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Walls delves into her ancestry in ‘true-life novel’
(by Jennifer Alexander - January 06, 2010)
Jeannette Walls surprised many in 2005 with the huge success of her memoir The Glass Castle. The book is a painfully honest account of her unusual childhood, a story of extreme poverty and neglect that captivated millions of readers. From the toddler Jeannette setting herself on fire as she cooks hot dogs to the adult Jeannette recognizing her homeless mother on the streets of New York sifting through trash, The Glass Castle holds your attention.
According to multiple national interviews, Walls was astonished at the reaction to her story. She thought that people might be shocked and repelled. Instead they were shocked and fascinated. The book’s popularity cannot be attributed simply to interest in the misery of others. Walls writes in the first person with a voice so free from bitterness or self-pity that readers sense a happy ending from the start. Her ability to remember parental shortcomings and the love in her family transforms the book from tragedy to a triumph over adversity story.
Walls tells another tale of overcoming hardship in Half Broke Horses. It is the story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Because the book is somewhere between oral history and imaginative fiction, it is billed as a true-life novel.
Half Broke Horses is written in the voice of Smith. Walls adopts the folksy style of her grandmother, writing in short chapters of straightforward prose. The book is illustrated with several photographs of Lily and family, including the author. Readers enjoy photographs when reading biography, and these images complement the story. Don’t spend time trying to identify Lily on the cover, however; it is a Dorothea Lange image taken in western Washington in 1939.
Smith was born in 1901 and begins her narrative with a flash flood in west Texas. Smith and her family lived for many years in a home carved into the banks of Salt Draw, a tributary to the Pecos River. The dugout provided warmth in the winter and cooler temperatures in the summer. It also flooded frequently and allowed scorpions, snakes and moles to emerge from the walls.
Lily grew up helping her father break and train horses. He advised her that the most important lesson in life was to learn how to fall. That lesson would prove useful as she weathered many hardships in her life.
When Smith had a chance to go to “a real school” in Santa Fe, she showed promise. But she was soon called home when her father spent her tuition money on four dogs. A shortage of teachers during World War I provided another opportunity. She passed a test, and left on her horse for a four-week trip to northern Arizona. When the war ended she was out of a job. Starting a pattern she would repeat many times, Lily assessed her situation and set a new course without regret.
Lily had a truly adventurous spirit. She took chances and changed direction without fear. She lived in Chicago for a time working as a maid, but returned to Arizona to teach. She and her husband, Jim, managed a large cattle ranch without fresh water. They convinced the landowners to build a dam to capture the flash floods in the rainy season. The pond became known around the county as “Big Jim.”
They were often short of cash but never short of ideas. Lily sold encyclopedias door-to-door, took the kids out looking for bottles on the highway, learned to fly a plane and started a taxi service in an old hearse. The focus of the story is on Lily’s strength and determination rather than the circumstances of her life. The Great Depression, limited opportunities for women and harsh climates are merely the background for Lily’s story. The heart of Half Broke Horses is how one extraordinary woman responds to the cards she drew. Readers who admired Walls in The Glass Castle may find some of that same spirit in Lily Casey Smith.
• Jeannette Walls will discuss and sign Half Broke Horses at 7 p.m. Jan. 8 at the Headquarters of St. Louis County Library, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Call 994-3300 for more information.
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