R.O.A.R.

THE REVIEW:
The book title to me is the perfect description of the book. The book is much like a glass castle. At first you think of how amazing it would be to life in such an edifice and are utterly enthralled with the concept of living in a glass castle.


Then after a while, the reality of your outlandish daydream spits in your face like Pumpkin at New York. With spittle trickling down your face questions run through your mind like, 'How will I change my clothes?', what if I accidentally drop something, will the whole thing tumble to the ground?', 'do they make glass insulation?', 'Will I be like a GI Joe in the hot summer sun under magnifying glass?'

The book can be divided into 2 halves. The first half is very insightful into the resourceful life of 4 youngsters whose parents, with only minimal parenting defects, manage to not only survive but enjoy life. The second half of the book contains the fast slide of the parents from innocent negligence to blatantly damaging their children and as a reader it quickly becomes a chore to trudge through such pointless depression.

It was nice to see in the end the kids were not living as their parents had and that career wise have been somewhat successful (If you consider a gossip columnist success).

MEMOIRS AS A CLASS OF LITERATURE:
Now on to my greater issue... Why would someone write a memoir? I completely understand writing one for posterity's sake, but to publish it for the world to read, seems arrogant. If your life is so interesting, why isn't someone knocking at your door to write your biography? I'm not sure I consider this a legitimate class of literature. If you write a private memoir that somehow is published after your death by someone else, that is one thing, but to publish your life story is merely an attention seeking behavior. I'm sure the author having spent her life documenting the mundane lives of celebrities simply wanted a chance to be in the spotlight. I would rather see her act up like Miss Lohan or shave her head like Britney, than waste my time by writing a 300 page book to exploit her abused childhood.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM READING 'THE GLASS CASTLE':
1)FIRST, If I am going to read another memoir, I will first find out how and who published it. If it was self-published, I refuse to read it.
2)LASTLY, If I'm going to read about someone's life, I will first research how they have contributed to society.