The Glass Castle- Jeannette Walls

This was an absolutely amazing read! One of the best memoirs I have ever came across. It compelled me so much that I spent most of my time reading it instead of doing all the assigments that have been piling up...
The story opened with Jeannette on the way to an event in NYC, and saw her mother, scavenging for things in the bin. She lived in Park Avenue while her mother was homeless, and so was her father. You would think at the beginning, how cruel a daughter could be, to let her parents live like that, while she lived in a lavish upscale apartment.
And then the story unfolds...

The Walls family was made up of Rex and Rose Mary Walls and their four children, Lori, Brian, Jeannette, and Maureen. This family of four led extremely impoverished lives and never really had a home, and was always uprooting from one place to another, from Nevada to Phoenix to West Virgina, and finally to NYC.

This was a dysfunctional family with parents who were just a tad too eccentric to raise any family. The children often went without food, proper clothes, and even electricity. But all these didnt bother Rose Mary, who thought this was an adventure. And that such conditions would make all of them tougher, and less like those city kids who were too comfortable for their own good.

I did like Rex Walls even though he was an impossible drunk. You could tell he was an extremely smart man, who could really do anything he wanted if he had put his heart to it. He made blueprints for a Glass Castle that he had promised to build Jeannette, he talked about quantum physics, he invented equipment that could sieve for gold, etc. But he was always drinking and getting into trouble at work, and could never hold down a proper job. I also think he was perhaps a little schizo, often thinking that the government was against him and going on "spying" missions against the government. But you knew he loved Jeannette, his mountain goat, and Jeannette often looked up to him as a kid.

But as Jeannette grew up, she began to realise that this was not the way to be living. She forced her mother to get a proper job so that they could lead normal lives. Her mother eventually relented and worked as a teacher in an elementary school. What was memorable was that there was once when her mother had to be away for a course, and Jeannette became the replacement mother. She had often wondered why it was that her mother could never manage the household expenses properly, and during this period, she realised it was her father. Like her mother, she could not say no to her father's request for money for alcohol and cigarettes. And that was why there was never ever enough money to go around in the home.

In her adolescence, she began to see her parents for who they were and knew she had to do something if she wanted to have a chance to lead a normal life. She and Lori began plotting to leave the home for New York City. They found work and managed to save up a sum of money and told their parents of their plans. Alas, their plans were sabotaged by their father when he took away all their hard earned money. It was his ploy of preventing them from leaving because he did not want the family to break up. Eventually Jeannette through her babysitting job, found a ticket to NYC but she gave it to Lori. Lori up and left. She started planning and saving for her escape route. Came the day she was able to leave, and her father, once again took out his blueprint for the Glass Castle and persuaded Jeannette not to leave. That life could be great in their little mining town and that he would work to make the Glass Castle a reality. It was very touching and heartbreaking. Jeannette refused to believe in her father anymore, and she had every single right to do so.

She left and lived with Lori in NYC. She managed to enroll in an Ivy League school with a scholarship and loan and was well on her way to a good lot in life. Then her parents came and even though by then, they all had their own apartments, they wanted their parents to stop being leeches and fend for themselves. Their parents became homeless. Her mother again thought this was an adventure and liked living like that. After a few years, when Rose Mary's brother died, did Jeannette realise that all along, her mother had a piece of land, that was possibly worth a million dollars. It was like a slap in the face. There they were rummaging through garbage for food, living without electricity and sanitation, while her mother was sitting on a million dollars all the while.

Jeannette's father eventually died and I couldnt help sobbing. He was proud of Jeannette and somehow, always managed to work into his conversation with people how he had a daughter in an Ivy League college. When he heard that Jeannette might have to drop out of college because she could not afford the fees, he told her not to worry  and that he would keep her in college somehow. One night he brought a bag full of cash that he won from poker and gave to Jeannette. That was how Jeannette paid her fees. During her convocation, she told her father not to come because he would embarrass her with his drinking problem and bad behaviour. He agreed. That was how much he loved his daughter but I guess he couldnt save himself to be able to give her and his children what they needed.

This book was full of emotions. You cant help feeling excited, intrigued, sad, happy, going through the pages, and be in awe and admiration of the person that Jeannette is. Such a fantastic read. I would highly recommend to everyone.

