Why did I wait so long to read this?! This book is superb and so good that it’s going to now be hard finding something good enough to read next. I wanted so badly to finish it and yet I didn’t want it to end.

Wow! This is one of those times when I cannot write a review that does justice to the book. It’s hard for me to get anything down actually. So what I write might come across as incoherent.

The writing and especially the storytelling is stellar. This author’s personal & family story is fascinating. The account is a page-turner. Even though it was difficult to put down, I really appreciated that there were short sections throughout and therefore frequent perfect places to put down the book and stop reading for a while. Of course, the short sections also made it easy to read just one or two or three more.

It’s really hard to write a review of a book that’s about someone else’s life. Of course I had opinions and feelings about every person. I think that the author does at least indirectly imply what it was about the mix of experiences she and her family members had that led to how they turned out, but I’d have liked even more of that. Then again, her mother had said to just tell the truth, just say what happened, and she did that. She did it well. I couldn’t help doing some of my own thinking though. Of course, the story was so engaging that most of the time I just immersed myself in it.

The author presents a lot of good with the bad and I’m in awe of how she did that and also of how she coped and how she took actions on her own behalf. She’s exceptionally skilled at painting portraits of the people in her life and also of herself.

Thank goodness for all the humor in the account because there was so, so much that was grim. Tragic, scary, infuriating.

The author’s very short stint living in San Francisco warranted the book going on my San Francisco shelf. She described the city/ocean beach area so well. I’m about 7 years older than the author, and lived in the city at the time and knew it and the area well.

I would have loved more photos (though I wonder how many could have been taken during the author’s childhood years, especially her early years.) The only photos included are a wedding photo of her parents and a photo of the author in the present day on the cover as part of the author biography section.

If I have any more than minor criticism of the book, it’s that I thought it ended way too abruptly, although I guess wanting more and wanting more details shows how invested I was in the author’s life story. Also the “no recriminations” comment Jeannette directed at Brian in the last section, while I agree it wouldn’t have been good timing, rubbed me the wrong way. I’m obviously a lot angrier about what she and her siblings went through than she is. There was good with the bad, but the bad was glaring. A very eventful and highly unusual childhood and coming of age!

I’m putting the rest of this review in spoiler tags partly because I at least allude to some life events of the author & her family members, but mostly because I’ve expressed my feelings/opinions about how I feel about them, and other readers are likely to want to form their own opinions without my sentiments & judgments intruding. The following are more “notes to myself” and possibly springboards for discussion with others who’ve read the book rather than a continuation of a review. Dithering ramblings that I do consider major spoilers:

I so identified with so much of Jeannette’s life. While I definitely didn’t experience the worst of what she did, I also didn’t experience some of the best. I do identify a lot with what this family went through. It was a bit too close to home despite great differences with specific experiences.

The parents were so intelligent and creative and I did appreciate how the father was loving (at least until his alcoholism got really bad) and taught the kids so many things. The mother, even if it was for utterly selfish reasons and even thought it was inappropriate, did teach her kids to be self-reliant and she modeled a lot of creativity, though maybe not in a less destructive way than that of their father. They were both amazingly good home-schoolers given that all the kids read at such early ages, learned many things and learned how to think, and that showed by how well they could do when thrust into public schools. Pretty amazing.

I found both parents incredibly frustrating. Despite the father’s alcoholism that got so bad and all that went with it was atrocious, the mother drove me crazier. The incidents of extreme selfishness were so extreme. Her inability to even want to mother or to provide even basics for her 4 kids I just can’t get over. Finding out what I found out near the end of the book made me even angrier. I know both parents had mental health issues, but even though there was a strong family bond between family members, I can’t quite figure out the loyalty shown to the parents.

I can’t imagine how the kids did so well given how much chronic malnutrition they experienced over many years.

Mostly I had major sibling envy. Brian has got to be the most ideal brother. The friendship between those two is wonderful. I love Lori’s sarcastic sense of humor. Jeannette captured their personalities so well. The way the kids had each other and the gumption they exhibited and self-reliance and how they took care of one another and the family is laudable and enviable too.

