Publication: New York
P: Why did you choose this book? What were your expectations? Why did you expect what you did? How is the book living up to your expectations?
R: I chose to begin reading this book because I remember freshman year in Ms. Bergman's class we read a chapter from this novel. I remember the shocking element that the excerpt had in finding out that a three-year-old had been given permission to cook hot dogs in boiling water by herself. Not to mention the fact that her tutu caught on fire shortly after this leaving her in the hospital for six weeks. I've always been curious about the novel, and when I saw Micah Castle reading it the other day I asked if I could borrow it. My expectations for the novel were simply hopes for an explanation of this oddball life style Jeanette Walls seems to have lived. Which, in beginning the book, I have began to receive just that. The book has continued to shock me and I wonder how much of it is truly from her memory and which parts may be slight exaggerations. For example her detailed description of her Tinkerbell doll's melting face as "her once perfect little nose had completely disappeared, and her saucy red lips had been replaced with an ugly, lopsided smear" (16). Either way it doesn't seem to matter because her writing has proven quite convincing. It's hard to imagine someone making the things she says up. So far, I really enjoy her style of writing in the way she presents seemingly shocking moments as almost unimportant to her. It's as if she wants the reader to take it or leave it because that's exactly how her parents raised her.
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