Half Broke Horses: Jeannette Walls

The author tells the story of her grandmother's life in 1st person. It was an excellent read, the narrator's mother was so insensitive and helpless. I like that Lily at 8 years old was wiser than her mother whose solution to everything was to pray. Lily says "If God gave us the strength to bail- the gumption to try to save ourselves- isn't that what he wanted us to do?" and later in the book "Who the hell was he to tell me what I had to believe?...One of the problems with the world today was all the muttonheads...convinced they were the only ones who had the answers and killing everyone who didn't agree with them." After he little sister's death she says "When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all They're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind." I can't imagine a lot of the things she did- riding her horse from Texas to Arizona 28 days to her new job- driving he dead father back to the ranch to be buried and having to beg gas the whole way. She was an amazing, determined woman. It also seemed like she was rarely at their house- she didn't see her husband much with teaching in other towns, sleeping with her daughter, and schooling. The book slowy transforms into being about Rosemary, which the author explains in the end. A very good read.