The Glass Castle

I believe that a good piece of literature is a book that hooks you in the beginning and gets straight to the point. And then throughout the book you do not get bored and stay interested throughout the entire book. The Glass Castle is a perfect example of good literature, it is a memoir written by Jeanette Walls, it follows the story of Walls and her siblings poverty stricken childhood. In which they travel all around the country in hopes of finding a stable home. But often leave after a few days because the towns do not like her father. She begins the novel with a present day version of her family in which Jeanette now lives in a nice apartment in New York City. In the first scene, in the present day, she sees her mother and immediately faces the other way in order to avoid seeing her. It is clear that she is embarrassed over the fact that her mother is still in fact homeless and fighting to just find food each day. This immediately hooks the reader once you realize that this is not the time period that they story will be based in. it soon switches to the past, and Jeanette's childhood. The book flows through her roller coaster childhood and shows how sometimes you don't need objects that seem to be important in the moment to be a happy person. Her family’s tale immediately drags the reader into reading more of the story. it almost seems as though the story is not real and that the story is not being told is the real one. In the end The Glass Castle is the perfect example of good literature because the reader is never bored throughout the story and it continuously surprises the reader of what has happened within her life. It is clear the The Walls children did not have the childhood that many of us in Westport had, and that is why I believe it qualifies as a good piece of literature. Although the reader may not always be able to relate to what is going on in the story they can follow it and sympathize with the family.
Vicky Orlin