April 2011: The Glass Castle (Walls)

Post date: Apr 20, 2011 4:20:48 PM

Jane hosted a smaller-than-usual group for our discussion of The Glass Castle on Aprile 19th. All of us found the book interesting and compelling, and were struck by the absolute lack of self-pity or anger in Walls' memoir.

We started with some discussion of her writing style, narrative choices and various incidents in her life, moved on to musings about her relationship with her parents and siblings, and then branched off. We stayed relatively close to the book's topics for awhile, discussing child protective services, mechanisms for survival of challenging childhoods, insanity and genetics, and life in the Appalachians (with hair-raising stories from Karen about teaching college in rural Kentucky). As is often the case, these topics led to others, and we eventually ended up talking about house rules for various generations at Smith, posture pictures and the associated class, which evidently sought to improve not just your posture, but your physical skills in general. Of the alumnae present who had attended during the era of pictures and class, MaryAnn only remembers a relaxation method, while Jane said she used their technique for getting up out of chairs for many years, and Patricia retained the most of all: how to relax, how to walk in high heels, how to gracefully get your luggage into an overhead luggage rack.