Ah, another mom book. You would think I would change this blog's title to Distracted by MOM by now, wouldn't you? If only I wasn't a mid-40's man who is confounded by technology I would, but that's for another day.
So you've probably heard of this book by now. It spent 100 weeks on the NY Times best-seller list. It's being adapted into a major motion picture by Paramount (With Claire Danes as Jeanette Walls, fingers crossed!). You're probably all like "Luke, when are you going to review an obscure book that I haven't heard of instead of all this best-seller book club crap?". Well, now that I live very far away from mom and don't have to hear her ask how come I'm not reading all the books she gives me I might get around reading something a little darker, more obscure, and have some things to say about it.
NOT! I love these mom books! Their easy as hell to read, full of apple-ripe juiciness, and use really small words and familiar cliches to keep things movin'.
The Glass Castle is a crazy fucking memoir, and that's the best way to make 'em. Can you imagine reading a memoir about how I lived on an idyllic 3 acre plot and lived a relatively carefree childhood burning caterpillars and jumping off of trampolines into nettle patches (well, can you? and would you be willing to pay 29.95 to relive it?). I know I wouldn't. Snooze Alarm. Boooooooring! But The Glass Castle is different. Replace "idyllic" with "hellacious" and "3 acre plot" with "broken down jalopy" and add on some truly crazy-ass parents and now you're cookin' with memoir-gas.
Notice how I rarely talk about the plots of books? Why is that? It's called niche marketing, dummy. I figure since all the other book review blogs and odds and sods spend most of 90 percent of the time giving away major plot devices, I'd rather just give you the Distracted by Pages treatment. Which is to say, I'm Distracted by Pages (tm) of other books right now that I need to read, so here's the low-down: Fun, crazy memoir with some decent writing, but not a work of art as the cover quote would lead you to believe. Read it in a night or two, or just wait for the movie to come out.
