John, I implore you to read this book - not just for the answers but it is simply an excellent book about how some people grow up in not just dysfunctional families but manage to overcome the hardest of existance. It will empower you as many books can so don't cheat yourself out of an opportunity to truly learn and grow from this book.

I don't want to give you a hard time about not doing your own work -- though you surely DO need to be learning, not going around a system -- but I do want you to read an excellent book that will entertain, touch you, give insight, and make you a stronger person of having "known" the author through her story. Please, read it.

this book bored the hell out of me.

I am sorry it bored you but it really touched me. It is amazing story of what families experience and how the ironic reality is stranger than truth or fiction!

It seems this is a book that people love or hate. Like Bert, I loved the way the main character overcame the difficulties of living in a dysfunctional family, the constant shifting and going without. But I also loved the different facets character, especially that of her father who gave Jeanette nothing materially (to the point of neglect, Id say) but so much in other ways; especially the use of imagination which obviously helped her as a writer.
I, like Bert, think you should read this book, too.