The Glass Castle: A Memoir

by Jeannette Walls

Book Overview

In the tradition of Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shouting, Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric, and severely misguided family.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743247531
• ISBN13: 9780743247535
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Wrong book

I ordered a hardback and was sent a paperback with goodwill stickers all over it.

I couldn't put it down!

Loved the pace

It made me tear up a few times

Excellent read in my opinion. Very straightforward and honest. I fell in love with the family and challenge anyone else not to. This is a book that will stick with me.

Rags to Riches Story— A true American Struggle of the powerless of Childhood among Disfunction

Jeannette Walls writes with Steinbeck-like clarity of her life, in this first-hand account of surviving her fractured and mentally-impaired, brilliant, gifted-yet-broken parents. An amazing and sad tale, made palpable by the fact that this talented woman survived. An excellent tale of American survival and the frail powerlessness of childhood.

Boring!!

I struggled to get through this book. So much so I stopped reading it after a few chapters. Poorly written. Hard to believe some of the memories from a four year old. The storyline isn't streamlined and just very much dull and uninteresting.

This book

I adored this book in high school. It is a lovely read. I especially love how it showed how her way of thinking about things evolved. (I am aware that people evolve, but some stories just don’t show the mind set from that age)

The book is made up.

I know people who knew this woman and her family when her family lived in Welch. None of it happened as she tells it, at least during that time period when she was in Welch. The stories are lies or gross fabrications. She was not going through garbage at school looking for food. Her teach all had college degrees. Her mother did teach for awhile but was not much liked. She thought she was better than everyone else. Do not waste your money even on a used copy. Mine is going in the trash because that is what it is. If her time in Welch is made up, I can only guess the whole book is more fiction than fact.

loved it

great book to really humble you about life

💗

💗

The Glass Castle has become an American classic. It's insightful and relatable even though the main

The Glass Castle is an American classic at this point. It is insightful and relatable even though the main character's situation is unique.

Creative Writing, But Completely Unbelievable!

I read this book and I found the writing and stories to be thoroughly enjoyable. But, and this is a gigantic “but”, I do not for a microsecond believe these stories are true. I spent my career working in Social Services and I just howled or rolled my eyes while I read half the things she was saying. They simply are not possible. Yes, they make for good reading. But her book came at a time when novels weren’t selling so well, so my guess is that her editor told her to pitch the book as a memoir. And it worked very well!

The Book Is Good But I Bought Like New and It Came SOOOO BAD

I am so dissapointed, I bought "like new" and got a destroyed book basically. It's wrongly made, the pages have markings, the pages are damaged. I am very disappointed with the quality.

Captivating story

Interesting read but inconclusive ending. Would not read again.

Must read

An emotional journey through ms. Wells childhood . A wonderfully written book .

I absolutely loved this book!

It's amazing how much she overcame. It really goes to show that if you have your mind set on something that you want for yourself, you can adhesive it if you work hard.

great story

absolute banger

Glass Castle is fantastic!

One of the best books I have ever read.

Beautifully story

I thought it was easy reading. The kids are lucky they turned out well. I did not like the movie

The Glass Castle is an amazing read start to finish.

I couldn't put this book down. An absolutely unbelievable story about a woman's childhood, struggles she faced living with eccentric parents, and strength to hold herself together.

Did not want this book to end!

Loved the book. and the concept. a modern Pollyanna outlook on a grim life! One of the best books I have read!

Truly Enthralling

This book is so sad, yet happy a full roller coaster. It is now one of my favorite book I have ever read.

Compelling Story!

A truly page turning story. You truly get attached to these characters. Engaging book. I loved it.

Excellent Read

What a STORY!

