An astonishing memoir on how alcoholism, mental illness and poverty can effect a family. Jeannette Walls holds nothing back when describing her unbelievable childhood. It's amazing to me how she can write so matter of factly and without resentment for her parents, when I felt so much anger towards them just reading this book. This story is a must read for everyone. 5 stars!

I have to assume this book is only semi-autobiographical, considering it's the story of a small child and her siblings, told from the perspective of that small child as an adult. There is no way Ms. Walls could remember all these in-depth conversations, where they were living at the time, and how old she was exactly. Even if her siblings helped her with the timeline, these were a group of small, traumatized children...their memories are likely severely skewed.

Regardless, Ms. Walls is a good story teller. It was interesting, as the story progressed, reading her changing opinions of her parents. She loved them, but as she grew older, she saw quite clearly their stark neglect. Unfortunately, her story is so utterly depressing, it negates any enjoyment one might otherwise receive from reading this book. It's hard to believe her parents could be so narcissistic and embarrassingly immature, showing absolutely no growth throughout the entirety of the book. Even worse, for me, is the continuous child and animal abuse which fills page after page. It's appalling.

As a person who was born and raised in West Virginia, though far north of the area where Ms. Walls lived, I have to wonder if the incestuous relationships were even true, of if she was just playing up the stigma that seems to surround that area of the state.

While I hope Ms. Walls was being as truthful as she could possibly be while writing this book, the stories are so utterly far-fetched, it's hard for my mind to conceive lives lived like that of the Walls family. Mostly, after finishing this book, I just felt completely wrung-out. It's not uplifting, it's not inspiring, it's not entertaining...it's just horribly gloomy and heartbreaking.

If The Glass Castle is true, then major kudos to Ms. Walls and her siblings for their apparent life successes, despite the hardships and struggles. If The Glass Castle isn't true, then major kudos to Ms.Walls for writing bestselling fiction. Either way, I wish her and her family well.

The warning is this: If you are going to become parents you must simply forego being too bohemian. Otherwise your children might grow up to be super successful & you will end up eating trash off dark alleyways...

Peculiar upbringings are what memoirs are made of! We saw this in the Frank McCourt gray & sad "Angela's Ashes" & even more so in any of the Augusten Burroughs books (mainly "Running with Scissors"). When memoirs are like this, invigoratingly Roald Dahlesque in painting pictures of past predicaments... and obviously the survival of the protagonist, the reader reads on. No matter how bad you have it, someone somewhere sometime probably had it worse.

The Walls children (3 of the 4 at least) become inspired by their nomadic parents, wanting to be so unlike their progenitors that they actually turn their lives around. Here is testament of someone living way under the poverty level in modern times & getting out alive & a smarter woman for it. That she appreciates it and maintains a smile is the very heart of this non-fic gem.

PS--Can't wait to see the movie.
(Probably on DVD.)

i read this my freshman year of college and i could've sworn i marked it as read on goodreads but i couldn't find it anywhere.

BUT I LOVED THIS

This was incredible. What a powerful story of resilience. How those children made it out at all is beyond me. Jeannette tells the story of her life with her alcoholic but brilliant father and emotionally unavailable but artistic mother and how she and her siblings survived extreme poverty and dysfunctional parents. Just wow.

Before I start this review, let me just say that I don't typically read literary fiction. And hardly ever do I enjoy it. But this book... man, this book is something special.

The Glass Castle may be a memoir marketed as high-quality literary fiction. Yet it's somehow so much more stirring and emotionally real than much of what I've read in this genre. There's meaning behind every word, yet it never feels tedious or forced. The symbolism is far more purposeful than many books in this genre, far more poignant, far more meaningful. Walls writes with ease, and her words flow beautifully across the page. I hardly ever felt bored by this story.

The characters, however, are the aspect that really elevated this book. These people all feel so real, so sympathetic and so vivid. Walls pulls you into her world, pulls you past her walls, and makes you see what she sees, what her siblings see, what her parents see. The Glass Castle is a memoir, but it's also a bildungsroman. I felt as if I were there to see Jeannette, Lori, and Brian grow up.

This is a story that I think will be highly personal to any reviewer who has gone through problems with their parents. It's hard not to feel every emotion these characters feel, understand, remember feeling that way yourself. Even when I couldn't relate to the specific situation, I could feel exactly how I would've felt in that scenario. And you could relate to every one of Jeanne's feelings even when they were in situations I could hardly imagine. You almost find yourself/ in Jeanne's words and in her life.

Maybe my favorite part of this story was the inherent sense of hope. It's really important to see stories of characters working through their pasts and moving on. Yet Walls also doesn't shy away from the strong mental and psychological impact of having unreliable, manipulative parents. I loved getting to see the three main characters grow up and move on.