A Happy Marriage- Rafael Yglesias

I had a bit of trouble spelling the author's name. Got this book during Border's sale for perhaps $5 or $2. How could such a great book come at such a low price?? This a love story (not exactly in that romantic sense) that spanned 30 years, and it uncannily resembled the author's own life. The story began with Enrique and Margaret meeting for the first time, at his home. And so boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl falls in love, and you get the picture. Margaret and Enrique got married, had a child, and that's when the marriage fell apart. Margaret was too tired with the baby to attend to Enrique and because of the lack of attention he was getting, he had an affair. All these are just too familiar isn't it? We hear these stories all the time- that women focused all their attention on their children and then the men get up to some monkey businesses, just because he doesn't get as much attention as before. That is pretty unfair. Given all the hard work a woman puts into bearing and raising a child (not forgetting getting fat), a man should chip in his efforts and stop being a selfish, attention-seeking child. And that was exactly what Enrique was.
Enrique thought he did not love Margaret anymore and told her about the affair. They went for marriage counselling and Margaret broke. That surprised Enrique. He had thought Margaret did not love him anymore as well. They decided to give the marriage another go and later, when Margaret was diagnosed with cancer, Enrique then realised how much he loved Margaret and could not bear the idea of losing her. That was pretty sad. You only realised how much you love someone when that person is dying. By then, things could be a little too late but perhaps, not that late as well.
Enrique put on his best behaviour, caring for Margaret, becoming her nurse. In sickness, there is often very little dignity. Because you have lost the ability to care for yourself, you have lost the ability to project the image that you want others to see. People see you for who you are, in all your nakedness.
This was a simple yet compelling read. Everything was about ordinary people, ordinary lives, even their love was ordinary yet exceptional at the same time. It hits very close to home and makes it all very real.

The Winner Stands Alone- Paulo Coelho

This book mainly talks about showbiz and how seemingly superficial and materialistic that world is. The story was set in Cannes, during the film festival. Thousands of people flocked to this part of France to hopefully, get lucky with someone rich to help them along in their lives, to help them get into the world of the "superclass". The superclass is the class of rich men and women, with fame and power- the class that glittered like diamonds and gold.
A Russian mogul, Igor, came to Cannes to "send a message" to his ex-wife, who had left him for someone else. His idea of a message, unfortunately, revolved around the concept of killing others to prove his love. His actions did not win back the love of his wife and he soon, was disillusioned by his love for this woman, whom in his opinion, had left him for fame and adoration. However, the truth was that his wife left him because he was always too busy in acquiring wealth, and he had a terrible cruel streak in him- killing people when he deemed them as being an inconvenience to him.
I didnt quite like this book, as compared to The Alchemist. Although there were moral undertones in this book, it all seemed a little too much of a cliche. Yes we do know some industries are superficial and obsessed with things that are fleeting, but they will continue to exist because of the vanity streak in human beings. We like and seek beautiful things, even though we know nothing material in this world lasts, and beautiful things can only satisfy you that much. Still, that is what we pursue to help ease the burden we carry on our shoulders, to take our mind away for just an instance, the ugliness we see everyday.

Castle in the Pyrenees- Jostein Gaarder

I haven't been able to find much books by him in Singapore. Loved Sophie's World and Solitaire Mystery. Fascinating read if you like philosophy. I wanted very much to review this book as it touched on some of the things I'm interested in. For instance, the big bang, and how we are all, interconnected in some ways. We are made of the same material that started this world- stardust. Like many other people in the world., it questioned the existence of one earth, which I feel is rather improbable, given the number of galaxies and planets and stars in existence. How could it be out of the billions of stars/planets out there, only one planet in one galaxy had the right conditions to create life? The probability is 1/100,000,000? Imagine that?! There are two main characters in the book, one (Solrunn) who believes in the spiritual world, and the other, a professor (Steinn), who believes only in science. I am not a deeply spiritual person but neither do I believe that only science is able to explain things. And just because you can't prove something now, doesn't mean that something doesn't exist; it could mean that you just havent found what you are looking for. Anyway both Solrunn and Steinn believed that they had killed an old lady while they were travelling on a highway. However, the old lady appeared to them, making Solrunn believe that the lady was someone from the afterlife, while Steinn believed she was just a figment of their imagination. This split in their beliefs caused them to drift apart. They each later married someone else and had kids, and somehow reunited at the place where they had stayed in, before they killed the old lady. What was chilling at the end of the story was that Solrunn thought she heard the old lady say to her when she appeared to them,"I am what you will become", while Steinn heard the old lady say,"you ought to get a speeding ticket, young lad". And strangely, Solrunn did end up being like the old lady. She wore a pink shawl that the old lady was wearing at the time of her death and was later, killed in an accident on her way to meeting Steinn. In essence, yes, she did become the old lady. Could it have been a vision of herself in the future? Had she somehow managed to glimpse her own destiny? This is an intriguing read although Sophie's World is still better.