I worry terribly about Maureen, and I did even before the portions near the end. She was so much younger than the other kids and think had even worse parenting and didn’t have the closeness with her three siblings the way they did with each other. I also hadn’t gotten a good feeling for who she was/is and think maybe that’s because the author didn’t know her that well, though maybe it was a good thing she got to spend so much time with friends and other families.

ETA: I was so curious so I googled Jeannette and her siblings right after I finished this review and I’m flummoxed that the mother lives on the property of the author & her husband, in a separate dwelling, but even so. I am kind of in awe of the author and hope that she’s as okay now as she presents. I’m also almost as worried about Maureen as I was as I was reading the book.

And yeah, it feels funny to evaluate the people but that’s what I do when reading biographies.

Mostly I envy their strength and closeness/togetherness, and their intelligence, and the way they were able to survive, and how they’ve managed to create satisfying adult lives. I’m grateful I didn’t suffer their level of extreme neglect and deprivation. And, I thought I’d lost a lot but it was nothing compared to the “you can take one thing with you” they experienced.

When I read that they were the poorest of the families in their very poor area, that got to me, and hit me even harder after Jeannette learns what she learns from her mother that’s related to the reader near the end of the book.

It’s an excellent book and I’m happy that I finally got it off my to read shelf.

Just finished reading this fantastic memoir for the second time after having enjoyed it the first go round over a decade ago. Knowing what was coming down the track, this reading was even more satisfying, as I could slow down and savor her words instead of rushing ahead.

I thought that everybody in the world had already read this but am in a new book club where my husband and I were the only ones lucky enough to have already done so. What a treat it was to revisit this after 10 years!

Walls had a truly dysfunctional childhood, but knew that she was the apple of her alcoholic father's eye. The love from him, her siblings, and her own plucky self-determination certainly gave her a path through some very bizarre circumstances and into a successful adulthood. Having her father take her hand and stick it through the bars of a cheetah cage at the zoo and being instructed by her mother to simply cut off the maggot-loaded portions of unrefrigerated food and eat the portion that had not yet been touched, Walls learned wonder and pragmatism from her oddball parents.

This book is loaded with anecdotes, one after another, full of amazing and horrifying and beautiful moments. As a parent myself, my loathing of the parents in the story climbed and climbed, but because this memoir was told from the perspective of Walls as a little girl first, I also fell in love with her mom and dad just a little bit. She narrates the tale in real time, and as she becomes a teenager with more open eyes, her disappointment in these parents becomes palpable.

One could say that this is a rags to riches story, but the treasure was always there - despite the poverty, they were rich in the love they had for each other.

4.5 stars

I don't read memoir very often, but when I do, I want them to be like this one. Jeannette Walls's story is incredibly powerful, and at times, unbelievable. That's not to say what she's writing isn't true, it's just that everything is so remarkably devastating at times and uplifting in others that it's hard to imagine anyone having such a clear head going through it all.

She writes with resilience, shedding light on some very negative experiences she had as a young person. Her childhood was nomadic, with neglectful parents who could not provide for the needs of their four children. The book starts with Jeannette, at the age of three, cooking hot dogs for herself on the stove and ending in the hospital with burns all over her body. I was hooked right away.

The memoir has a linear structure, going chronologically through her life. I felt like I was definitely more interested in her story as it went farther along. Her teenage years and on were quite gripping, seeing her coming into her own as a young woman while trying to keep the family together emotionally and economically.

I cringed at times, and at others I was truly inspired by her unconditional love for her family even when they treated her so poorly. The fact that she can walk away from all those terrible experiences with love for her parents is incredible. It definitely made my childhood look like a luxury vacation.

An extraordinary account of Parental neglect to the point of where I kept asking myself....could All this have possibably happened in one family?