VERDICT: This is an unforgettable story that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. It certainly won't leave you quickly.

I must confess that after 5 pages I was not going to read this memoir anymore. So I went here to Goodreads to see if any of my GR friends had read this and if so, if they gave it 1 or 2 stars….so if there were next-to-no GR friends who had read it or if those who did gave it 1 or 2 stars that would indicate to me just to not even read this. But that was not the case; many of my GR friends had read it and had given it 4 or 5 stars. So I felt I should push on.

I will give her high points for her writing. She had me interested pretty much throughout the memoir. I read it in one sitting.

I don’t need to give a synopsis….don’t need to tell you how horrified I was at times by her mother and her father…by some of the creeps she was forced to encounter given her mother and father’s neglect…and one time, the father outright encouraged some creep to have sex with his underage daughter…at that point in the book I have to say nothing much surprised me anymore but that one did.

So here is the problem I had several pages into the book: she is recalling her earliest memory when she was cooking hot dogs over the stove at the ripe old age of 3, and her dress caught on fire and she had some very bad burns on her body. Her mother took her to the hospital and the following is from the book:
•tA doctor with silver hair and black-rimmed glasses lead my mother out of the room. As they left, I heard him telling her that it was very serious. The nurses remained behind, hovering over me. I could tell I was causing a big fuss, and I stayed quiet. One of them squeezed my hand and told me I was going to be OK. “I know,” I said, “but if I’m not, that’s okay, too.” The nurse squeezed my hand again and bit her lower lip.

It was the last two sentences that led me to question whether I wanted to go on with this book. The author had enough recall for something that happened when she was 3 years old — and granted it was traumatic — that she would remember the nurse biting her lower lip??? That a 3-year old would say and what’s more remember years later saying: “I know, but if I’m not, that’s okay, too.” ???

I just simply did not believe it. And so if I did not believe that, how much of the rest of what Jeannette Walls wrote about was truth versus fiction or poetic license? But I continued on after looking at the sheer number of my GR friends who read it and obviously very much liked it. I will take Jeannette Wall’s word that many of the things that occurred as written down by her in The Glass Castle did actually occur. But some of the stuff here and there as told by her in the memoir I have to believe she might have recalled vaguely but when writing the memoir fleshed out the events more than what she actually remembered. She wrote about many mundane events or conversations between people in such granular detail that at times, at least to me, it beggared belief.

Having said that…I must say it is over-the-top impressive that this memoir spent over 260 weeks in hardcover on The New York Times Best Seller list[1][2] and it remained on the paperback nonfiction bestseller list for 440 weeks (8 ½ years!!!). Kudos to Jeannette Walls.

It took me a while to get into this book, but there's a lot of interesting family dynamics and complicated familial love despite all the awful things that happened. I think this book would feel more complete if the author had written more personal insights rather than recounting things that happened. I want to read more about her reflections of the events that happened, her emotions, and how she processes her feelings towards her family.

You might be tempted to gloss over a memoir like this from the description. We’ve all read true stories of hard times, so what makes this one different?

Well, Jeannette Walls grew up in poverty, but at the hands of parents with some pretty wild pathologies. At first glance, they seemed like intelligent free spirits. They show love to their many kids, and the parenting style prizes independence and freedom over rules and conformism. That’s not bad.

But that outside-the-box lifestyle came with a price. Walls and her siblings never had a stable home, and when they did, it was usually dilapidated. Neither parent could hold a regular job, more often relying on “get rich quick” schemes. They were dreamers, hoping they’d one day sell famous art or strike mountain gold. But dreams didn’t put food on the table.

Mom was odd and flighty, but Dad was often drunk and violent. He looked down on everyone, including government and hospitals, even though he was constantly broke and wasted. He was a narcissist without a lick of success. I didn’t like him, and I feel like I’ve known people like that.
I couldn’t help but feel bad to hear of their hunger, their ragged clothes, their crumbling home. I liked hearing that reading and education were important in the home, though it didn’t do much to feed them. It seemed interesting to me that Walls reached out for books like The Grapes of Wrath.



The story matures as Walls does: the older she gets, the more she realizes this is no way to live. In her teens, she sees that if she wants to improve her life, her parents will be of no help. She sees that the only path to self-sufficiency is to escape. And she does, coming to New York and making those dreams come true.

So, this isn’t just some story to shock us with extreme poverty, though it certainly does that by default. Midway, I began to see that this was leading me toward a brighter future for the author. It was a pretty miserable childhood, perpetrated by some awful, irresponsible parents. But she never gave up hope. She even turned a kind eye to her drunk dad and crazy mom, even when they went homeless in New York, squatting in Tomkins Square. Would I have been so forgiving, so understanding? Not sure.

