Book Club

We had our book club last week at Angie's house, where we discussed "The Glass Castle." It was an amazing tale.

She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure."

Before she wrote this book, Ms. Walls graduated from Barnard with honors and worked as a gossip columnist for E! and MSNBC. You would think that someone who came from such a dysfunctional, poverty-stricken family wouldn't live that differently from how she was raised, let alone live on Park Avenue with a celebrity life. (She has since retired to the countryside with her husband.)

The parents in this story were tragic characters, as they were absolutely brilliant people stunted by paranoia, apathy, and alchoholism. By the grace of God their children survived and made something of themselves.

It made me wonder how many people I know in this world, that I know at this certain point--how many came from unspeakable backgrounds? Or at least uncoventional backgrounds? When I speak with the assumption that everyone thinks or feels the same as I do, because of shared experiences--how many times am I wrong?

Our next book is "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl.