Jeannette Walls established her bona fides in the unreliable parent department with her memoir, “The Glass Castle,” a case study in how to survive a chaotic childhood and get into Barnard." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/books/review/the-silver-star-by-jeannette-walls.html
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Jeannette has another hit with this story of young sisters, Bean and Liz being raised by a not all there single mother, Charlotte, who keeps a step ahead or behind, depending on the day, of her demons and dreams by moving constantly around the country dragging the girls behind her. Charlotte is an aspiring singer, actress, songwriter so it is not happenstance that they are in California. But Charlotte, who must have authored her own book on dysfunction, has a bad habit of leaving the two girls alone to fend for themselves with a refrigerator freezer stocked with chicken pot pies and supposedly enough money for them to get by until her return. This time though, Bean age 12 and Liz age15 decide they can sit there no longer and wait for their disappearing Mom to return, so they leave a note and board a bus to Byer, Virginia, Mom's hometown. There they plan to visit unexpectedly and unannounced Mom's widower brother, their Uncle Tinsley Holladay and wait for word from Mom who is off pursuing a fabricated career. Bean is the narrator of this story although Liz has a way with words and is fond of reading Edgar Allan Poe. But when school starts Bean adjusts easier than Liz who becomes withdrawn. As they make their way around the formerly prosperous but now run down mill town they determine they will have to find work to supplement living with Uncle Tinsley. Jerry Maddox, the manager of the mill who ousted Uncle Tinsley when the mill was sold is the only person who hires them, and that provides another twist. For the first time in her life Bean sees at photo of her dead father and learns about Charlie Wyatt through her Aunt Al and uncle Clarence, Charlie's brother and that provides the title of the book, because Charlie was a war hero who was awarded a silver star. The girls have different fathers and Mom never said anything about Charlie. Mom has contact with them now and then by phone but is now occupied with settling in New York to make her career on Broadway, sometimes Mom calls sometimes she does not. Bean also gains friendship of her cousin, Joe, All & Clarence's son despite chasing him from the orchard. The story also includes two emus, Eunice and Eugene, whom the girls acquire because their owner decides he cannot keep them home on the farm. One very amusing section is the emu pasture break out and their subsequent capture by lasso. The girls are enrolled in school that fall in Byer which is just being fully integrated which provides more challenges. T The descriptive writing and compelling characters whose experiences relate a gamut of emotions as does the story. including comical, pathetic, tragic, heroic, and unfathomable. The dark side of evil and how it is overcome triumphantly after all sums up the tale. Wall's writing continues to shine as do her characters and phrases.... She has a website at the publisher with other information and where an excerpt of the book is available. http://pages.simonandschuster.com/jeannettewalls
.I laughed on pg 43 after they are in Byer, "you only wave at people you know,,,,you must be from CA" that scenario reminded me of Jerry's now dead mother who upon returning here to her hometown in MN when we all moved from CA after our retirement had an adjustment being friendly and was stuck in unfriendliness.
Here's advice from Cuz Joe, page 256...."you don't stop fighting just because you start losing "
his novel is 4 **** and one that reads quickly.
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