Alright, let me preface by saying that I did get through 50 pages. But I fell asleep literally every 5 pages (sometimes several times every five pages).
I had initially picked up this “memoir” when a friend of mine gave it 5 stars (or something in that ballpark) aka they loved it. Well, I was trying to be open to new genres and decided to try it. I hated it. It wasn’t really a hate that was spontaneous, but rather evolved slowly over the course of the 50 pages I struggled through that was constantly exacerbated by something new every page. In ways, it reminded me of Lolita, except the characters were less interesting, and the whole thing seemed uncalled for (unlike the infamous novel). Seriously, what was Jeannette Walls’ real motive for writing this book? Sure she says that it is to tell everyone about her parents, but (this is slightly rude) do I, as another human being who knows nothing about you or your life, care that much to read almost 300 pages reflecting on your parents and your childhood? Sorry, but the answer is no. I really don’t care about what happened, because from the very get-go, the book tried to be sad. It was very intent on setting up a “depressing melancholic mood” that was accompanied by overtly pretentious writing that was a strange slushie of Steinbeck and Hemingway, and definitely not in a good way. And that is definitely one of my pet peeves.
Okay, if I wanted to continue to talk about everything I didn’t like about the book, I could probably write 2 pages for every single page I read, but instead I will give you a checklist. If you like a majority of the stuff on the list, then go ahead, you will probably enjoy the book a lot more than me. If not, then I would recommend to skip this one.
- Several smaller individual stories that seek to build a bigger picture, but the order is not strictly linear (somewhat confusing, but might be appealing if you like piecing together a story).
- Can have some good moments in terms of writing and character development.
- Interesting incorporation of the title, though in my opinion, a bit too obvious.
- First person narrative (pretty self-explanatory).
- Reflective pieces on morals and the distant past.
- People talking about themselves.
- Like at least 4 of the above.
Overall: F (1 Star) – I am not going to bother to do the typical breakdown, because then that would complicate things since I have not yet finished it, but instead I will just tell you my final feelings on this book.
I think the main reason why I don’t like it is due to the hype surrounding it. Going into the book, I had expected it to be life-changing or at least introduce a new perspective. Instead, I just got annoyed and dreaded having to read the book. While it does have some good points, they are not enough to outweigh the negatives.
strangertogravity 