I first read this book back in 2009 and didnt even write a review as I found the book depressing and relentless. This time it was nominated for my sit in book club and when the nomination was announced THE GLASS CASTLE I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, smiled and thought Ok might just pretend I read again and wing it when it comes to discussion night. But my friend who knew my dislike of the book encouraged me to read it as but this time as a BOOKCLUB READ with the discussion questions in mind and perhaps I may get more from the book second time around.

While reading this book I thought about my own family get-togethers and stories that would get told from our childhood days and while I remember very little to the point where I often asked " are ye sure I belong to the same family"? As I seem to remember so little and this is where I am amazed at how much the author remembers from her childhood.
n  Having said that if my childhood was eventful and full of as many odd characters as Jeanettes then perhaps my memory would serve me better.n

And while my initial thoughts still remain I did mange to get more from the book, as this time I found the humor and the hope and while I do think perhaps many of the situations are a little embellished for the good of the story there is no doubt the Walls as kids saw some rough times and their parents really were in a league of their own when it came to parenting. How you come through a life like this and come out the otherside a well rounded and capable person really does say alot about this family. Overall I found this an interesting read and there are funny passages and moments throughout the story which second time around seemed to come through better for me than the first and perhaps this is because second time around I knew these kids were going to make it and I could relax a little.

Glad I took the time to read it again and looking forward to the discussion on this one.

Why is it that I hated this book when everyone else thinks it was good? It annoyed me on so many levels. I kept thinking to myself...."alright, I get it...life sucks, move on". I just have so little sympathy and empathy sometimes, especially in books, that this just IRKED me. Sure, the writing was well done, the prose effective, the story was a bit enchanting...I just could NOT understand why this book got such great reviews. In fact, the reviews is why I kept reading it. Had someone else thought it was CRAP I would have put it down without finishing.

Walls whines and complains through the whole book about how difficult her childhood was, yet she was still able to be admitted to an IVY LEAGUE school. Ok, my childhood wasn't as bad as hers, I am bright, yet I hadn't the je ne se quoi to get into an Ivy league. Perhaps, the editor deleted a HUGE chapter in her memoir which would have filled the gap between living in a weatherproof shack and going to college, but it just didn't do it for me.

Okay, so most people will likely bash me for being an idiot, but I really don't care. It annoyed me. That's all for my rant...thanks for your time. :)

Phew… what a ride!
I had to fight the urge to abandon the book a number of times, becauseI became very fed up with the hopeless situation. Even after grudgingly dragging myself cross the half mark, I was still not convinced I’d eventually reach the end of the audiobook. But our book club discussion was in a few hours. So I cranked up the speed of the audio and kept going… I’m glad I did.
Jeannette Walls’s detailed account of her upbringing under egocentric parents was about love, family value and overcoming the odds. Her dad Rex and her mom Rose Mary both held dear their pipedreams, his being building a glass castle for the family, and hers being becoming a celebrity artist. In reality, Rex was an alcoholic who could never keep his job for more than a few months, and Rose Mary felt too beneath her to take on teaching, the only job she could possibly qualify.
The parents prioritize ideals and personal liberty over family responsibility. Consequently, keeping their four kids adequately fed and securely sheltered had become more than a daunting mission. The family had to move constantly, even across the country to lean on the resources of the grandparents.
Jeannette and her three siblings were often left at their own devices to fend for themselves, from starvation, bullying, sexual misconduct, childhood loneliness, among others. The kids were forced to supervise and support not only each other, but also their parents.
About three quarters of the book was a play-by-play of the family’s alternative lifestyle between when Jeannette was 3 and her entering high school, through which my reaction was rotating among disbelief, aggravation, disappointment, and exhaustion. The rare traces of love the parents doted out to their children were more than overshadowed by their neglect, particularly them taking advantage of the kids to feed their own fancy or addition.
It would be easier to conclude the parents were not fit to be parents in the first place, and yet there were more elements for in-depth discussions, e.g. whether the free-range parenting style actually nurtured the kids' independent personality.
Not until the later part of the book Rex became a dad that was more worthy of Jeanette’s faith that he demanded of her throughout her childhood, when he played a crucial role in her becoming a successful journalist. But if Rose Mary was capable of loving at all, Rex seemed to be the only target of her affection.
The book read more like a semi-fiction, and it grew on me slowly. I became firmly rooted for the kids. Despite several near misses, most of them thrived in the lives they built on their own. What triumphs!
And yet, through Jeannette’s own marriages, one could trace back to her upbringing. Some childhood imprints might not ever be indelible.
Growing up in China, where over-parenting is the rule, I had found most of the book hardly relatable. However what does not kill you makes you stronger would apply in any country.
P.S. Alternative lifestyle, social unjust, desperation… or organized enterprise, excuse for laziness , if you take the other side, I would strongly advise against giving money to the homeless in New York City.

