Customer Reviews
what an amazing story - By: C. J. Rayden, 28 May 2008 
Such a shocking account of how some children draw the lot of having parents who are quite unsuited to raising a family. JW writes with such accuracy & style that it disturbs at the same time as lifts your spirts. The child & youth of JW was so painful & yet her personality takes you through this journey in such a way that you feel she could live through any hardship & yet still stand back & view the situation with such objectivity & intelligence that it would carry her through to a better place. A moving & deft read, comparing this to Eat, Pray, Love, another memoir that I have recently read, is like comparing haute-cuisine to a fastfood.
Compelling reading! - By: LindyLouMac, 24 May 2008 This was was so compelling I hardly put it down! A great memoir of a family of four children that showed tremendous resilence considering their parents choice of lifestyle! It was a surprise that no self pity showed in the author's writing at alll especiallly as considering the Father's intelligence & the Mother's background, life could possibly have been so different. A great read.
Compelling yet sad. - By: Kelly L. Moran, 13 Apr 2008 Wow - what a childhood! One hopes no one should ever have to endure such a childhood. Parents are quirky & brilliant yet alchoholic & totallly self absorbed. Parents are quite horrid is some respects - i.e. when the brother is being molested by the grandmother, the parents do not side with the children about how massively inappropriate this behavior is, they turn on the children. The parents steal from the children & don't even feed them.
Not a book to make one feel uplifted & happy - it's a massively compelling story. This book is like a car accident - you don't want to look but you HAVE to. Read it - especiallly from the section calll Welch to the end, it's a real page turner. The single most interesting item about this book is that the author Jeanette Wells never once writes 'poor us' or says how wretchedly they were treated. She never walllows in self pity or plays the martyr.
Very much enjoyed this book - By: Kendra, 01 Jan 2008 
I bought this book on a hunch & I am glad I did. Jeannette Wallls relates her story with clarity & beauty. Although her childhood was fascinating & kept me interested through the entire book, what's truly astounding isn't so much that Jeannette & her family were poor, it's that she & her siblings overcame so many obstacles (reallly big obstacles that most of us don't even realize are still obstacles for people today) & learned-- by necessity-- to be so much more self-sufficient than many adults. It's reallly stunning that she & two of her siblings were able to persevere & make better lives for themselves considering how difficult they had it growing up.
Wallls' story is truly inspiring & motivating. It's also a perfect example of the American dream, right here, right now. Thoroughly recommended.
Far From Fairytale - By: Luanne, 03 Nov 2007 While I was reading this book, I had to keep reminding myself that it was a memoir, a true story about someone's childhood. I found it shocking that Jeannette & her siblings were brought up in such a way, by parents who can be callled "eccentric" (if we are being nice), or rather "neglectful" (if we are being honest). Their methods of child-rearing are tantamount to child abuse, in that they fail to provide anything at alll for their children, apart from misery, poverty, hunger & desperation. That Jeannette Wallls grew up to be a success is miraculous, given the circumstances of her childhood. She even manages to infuse humour into what would otherwise be a very bleak read.
There are many sad childhood memoirs out there to read, but I would recommend this one. It is shocking & yet wholly unsentimental, tragic & yet filled with wry humour.