Este libro es un libro magnifico! Muy divertido! This book is very well written and in spite of the constant heart breaks and gypsy-like life style of the parents, who cast their children into a world of constant uncertainty and slight borderline running from the law, the children are a delight! They are smart and just full of life. They love their parents! They admire their parents. This is definitely a story that needed to be told. I was not thrilled with my childhood. After reading this, I realize that my childhood could have been worse. The good thing is, children do not realize how irresponsible their parents can be when they are drunks, or selfish beyond comprehension. However, any adult in his or her right mind cannot help but notice that this book is an unbelievable story of how selfish, incompetent, pathetic and pitiful parents can be when they are EXTREMELY irresponsible toward their children. These children were loved; they were not cared for properly, but very haphazardly! The writing is superb! The story is poignant and the book is hard to put down. In some way, I think every child can relate to parents hoodwinking them in certain aspects, even if they do not realize that until they are adults. But these parents hoodwinked these kids for a long time. In the end, all things are what they are (I won't discuss the end). Our bodies and minds can live through all kinds of things, we are far more resilient than we can ever believe we are. This book is a triumph for each of the sibling in the book, although it was written through the voice of one particular sibling. A really good read!

family story

EXCELLENT BOOK Our book club chose this one. It's a real page turner, a true story about a disfunctional family. This one's a keeper! I highly recommend it.

Inferno to Paradiso (or close enough)

Jeannette Wall's trek, as depicted in "Glass Castle", recalls Dante's journey through Hell and eventual ascenscion to Paradise. The comparison may seem risibly over-dramatic, but just as Dante had to go through the experience of the Netherworlds before he could be led to Heaven, so, too, is Jeannette's eventual triumph the FRUIT of a childhood filled with poverty and, what some would call, parental neglect or even abuse. In the opening section about Jeannette's early childhood, sort of the outer rungs of hell, we are introduced to the author's quirky family. Her father, Rex, is a brainy underachiever who cannot keep a job and has a bit of a "drinking situation". The mother is an eccentric artist who cannot be bothered too much by mundane tasks- you know, like cooking or cleaning the house. The children, all extremely bright, are often underfed and left to fend for themselves. However, if the parents have failings, they also have redeeming qualities. The children are immersed in an environment that values art, music, intellectual pursuits, freedom and self-sufficiency and spurns racism and all forms of bourgeois superficiality. Above all, the reader never doubts that Rex and his wife truly love the children. One gets the feeling throughout that Jeanette never doubts that either. In any case, the early years are bittersweet. If there is squalor and hunger there is also humor and magic. Most of all, there is hope. The family frequently moves and, although that is frustrating, it also provided the background for a myth: that the next town would provide prosperity. But then to Welch they did go! And, it is in this West Virginia town where her father grew up,the "Nation's Coal Bin", that Jeannette and the rest of the family descend into the lower regions of hell. All the problems are exacerbated. The father, having returned to the place he said he never would, drinks with abandon and applies more and more of the family's slim resources toward his habit. Jeanette resorts to scaveging trash barrels for sustenance and is humiliated for her tattered clothing. There is not water in the house for bathing and no heat in Winter. Swallowed by the appalachian mountains with only the two-lane US 52 out, you feel stuck. Even the pilgrim parents are unable to muster the strength to break the gravity of this place. With this immobility came the final destruction of the myth (that the family would move somewhere else and find prosperity) and, as a consequence, the destruction of hope. However, it is in this darkness that Jeannette finds her calling. She becomes a reporter for the "Maroon Wave", the Welch High School student newspaper. The rest of the book details how her dream to become a "high falutin" journalist led her to New York City and her current incarnation. Maybe not Paradiso, but close enough considering her formative years. A number of components conflate to push Jeannette towards a succeful resolution. Certainly the positive legac

Courage to move forward....

Jeannette Walls is familiar as a face and voice for MSNBC.com. Her husband is writer John Taylor. Her parents were non conventional and non-conforming, and she was often left to take care for herself. Through the book I kept looking for bitterness or residual shame just as the author often had to rummage for food in a dumpster but she is so contented and the book is her memoir of thriving and letting go of negative feelings. Her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls and their four children had a bizarre existence, but Jeanette is testament to survival and functional achievement regardless of what type of spoon you're born with in your mouth. The spoon in her mouth may have been plastic but she turned her life into gold.