Book Review Monday

I've recently been somewhat "memoir-ed out". That is, it seems anyone with any kind of story has come out with a memoir lately and they just seem to be trying to out-do one another. And then some authors have come clean about lying in their memoirs, which makes me want to avoid the entire genre altogether. However, my boyfriend's mom sent this book to me and I could not put it down for one minute! This is the story of Jeannette Walls growing up in a somewhat non-traditional family. Her parents are together, but they have a hard time finding and keeping work. Jeannette and her siblings are forced to mostly fend for themselves in the world, on occasion starving, digging trash out of the garbage or stealing food from various locations. Her parents are not very concerned with raising kids, and do so in a most unusual way. Parts of the book were outrageous, like when the kids find a diamond ring in some junk and take it home to their mom, thinking they can pawn it for some food and supplies, but their mom just keeps the ring, saying it makes up for the ring their father made her pawn years before. My descriptions of this book fall short of truly describing how wonderful this work really is. The story is told in short, sometimes ironic fashion. Most of the stories are unbelievable, yet somehow believable, if that makes any sense. The author asks for no sympathy, but allows the reader to empathize with her plight in growing up. There are many situations with which I identified, even though my upbringing was quite traditional. Altogether, I highly recommend this book - you will not be able to put it down!