The Desert

           From reading this book, my first impression of Jeanette's parents is that they neglect her. As a three year old she burns herself badly while trying to make herself hotdogs. How many three year olds have to make themselves lunch when they are hungry? While her parents may seem like they neglect her, it is clear as the book progresses how much affection they have for their daughter. They lead a lifestyle where they are constantly on the move which leads to the children becoming independent at a very young age. Jeanette, her older sister Lori, her younger brother Brian, and their mother and father are constantly on the move keeping mostly to small mining towns in Arizona, Nevada, or California. I think that it would be an interesting life living in the desert and constantly traveling but I think it would, as the reader eventually learns, become tiresome and a difficult life. With Jeanette Walls start to this memoir I am sure that this book will keep me hooked until the very end.