Imagine it's Monday. You are in your bedroom in your parents' four bedroom house. You jump out of your bed, throwing back your favorite duvet. You run over to the window above your desk where you do your homework, moving the lamp out of the way. Shoving the white ruffled curtains back, you peer out to see if it's still raining. It is, and you are glad that you are so toasty warm and dry inside your sturdy home. You smell bacon and coffee. Your mother must have decided to make breakfast before she goes to her customer service job at the bank. Your father probably left earlier to his engineering job. You race your sister to the bathroom because if she gets in first you will have to use the second, smaller, bathroom for your warm shower. You especially want to use that new herbal shampoo. Christmas is a few days away and you've spent most of your allowance on gifts. The tree is 7 feet tall, beautifully decorated, and all of the prettily wrapped gifts are waiting for the morning the family will gather and open them. You've been enjoying festive activities at the church and school, and the shopping has been delicious, seeing all of the decorations in shop windows. This is your favorite time of the year next to your birthday, when your family and friends throw a big party in celebration of your birth. You can't wait to go to school because you want to show off your new boots and matching purse. You and friends will share and excitedly discuss what gifts they hope to get, and what they bought for their friends. You talk about how your sister stole your blouse again, and your best friend says she and her family intend to go skiing after Christmas. Later, you'll go over to each of your friends' houses to look at their trees, decorations and gifts. You discuss whose car to use.

Now imagine instead of this above-imagined middle-class moment, you are poor. Really poor. You no longer sleep in a cardboard box, but on a bed made of rope and loose boards, a happy improvement over the box. There is no heat or lights because there is no electricity. The floor slants. The roof has gaping holes where the rain falls in. Your brother sleeps under a tarp because the rain falls on him in his sleep. Your mother is depressed again and has not left her bed in three days. There is no food in the house, but at least you eat once a day because of the school lunch program. You haven't seen your father is two weeks. You suspect he is on another bender. You notice you smell and your clothes are even more foul (and ripped, missing buttons, stitches loose because they are from the second-hand store), because there is no water. There also is no bathroom. You and your family use the bushes or dig a hole in the nearby woods. Friends do not come to your house, and you feel you don't really have friends. You have never had a birthday party or celebrated Christmas or have had tangible gifts. There is moss and ice and mold growing all over inside the house. It's filthy with rotting garbage since there is no pickup service. You hope the soles of your ancient second-hand shoes do not come off while you walk the miles to your school. But as bad as this is, it's better than it was. Before, all of you slept in a beater car that broke down a lot, and your family rarely stayed anywhere longer than a year. There was no way to attend a school.

Your parents make it clear you carry your own weight and take care of your own necessities, because they never have money or jobs or anything beyond art supplies and alcohol. It's been like this since you were a baby. Your earliest memory is cooking your own dinner at age three, when you set yourself in fire and needed skin grafts. Your mother, a college graduate, was painting as usual, considering herself an artist.

She has never taken care of you. Both parents have casually disposed of pets they picked up when they tired of them, once by drowning, once by tossing the family cat out the car window, so you know you've got to keep up or be left behind. Your parents shape and frame your reality through blarney, lies and bullshit, such as giving you a star from the sky, describing the lack of food, shelter and clothing as saving the environment and avoiding waste.

The second scenario is the non-fiction narrative of 'The Glass Castle'.

