Book Summary
The first part of the book is “A Woman on the Street”. Jeannette Walls is sitting in the taxi, she looks out the window and sees her mother digging through trash. Her mother has been homeless for years but at that time Jeannette feels a sense of shame about her mother’s life and then she gets back on her childhood and how her mom and dad’s behaviors affected her and her sibling’s life.
The second part of book is named “The Desert”. This part starts when Jeannette is three year old. She burns herself while making hot dogs. She is hospitalized, but before she is released, her father takes her from hospital without paying the bill. After a few days her father takes the family to a small desert town. The Jeannette’s memories of her life in the desert is about moving to different small mining towns and staying in each town as long as her father can hold a job. At that time she and her brother spend hours to explore the desert. Her mother has inherited a house in Phoenix from her mother, so the family move there and gets some stability in phoenix. Although her father gets a job as an electrician, he loses it because of his alcoholism. Her mother decides to move the family to Welch where her father grew up. She hopes her husband’s family be able to help them.
The third part of the book is about Jeannette’s life in “Welch”. The family life in Welch is more depressing than they think. Her grandmother is an abusive alcoholic woman, and cannot help them. The town is poor with unfriendly people and is not welcome to new comers. Her parents buy an old and damaged house on the top of a hill for the family to live in. When they are living in Welch her father drinking gets worse, he has no job and family have no money and the children experience hungry lots of time. Jeannette is a teenage girl and she understands that her parent’s choices are wrong and she rails against them for being irresponsible. Jeannette and Lori move to New York City to change their life style.
The forth part of book is in “New York City”. Jeannette in New York can find a part time job as reporter which she likes as a goal in her life. She and her sister live in a better life style over there and enjoy their new lives. Brian and Maureen also join them. Their parents move to New York City but they don’t accept their children help. Lori, Jeannette and Brian are able to have jobs and make new lives. Maureen has some problem to take care of herself and finally goes to a mental institution. Her father at the age of sixty dies from a heart attack because of long time drinking alcohol and smoking cigarette.
The ending part of book is “Thanksgiving”. The family gets together in Jeannette’s house and remember their memories and talking about their father’s dream.