The Silver Star

A Novel

By: Jeannette Walls

Narrated by: Jeannette Walls

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of the best-selling memoirists of all time, a stunning and heartbreaking novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world - a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is 12 and her sister, Liz, is 15 when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who flees every place she’s ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that’s been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

The author of The Glass Castle, hyper-alert to abuse of adult power, has written a gorgeous, riveting, heartbreaking novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love the world despite its flaws and injustices.

©2013 Jeannette Walls (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

superb book

loved the story and the narration. excellent and true to life plot. characters were so endearing.

Walls beautifully captures complexity of family.

What did you love best about The Silver Star?

Jeannette Walls never shies away from creating parental characters that you both love and hate. I think what I loved best was her focus on the sibling relationship and how protective that can be when you are dealing with parents who, for whatever reason, are unstable.

What aspect of Jeannette Walls’s performance would you have changed?

I found Walls' performance to be boring. In fact, I was shocked that as the writer if this story, there wasn't much inflection or emotion present during her narrating. It was definitely something I noticed within the first half hour but continued throughout the book. It may have seemed especially absent given the subject matter (particularly the alleged sexual abuse) as I felt using more emotion would've helped flesh out that scene. I also would suggest using different voices for the different characters. As a newbie to audiobooks (yet an avid reader) I find this helpful to get lost in the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Not sure, but it would highlight the sibling bond and the resilience of the girls. And maybe mention the unique kindness of the uncle.

Any additional comments?

While I'm a huge fan of Walls, II didn't enjoy this as much as "The Glass Castle". I was thrown a bit when the story took a turn and the girls left for their uncle's home. Initially, I expected that the story would be about the journeys and obstacles of living alone while waiting for their mother's return. After completing the book, I see that the journey back to their mother's old home was integral in the direction of the narrative. I would still recommend this to a friend, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation.

The Silver Star

Jeannette Walls is a fabulous story teller. I have read and listened to all of her books. In this book, she writes in first person as the character Jean, called Bean and puts you right there with her in the story. You can almost feel the wind in her hair, the sun on her face and smell of the hay.

Entertaining

I had to give this book 5 stars in every category. It was entertaining and will read. I truly enjoyed the story kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

Disappointing

I wanted to love this book. I treasured Glass Castles and have recommended it to a dozen people. I was very excited that she came out with a fictional story.

All the characters, landscape, and situations were set up for this to be a great book. I kept waiting for it to get started. With each new situation, or each new person met, I thought "oh,ok, this is going to be the meat of the story," yet it never happened. Then I thought, "that's ok, this is just a 'slice-of-life' story," but for a successful story like that, you need to know the character enough to care what they had for breakfast, and the depth just wasn't there in this book.

There were so many really great characters in this story that Walls gave glimpses of. The older sister, the uncle, the cousin, and her black girlfriend were all promising, and interesting, and I wanted to know more about them, but Walls just scratches the surface and leaves you wanting more. Unfortunately, I was left wanting on all of the characters and possible story lines, which makes this story feel like an empty shell.

I still gave it three stars because it is promising and because I did love the characters even from a distance. The complexity of the older sister and the way she dealt with heartache made me want to read an entire novel just about her. Because the book is overall so shallow it ends up being a story with dark tendencies told with a light touch, which isn't a completely terrible thing.

Enjoyed story but disliked narration

Love Jeannette 's writings, but will never listen to her narrate again. There's something about her voice and inflection that was wrong. Too bad, but I will "read" her next book.

Good Almost All the Way Through

That ending. Must have had a deadline? The story just stops. Doesn't hold a candle.to.her last books. Disappointing.

Another good read from Jeannette

Great book. The only thing I didn't like was the southern accent on girls who grew up in CA.

Same ensemble of characters in fictional form

This novel wanders around to find its ground.. the characters are fictional but familiar indeed.. Walls wondered allowed if she could find a story that wasn’t based on her real family … so she just extended her family , tweaked the characters a little and gave them Emus.

I didn’t mind the story the girls were blessed with courage and the love of family that were there for them when the parents were absent .
I almost always prefer the author to read their own material… and I didn’t mind Janet Walks reading.. but if you hear a performance of an actor who puts on a performance .. like Meryl Streep.. I can listen to her many times over..

Disappointed :(

I really had high hopes for this novel since Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle is one of my all-time favorite books. But I was disappointed with this one. The story was quite elementary—I really feel the target audience may have been young teens, but it was not marketed that way.

If you haven’t read or listened to The Glass Castle yet, that is the book I am happy to recommend—