Last Program in 2009~

Galveston Reads presented the last program, The Successfully Resilient Child and The Glass Castle; a panel discussion at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall on 502 Church Street, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009.

This season finale was well attended, with Dr. Taylor and several students from Galveston College and members of the Galveston Reads Committee. With over 55 people in the audience, panel participants Dwight Wolf, MD, a child psychiatrist at UTMB, Karen Smith, PhD, a child psychologist also at UTMB, and Trudy Deen Davis, LMSW with Glennda Rassin, LMSW, serving as moderator.

Trudy discussed how close to real life this book was for her. Literally, she felt that she couldn’t read the book, as she lived it, hearing the stories that she could name the families who were similar to the Walls family. She felt the parents did not provide sufficient support/scaffolding. She both loved and hated this book.

Karen mentioned meta-recognition, whereby Jeannette knows she has to pretend that her family’s life was one long adventure. In addition, the boundaries were blurred and the parents exposed the children to risk. The example she used was the sink or swim theory Rex used to teach Jeannette how to swim. There must have been some support as, the children; both Brian and Jeannette could read.

Dwight did not enjoy the book, as he became detached from the narrative. Initially was engaging, but, he felt the author offered little insight to her life. He mentioned the novel seemed voyeuristic. He also pointed out that children tend to trust their parents, as all powerful, all caring, all good, or all bad. Jeannette seemed to idolize her father.

Glennda defended the book with enthusiasm, as she felt that the author recalled the highlights and was successfully resilient.

Some engaging comments from the audience were received from the panel members such as background of the second husband, who had problems with alcohol and his first marriage, and impending release of a second novel: Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel. Glennda noted this seems contradictory. The evening ended around 7:30 with more conversation among the panelists and audience.