"the glass castle" by jeannette walls

"the glass castle" is another one of those jaw-dropping hard-to-believe-it's-true memoirs. however, it's compelling and moving and well-written and easy to read.

jeannette walls' childhood involved getting severely burnt at the age of 4 when cooking hot dogs for herself, making her own braces, colouring her legs with markers in an attempt to hide the holes in her pants, sewing a gash in her father's arm with needle and thread, eating food found in trash cans at school and sleeping in a cardboard box. to say her parents were laissez-faire would be an understatement; the walls' believing in self-sufficiency and learning from your mistakes. often full of tales of neglect and abuse, jeannette never plays the victim and the story comes off as a unique and entertaining memoir overflowing with life lessons and truths.