So, while the story of hardscrabble times isn’t new, Walls’ journey is certainly unique. It’s as much about overcoming her parents’ attitudes and treatment as it is about getting out of poverty. It’s full of faith, redemption, and resilience. A great memoir everyone should read.

Honestly, simply a must read. Wow. Firstly, thank you to my friend Elyse for recommending this book. She knows what I like. Wow this woman. Wow this family. I have just finished reading this books last pages whilst making my lasagne to feed my family, hastily stirring the white sauce and throwing in the bay leaves. The irony isn't lost on me.. I needed to finish this story. But! Mental illness is all around. This family is a perfect example, and also one of resilience. Hey, these children have more successful careers than I do! I always tell my kids that it takes all types to make the world go round. Jeannette Wells has crafted this memoir with passion and strength and devotion, but what blew me away most of all, there was not one shred of self pity packed into this. I know what I'm like in my little world, there is no way I could be this giving, NO WAY! I'm very interested in this amazing lady, I will find her books now and I so look forward to see how she's travelling. I could learn a thing or two, and that's what I'm always looking for. And she can write!!

**Addendum: This was an amazing book that my favourite GR friend from the States recommended. I went to the library and got my copy. Months later I came across this book in my (unorganised double layered Ikea shelf thingy) book shelf, that I'd borrowed from my aunt in Queensland. It turns out all of her siblings had read it, making their own notes all over the book. This was a special book, I shouldn't have taken it with me.. But I'm so glad I got to return it. It turns out my aunt had had a similar childhood - I knew she'd struggled, but didn't realise to the extent. This book connection made me love my Aunty Donna even more. We aren't close geographically but I got to see her last month and talked about the book, and that I am grateful for.

When 'people' say they've had it hard, have they really?

From my Amazon.com review:

"Sometimes people get the lives they want..."

A stunning memoir, hard to put down. Walls is superb with details, a true genius. She is a fine example of a self-made, successful person. But throughout most of the book, I was so angry with the parents, her mother in particular:

When the kids had nothing to eat, she hid a king-sized Hershey bar in her bed for herself. She had an excuse for her behavior, whining that she's a "sugar addict." (And later, she refuses to get a job (or keep one, when she gets them) because she's an "excitement addict." Really, it seems like she's rather immature and lazy. How exciting is it to sleep all day or have tantrums about blaming her children for her failures as an artist?)

When Brian and Jeannette found the diamond ring, they could have used it to buy necessities like food and clothes, but their mother needed it for her precious self-esteem. She really lacks motivation to get up and do something about their deplorable living conditions, but is too selfish to do so.

When Uncle Stanley groped Jeannette, he mother didn't seem too concerned and actually felt sorry for the uncle, believing him to be lonely!

She refuses Welfare, despite the fact that her pride is harming her children, a form of child abuse and negligence. They are living in squalor but it's supposed to be an "adventure." The house is filthy with the mold, trash, mushrooms growing in the corners, and the lack of heat and indoor plumbing. It is not an acceptable environment and I'm surprised the gov't man didn't come back. If you really love your children, you should provide for them, even if you hate charity. Instead, she spends most of her time feeling sorry for herself, if she isn't pursuing her true calling as an artist.

And when she doesn't go back to one of her teaching jobs, she reasons, "It's time I did something for myself..It's time I started living my life for me...Why do I have to earn the money? You [Jeannette] have a job." It just made me so angry to hear her talk that way to her own daughter. She has no sense of responsibility. "I've got more important things to do," she also said.

For all her artistic ideals, she is whiny, pathetic, seems to care more about strangers and stray animals than her children. And it was ridiculous how she didn't want to kill the flies and cockroaches, and felt sorry for the big rat in the sugar bowl. She is encouraging the unhealthy conditions by keeping pests alive, so it seems that while she doesn't want to deprive insects and animals of food ("they need to eat too"), it's ok if her children starve.

And no, I'm not forgetting the father. I must admit that I had a soft spot for him, despite his alcoholism. He at least attempted to be a father, showing love to Jeannette and making her feel special,educating her on many subjects. I got teary when reading about how he read the same books on Jeannette's college reading lists so he could help her with any questions. He was more interested in her life than her mother was. But I was disgusted with Rex when he let the man at the bar take her upstairs. Definitely not a saint, but much more likeable than the mom in my view.

I really admired Jeannette in the poli-sci class, when the prof is talking about the causes of homelessness. It cannot always be blamed on drugs and SS cuts - there is a degree of personal responsibilty, as I alluded to in the title of this review. As Jeannette said, "If people worked hard and compromised...they could make ends meet." It angered the prof but I was proud of her. I wish she had told the truth about her background though.

Yes, I'm hard on the parents, but they make me admire the author even more, for breaking free from the traps of her parents' self-made poverty. She never gave up, and I know that if I'd been in her shoes, I wouldn't have made it.

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