best people to have in your foxhole, whether video game related or not.

Media heaves with psychological problems, feeding the public's never-ending appetite for it. With so many shows about people who are being buried alive by hoarding, and similar issues, TV has come to be a bit oppressively dysfunctional. On the other end of the reality TV spectrum, shows like Real Housewives on Bravo give some of us our Sex-In-The-City-bling fix, while we can still marvel that even they, with all of their purported money, have problems.  Books touted on TV and best seller lists drip with real life terror, yet when any number of them are "exposed" as "fake," they seemingly shake our societal "faith" in what documentaries, docudramas and non-fiction actually are. Is this how we're experiencing our own reality - through their fake-real lense?

So we come to The Glass Castle, a disturbing look at extreme childhood abuse in so many forms it makes one cringe. A young girl having rocks picked from her face with pointy nosed pliers. Children forced to sit locked in a U-Haul trailer for 14 hours straight. Children going hungry for a day while your parents gamble in a casino, only to be given a piece of beef jerky to munch on afterward. Sweet Jesus.

We can all empathize with those who have gone through the terror, hunger, pain and suffering of extreme childhoods. Was this story "worthy" of being written? Most definitely. In recording these stories, hopefully we can then act as a society to curtail them. 

Would I recommend this book to others? No, not based on what I've read thus far. While I feel for the author and her siblings, it would be difficult for me to inflict that pain on others in the reading.  This is all to say that I'm profoundly saddened by this book, and I still have 238 more pages to go.

Did you read this book? What are your thoughts?

UPDATE: (11:29 pm) I've finished the book and agree with my assessment above. That being said, I'm heartened to read another story of my alma mater, Barnard College at Columbia University, being the transformative pivot point in a young woman's life. Such stories never cease to amaze me, and make me somewhat emotional.  Playing out one's childhood themes through the rest of one's life also continues to amaze me.