A kid doesn't question that having nothing except canvasses and alcohol somehow translates into saving the earth and sticking it to the wealthy, if that is what one is told. Children believe it when told poverty is the ONLY way to be a family.

I am amazed that Jeanette Walls loves her parents still, as well as that she feels she owes them anything. Walls portrays a harrowing and barely survivable childhood she was lucky to endure and escape (one of her siblings did not). How she did it left me full of admiration. However, she writes with love and clear-eyed truth about her damaged family, able to see the mental illnesses which destroyed her childhood and killed her sibling, but she is not yet able to see that there was no parental love.

I did not think that any of the five children would survive this horrific poverty and parental craziness. The author was blessed with the genes for intelligence and that is the only thing her parents gave her. She was fortunate that her parents were not by nature cruel or vindictive, so the suffering undergone by those tortured children of sadistic parents was not the author's or her siblings' cross to bear - but the intentional cruelty many evil parents indulge in is the only cross not born by them. The author's parents also did not force their children to endure the burden of supporting their parents emotionally (although many kids of dysfunctional parents automatically do so to some degree) or force unpleasant acquaintances on them, as so many criminal parents do.

Their alcoholic father, who was often fired, disappeared for weeks and spent every dime he could steal from his kids on drink. Their mother concentrated her energies on painting canvasses that she rarely sold. She possessed the college credentials to teach, but rarely held onto any job, including that of being their mother. Both parents were highly intelligent, but morally and otherwise they were insane. Hiding their inability for coherence or stability behind a false veneer of seeking adventures and support of environmental issues, they justified their extreme narcissism and addictions to their literally starving children as moral superiority. If not for the five babies they created together, they would simply be two more of the adult human flotsam drifting around the abandoned shacks and broken houses in dying small towns and big city ghetto neighborhoods.

Children are hard-wired to love and adore their parents. Parents are NOT hard wired to love their children. I think the author has attached to her parents a glowing, but nonexistent, image of dysfunctional love, which Walls thinks they could not express because of their personal demons. I think they could not express love because they were unfamiliar with the emotion. What I see is one insane woman, the mother, and one emotionally damaged man, the author's sexually abused father, who wanted the stage set of a family, but could only create a cardboard one of paper mache and shadows. Unfortunately real flesh-and-blood children need real food and shelter.

Edit: August27, 2018

I have been reading other reviews, and to tell the truth, I am discombobulated and depressed.

1. WALL’s PARENTS WERE FUCKING LUNATICS, AND BASICALLY KILLED ONE OF THEIR CHILDREN. THE AUTHOR ALMOST BURNED TO DEATH AT AGE THREE BECAUSE OF THE PARENTS’ GODDAM NEGLECT! THESE PARENTS HAD MORE CONCERNS FOR THEIR OWN PASSIONS AND INTERESTS TO THE EXCLUSION OF EVERYONE ELSE. THAT IS NARCISSISM, NOT LOVE.

THE PARENTS WERE FUCKING MENTALLY ILL

THEY WERE NOT BOHEMIANS, THEY WERE FUCKING INSANE, AND THE REASON THEY COULD NOT EXPRESS THEIR LOVE CORRECTLY IS BECAUSE THEY OBVIOUSLY HAD NO LOVE TO EXPRESS! WHEN LOVE IS FELT, CONCERN FOR FEEDING, WARMTH, CLOTHES, WELL-BEING FOLLOW! IN WHAT UNIVERSE DOES IT HAPPEN WHERE LOVE IS FELT IN A PERSON’S HEART THEY STARVE THEIR KIDS IN THEIR OVERWHELMING AFFECTIONATE SENSE OF LOVE? FELLOW READERS! WHERE IS YOUR ABILITY TO “FOLLOW THE MONEY”, so to speak. THINK IT FUCKING THROUGH.

SOME MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE HAVE EXTREMELY COMPARTMENTED AND FRAGMENTED THOUGHT PROCESSES WHICH LEAVE THEM WITH A CHAOTIC PROCESSING OF REALITY. EMOTIONS ARE BASED ON PROCESSING INPUT -IF INPUT IS IMPAIRED BECAUSE OF MISFIRING MENTAL PROCESSING, EMOTIONS ARE WRONGLY CREATED OR NOT CREATED - like feeling love.

BOHEMIANS LIKE TO EAT, RIGHT? RIGHT?

GODDAMN IT!

SOME OF YOU ARE FUCKING OBLIVIOUS TO WHAT MENTAL ILLNESS LOOKS LIKE, AND THAT IT ISN’T a BENIGN STATE OF BEING. MENTAL ILLNESS CAUSES DEATH AND TORTURE OF CHILDREN! THIS IS OK WITH SOME OF YOU AS LONG AS YOU THINK THE PARENTS MEANT WELL?

2. THE FACT THE KIDS SURVIVED ALMOST DECADES LIVING LIKE RATS IN NEW YORK SEWERS IS ONLY A TESTAMENT THAT A RICH SOCIETY LIKE AMERICA HAS SOME SOCIALIST POLICIES LIKE FREE LUNCH PROGRAMS AND LOTS OF GARBAGE DUMPS FULL OF DISCARDED BUT USABLE JUNK. THE SURVIVAL OF THE FAMILY IS NOT A RESULT OF THEIR PARENTS ‘CARE’ AND ‘LOVE’AND ‘POLITICS’ BUT AN ACCIDENT OF LIVING IN A RICH COUNTRY LIKE AMERICA WITH A LOT OF USABLE AND EDIBLE GARBAGE. LIVING BY GARBAGE IS NOT LOVE, CARE OR A PLAN.

3. WHEN PEOPLE REALLY STARVE, WHICH MEANS GOING DAYS WITHOUT FOOD - IT FUCKING PHYSICALLY HURTS AND THEY ALL COULD HAVE DIED FROM ILLNESSES AND INFECTIONS FROM WEAKENED IMMUNE SYSTEMS AS WELL AS FROM STARVATION! GOING WITHOUT FOOD MAKES PEOPLE MENTALLY FUZZY, AND UNABLE TO WORK BECAUSE OF PHYSICAL WEAKNESS, STOMACH PAINS, DIZZINESS, HEADACHE AND FEELING VERY SICK. ALSO, SKIN INFECTIONS, EYE INFECTIONS, CUTS AND BRUISES GET REALLY REALLY BAD AND DONT HEAL QUICKLY OR WELL. STARVING PEOPLE ARE EXTREMELY CLUMSY AND ACCIDENT-PRONE. PLUS, HELLO, IT GODDAMN FUCKING HURTS FOR DAYS. IT IS TORTURE.

This is my response to those reviews who obviously are not seeing Walls’ parents clearly.



The author and her surviving siblings were lucky to live through this horror. I wish it was rare. It isn't.

Book Review: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls proves in her astounding memoir that bad parenting and abject poverty do not necessarily condemn children to a dismal future of the same. In "The Glass Castle" published in 2005 by Scribner, Walls reveals the intimate details of her upbringing within a dysfunctional yet loving family.

"The Glass Castle" immediately grips you with an opening scene in which Walls, as an adult in New York City, sees from the window of her taxi her mother scrounging through a dumpster. Her mother is homeless – one of those bag ladies that all of us see – but now you suddenly have to wonder what it would feel like if that was your mother dangling at the fringe of our society.

From this shocking moment, Walls transports you back to her earliest memory. She is three years old and suffers a terrible burn to her torso when her dress catches on fire as she is boiling hotdogs on the stove. A long stay at the local hospital near where her family is currently living in Arizona ensues while Walls recovers. To the hospital staff, the negligence of the parents is obvious, but Jeannette does not associate the murmuring disapproval around her with her parents.

If any action on the part of social services is planned, we never find out because her father, Rex Walls, plans an early check out from the hospital in his trademark "Rex Walls' style." This means that he will grab his little girl and skip out of the hospital bill that he has no intention or means of paying.

Jeannette is whisked away with her father, mother, older sister and younger brother and the family hits the road. It begins just one of many journeys in which the Walls family ends up in ramshackle trailers and shacks throughout the deserts of Nevada, Arizona, and California. They stay someplace a while until Rex can't pay the rent or won't and they skip town and do it all over again.

Rex inspired the title of the book with the plans, lovingly worked out on paper, for his "glass castle" that he aspires to build some day. He often reassures his children with the promise of this fanciful housing. It is to be a solar-powered house, but first he needs to raise the money to build it, which entails numerous gold prospecting schemes that are doomed to failure. Because gold-hunting never pays the bills, Rex also finds work as an electrician or handyman. He is smart and mechanically talented, but his earnings inevitably are washed away in the flash floods of drinking that perpetually leave his family destitute.

In an engulfing narrative that sweeps you deeper into an almost unimaginable existence of privation, we see how Jeannette and her siblings cope with their destructively alcoholic father and beg their mother to function and get them food. The mother, in fact, has a teaching degree, but she rarely can drag herself into employability. Although the various rural areas where they live are always desperate for a qualified teacher, the mother cannot abide work and only occasionally holds down a job – with the help of her children who get her out of bed.

The infrequent paychecks of the mother rarely go into the rumbling bellies of her children. Rex will invariably claim his wife's paycheck and set about squandering it.

This desperate state goes on for years as the Walls children sleep in cardboard boxes instead of beds, endure scalding fights between their parents, and eat anything they can find. Their mother teaches them how to swallow spoiled food by holding their noses.

But even amid these horrors of poverty and alcoholism, Jeannette Walls expresses the genuine love within her family. They are loyal to each other, and Rex, in his sober moments, is wise, encouraging, and tender with his children.

In her memoir, Walls brilliantly crafts her experiences so that we can see the transformation of awareness that takes place as she grows up. As a little girl, she is uncritical of her parents. She loves them and does not realize how awfully deprived her life is. But as she and her siblings mature, they definitely realize that the shortcomings of their parents are not acceptable.

The adolescent years of Jeannette are spent in West Virginia, where her father retreats to his hometown after going completely bust in Arizona. The life of the Walls in West Virginia is appalling as they occupy a shack at "93 Little Hobart Street." The roof leaks. The plumbing does not work. The Walls family buries its trash and sewage in little holes it digs. They almost never have any food. Jeannette goes through high school digging leftover sandwiches out of the garbage, and Rex fills the role of town drunk. As miserable want defines their lives, Jeannette's mother does the most infuriating things. When Jeannette and her brother find a diamond ring, they immediately want to sell it for food, but their mother keeps it to "improve her self esteem." And so they go on starving.

As Jeannette Walls tells the story of her disgraceful upbringing, you will admire her perseverance and that of her siblings. The Walls children eventually take charge of their own lives and support each other into normal adult lives in a beautiful display of closeness among siblings.

Every page of "The Glass Castle" will shock you with the shameless and selfish actions of parents who are unable and unwilling to even try to take care of their children or themselves. Despite her appalling parents, Walls rarely chastises them with her writing. Her love for her parents often comes through with aching dismay.

Much more happens throughout this amazing memoir than has been mentioned here. "The Glass Castle" is mesmerizing and an impossible book to put down. It is truly a masterpiece of storytelling and far superior than the typical bestseller.

Goodness this is beautifully written! This is easily the best memoir I've ever read, and I absolutely could not put it down.

Jeannette Walls shares the story of her childhood, growing up poor in Welch, West Virginia. To give you an idea of how poverty-stricken Welch is, it's the place where America's first food stamps were handed out.

Jeannette is the daughter of an incompetent, mentally ill mother and a clueless alcoholic father. But don't worry. It's not what you might think at first glance. This is not your typical cringy, shock-filled memoir. This is a gripping true story of laser-focused perseverance and hope.

This is a story about people with major issues (in this case, the parents) doing (I guess) the best they're capable of, even though it's not close to being good enough for their children.

This is a beautiful story of strength and survival -- having to raise yourself -- having to save yourself and your siblings. This story is lovingly told, not hate-filled at all, which demonstrates how children can't help but love their parents, even when they're being failed by them.

I grew up in a similar situation as Ms. Walls. One thing that she has done that I haven't been able to make myself do is talk about my parents in a good light. She doesn't speak of her parents with any bad feelings. I did do that. I've made peace with my dad but my mom still pushes all my buttons. I loved this book. I can see myself finally starting to put the past behind me. We make ourselves what we are, our parents just give birth.

n  “We take a chance from time to time
And put our necks out on the line
And you have broken every promise that we made
And I have loved you anyway”n
-- “Like a Fool” - Keira Knightley/ Lyrics - John Carney/“Begin Again” Soundtrack


Dysfunction and crushing poverty are at the heart of this memoir, but love is there, as well. Readers might find it difficult to accept these things in the casual “this was my life” presentation, as though it had no effect on her, as though she is used to having others feel that one must choose to either love and embrace or cast aside the person who inflicted the craziness upon them. How difficult it must be to share such intimate details with the world and then sit back while they judge not only you based on your life, but also the people that you loved, love, despite themselves, despite the things they did or did not do.

Nothing about this memoir seeks pity, or condemnation of those who raised her, or even of the way she was raised, it just is the way it was, and now her life is different. Her rags-to-riches story takes her from Arizona to California to Welch, West Virginia, and eventually to New York City.

My father shared some of his stories with me about growing up poor in West Virginia, hours away from Welch, in another part of the state where there are also few economic options. Preacher, professor, farmer, the railroad, or by the time my father was old enough to think of a future, for just a few - a pilot. I would say he never looked back once he left, but the truth is he was friends with many from that small town until the day he died. Having been there, having heard his stories, stories of his friends growing up there, it was easy for me to envision these places she lived, the people.

Jeannette Wells has walked deep into her past in this memoir, her younger years were less than wonderful and yet she survived, flourished even, maybe. Certainly there must be scars of a childhood where neglect and hunger are so prevalent, where alcohol is more important than food, where clothing and shoes and shelter take back seat to liquor and chocolate bars. Parents are supposed to be the guardians of those too young to care for themselves, but frequently the children were left to fend for themselves or care for the parents. There are so many moments in this memoir that are horrifying, and she has both the physical and emotional scars from those years. And yet, what really shines through is the compassion and love she still feels after all was said and done.


n  “We finally find this
Then you're gone
Been chasin' rainbows all along
And you have cursed me
When there's no one left to blame
And I have loved you just the same”n
-- “Like a Fool” – Keira Knightley / Lyrics by John Carney / “Begin Again” Soundtrack


Recommended

“Things usually work out in the end."
"What if they don't?"
"That just means you haven't come to the end yet.”

"The Glass Castle" is a powerful and deeply personal memoir that explores the author's troubled childhood and her complicated relationship with her unconventional parents. Walls paints a vivid picture of her upbringing, which was marked by poverty, neglect, and instability. Despite these hardships, she manages to convey a sense of resilience and determination that is both inspiring and heart-wrenching.

“When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.”

One of the strengths of the book is Walls' ability to capture the complexity of her parents' characters. While they are far from perfect, they are portrayed as multidimensional individuals with their own flaws and strengths. Walls' portrayal of her father, in particular, is nuanced and complex, and she does not shy away from the difficult aspects of their relationship.

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” […] “Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.”

Furthermore, the book is written in a straightforward and engaging style that is accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Walls does not wallow in self-pity or melodrama, but rather presents the facts of her life in a matter-of-fact way that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.

“Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.” […] “I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.”

While the book has been criticized for its portrayal of poverty and its lack of exploration of systemic issues, it remains a powerful and moving memoir that explores the complexities of family, resilience, and the human spirit. Walls' writing is honest and raw, and her story is one that will stay with readers long after they have turned the final page.

“Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.”