Catching up on books

Had read a couple of books recently..as usual my failing memory might not be able to recall the full spectrum of what I had read but here's what I remember:

as the title suggests, the story tells us about the lives of 2 immigrants, Ananda and Nina, who had moved from India to settle in Canada. I've read pretty similar books by other Indian authors, which basically also revolved around the same theme of Indian migrants in North America. All of them had been great reads, and this book was no exception. Ananda desperately tried to integrate into the North American's way of life, and to some extent, I think he despised his own status as an Indian immigrant. His insecurities about his sexual abilities and perhaps, even his own nationality, drove him into an obsession of bedding white women. Not knowing all these about Ananda, Nina, seduced by a better life in Canada,  agreed to marry him. It sounded much like Nina had won a good lot in life, as Ananda was a dentist, and seemed to be relatively well-off. And so she moved to Canada, and was instantly bored by her life there as a housewife, with barely any friends. In India, she had been an English teacher with a profound love of books. After years in Canada and not being able to fulfil her dream of being a mother (largely due to Ananda's impotence), she finally decided to take up a degree in Library Science and subsequently had an affair with a married man. She had also found out about Ananda's affair with a white woman. In the end, she lived her life independently of any men.

Had also read Jostein Gaarder's Castle in the Pyrenees; Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook; Jeanette Wall's The Glass Castle, etc. I will continue my reviews on those at a later time.

Richard Paul Evans- The Last Promise

This was a rather corny and run-of-the-mill read. It reminded me a little of Nicholas Sparks but without a dose of passion. Eliana, a small town girl from Utah, married a handsome and rich Italian man (Maurizio), and moved to Tuscany, one of the most beautiful regions in Italy. Most would think her life was a fairy tale. Really, who doesnt love the idea of handsome italian men, a beautiful wine region, and an old and large villa to boot. Eliana, shortly after marriage, gave birth to a son, Alessio, who suffered from frequent and severe asthma attacks. Her life wasn't all that great as Maurizio turned out to be a selfish, philandering boor, who was hardly ever home.
Then came a good-looking American, Ross Story, who rented an apartment in her estate and they soon fell in love with each other. But it was not an easy journey of course (there would be  no story otherwise!). Maurizio refused to let Eliana leave and threatened custody of Alessio. But of course all ended well in this story, with Maurizio becoming a changed man after almost losing Alessio, while he was in his care. Maurizio and Eliana divorced and she returned to Utah with Alessio. Ross was gone because Eliana had told him to when Maurizio threatened to take Alessio away from her if she leaves with Ross.
Years later, they met again and well, they lived happily ever after.
Sorry to say, it's quite a boring read. A great disappointment to The Sunflower. I remembered The Sunflower was quite a touching and sweet read.

Tony Parsons-Men from the Boys

Wanted to do this review for a while but just couldnt find the time to. Alas, I've again forgotten most part of the story. But I will try to the best of my ability to recall the story, while in the midst of trying to write up a seminar critique for school.
Although the book did not get off to a good start, after a few more turns of the pages, it turned out to be a wonderful read. I wouldnt say it is an exciting book per se, but it does make you want to read on. It gives you a glimpse into the leads' lives that were beginning to fall apart. After Harry's divorce to Gina, he was married to Cyd, a gorgeous woman with a thriving food catering business. Harry had custody of his son, Pat, now a teenager, who was being constantly bullied in school and who had had a crush on one of the popular girls. Things got a little complicated when Gina, the MIA mother decided to return to town, and build a bond with her son. It was then that Harry met an old veteran, who had been his father's platoon mate during the "Italian" war. Not long after, Harry lost his job, and his life began to unravel. Cyd eventually left him coz he was not bringing home the bacon and was squandering away on horses (taught by the veteran; i forgot his name unfortunately!). I cant really put my finger on it but I find the story bittersweet. Harry felt somewhat obligated to the veteran and perhaps, was also trying to find his father in the veteran. To perhaps make up for what had been lost between him and his father. Pat grew close to the old man as well, and was there for him, at his deathbed. Pat gained a grandfather.
I find this scenario very close to heart and rather heart-wrenching. There were times when I see an old lady and was reminded of my late grandmother. And I would feel as if I should do something for this old lady to make up for what I had not done for my grandma.
It is not a good feeling living with regrets but sometimes, we tend to forget the consequences of our actions whilst we are performing them. So easy to forget. So easy to be slipshod with ourselves and others around us.
I have been thinking a lot about the elderly these days, especially those with no kin and are not able to support themselves due to poor physical health. I feel we should do more for this group of people that most have neglected because they can no longer contribute economically to the society. This is a very sad and hard truth that most of us can only see values in materialism. I ought to do more..