![]() But while some writers cushion their harder-to-believe stories, Walls leans into the absurdity of her childhood. We all have stories that ring false to outsiders because they contain unlikely events or a turn of luck. ![]() I don’t care whether Walls’s stories are strictly “true.” Memoirists can take liberties. Some reviewers have questioned her memory-how accurately do you remember your time as a three-year-old?-but I won’t. Walls writes herself as a rational and well-spoken three-year-old. She’s taken to the hospital, but her father sneaks her out early to avoid paying. The Glass Castle opens as a three-year-old Jeannette Walls boils hotdogs for dinner and accidentally sets herself on fire. True to genre, The Glass Castle is a litany of obstacles in the form of abusive, neglectful parents and grinding poverty. Memoirists can paint their histories however they choose, but it’s near impossible for misery porn to not be a self-indulgent humble-brag: Look how independent I was look how I persevered. Misery porn is a sub-genre of memoir built around the thesis: My childhood was worse than yours, but I’m going to be cavalier about it so you know how tough I am. ![]() The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is misery porn. ![]()
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