The Glass Castle: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Scribner
Category: EBooks
List Price: $11.99
Buy New: $9.59
You Save: $2.40 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  1118 reviews
Sales Rank: 124
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.82092
ASIN: B000OVLKMM
Publication Date: March 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Amazon.com Review
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis
Product Description
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1113 more reviews...
 BRILLIANT! October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I applaud all the five star reviews who actually "GOT IT", in stark contrast to the negative ones who were obviously too short-sighted and couldn't see the forest for the trees. The author's depth of character is to be admired for her insight and compassion to see the redeeming qualities in her parents. In spite of the parent's chosen path in life, obviously not to cherish a shallow life full of "fancy things",the parents instilled in the children independant thought, principles, values, pride, self-sufficiency, self-worth, and how to love. A good many of the wealthiest children in the world are sadly lacking in all these qualities. BRILLIANTLY DONE BY AN OBVIOUS BRILLIANT, SPECIAL HUMAN BEING!! BRAVO!!!
food for thoughts on food October 6, 2008
an unexpected page turner for me. the glass castle caught me off guard in its honesty and reawakened my understanding of another world that lies beyond all the comforts of home. touching, that the author writes without judgment or resentment even though the story inspired both emotions in this reader.
Such shocking behavior, it's almost unbelievable September 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Glass Castle was so good that I couldn't put it down.
I am a mother of two children and would do anything to keep them healthy and safe. It's shocking to me that some people who choose to have kids are incapable of taking care of themselves, let alone their children.
It's a must read, difficult at times due to the abuse. We read it for our book club and it was a big hit.
Glass Castle September 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great narrator, fascinating story. A dysfunctional family at it's most bizarre and creative - had some very touching moments and some moments that make you angry. A fresh perspective on life, read by a terrific narrator.
 A COMPELLING LOOK AT POVERTY, ADDICTION, & CHILD NEGLECT September 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If ever a person had the right to say they grew up in a dysfunctional family and had a bad childhood, it's Jeannette Walls, along with her siblings. They were raised in poverty so extreme that they had to dig through the trash at school to find something to eat. They lived in an unheated, uninsulated, termite-ravaged house with no indoor plumbing. Their parents were too busy with their own cares to concern themselves with the fate of their children. They were so filthy that other children, even poor ones, refused to play with or befriend them.
What makes this memoir really work is that the author doesn't sit around feeling sorry for herself. Instead, she presents the facts and lets them speak for themselves. And many of these facts are disturbing.
Each character lives his or her own personal tragedy. For me, the greatest tragedy was Jeannette's father, Rex Walls, who had a brilliant mind, remarkable creativity, and an enduring love for his family. His lost potential is heartbreaking. If he could have stayed sober, he had the capacity to be an incredible person and caregiver. But he was overcome by the addiction of alcoholism that prevented him from ever becoming the man and father he was meant to be. Instead, he was abusive of his wife, could not provide for the family (and in fact stole from the children), gave only broken promises, and used his daughter for his personal gain.
Rose Mary Walls was as aloof, selfish, and unmaternal as a mother could possibly be. Her focus, from beginning to end, was always on herself: her own wants, her own needs, her own suffering. She was so disturbingly self-absorbed and removed from reality that I had no choice but to assume she has an unnamed mental disorder.
The four siblings are wonderful together, and I was delighted when, one by one, they escaped their unsafe home and abnormal family environment. That they each made it out without being raped (there were close calls) and becoming a complete basket case is stunning. It is hinted that the youngest child, Maureen Walls, didn't fare as well as the others, but that three normal, intelligent, well-adjusted adults could result from such an environment is miraculous.
"The Glass Castle" is a great read -- but you need to be able to handle reading about child and animal cruelty, lack of parental supervision over young children, and parents who willingly put their children in dangerous situations.
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