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The Glass Castle: a Memoir
by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle: a Memoir Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town — and the family — Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

Review:

"Walls's journalistic bare-bones style makes for a chilling, wrenching, incredible testimony of childhood neglect. A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit." Dani Shapiro, author of Family History

Review:

"The Glass Castle is the saga of the restless, indomitable Walls family, led by a grand eccentric and his tempestuous artist wife. Jeannette Walls has survived poverty, fires, and near starvation to triumph. She has written this amazing tale with honesty and love." Patricia Bosworth, author of Anything Your Little Heart Desires and Diane Arbus: A Biography

Review:

"Just read the first pages of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I defy you not to go on. It's funny and sad and quirky and loving. I was incredibly touched by it." Dominick Dunne, author of The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper

Synopsis:

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town — and the family — Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

TO INQUIRE ABOUT SCHEDULING JEANNETTE WALLS FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS PLEASE CONTACT: Keppler Speakers
Dustin L. Jones
Associate, CollegeandUniversity Division
703.516.4000 (P)
703.516.4819 (F)

Special Features:

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About the Author

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 12 comments:
kaahumanu, April 14, 2008 (view all comments by kaahumanu)
Jeannette Walls and her brother and sisters lived an amazing life. Her parents were criminally neglectful, the children really raised themselves and each other. And yet, the children were loved and educated. 'The Glass Castle' explains a very strange willful type of homelessness. I'm going to recommend 'The Glass Castle' to my book club, there is much to discuss in this book.
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beccaboo411, February 27, 2008 (view all comments by beccaboo411)
The glass castle is an addiction. Once you start to read, its near impossible to put down. I began reading Jeanette Walls memoir and found myself deeply entranced in her life story of living with her 3 siblings, and two chaotic parents. It's incredible, even mind blowing to read what loving, caring words that are written about her seemingly careless, mind-scattered parents. Glass Castle is a story of family, love, and even pain. You'll laugh, cry, and wish at times your family was as adventuresome as the Walls.
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Shoshana, December 21, 2007 (view all comments by Shoshana)
Walls has given us an elegant memoir of growing up with difficult parents. When we first meet the family, though we as adult readers may experience some concern, Walls' child narrator sees only the adventure and excitement of her circumstances. Her father is a smart, charismatic eccentric; her mother, an artist from a privileged background who has renounced her own family's values and social class. Walls and her siblings adore and admire their parents (while already having some uneasy inklings that parents ought to protect their children more assiduously). As the narrator ages, her perspective on her parents shifts; it's also probably the case that their oddities became more pronounced. Her father's drinking and inability to manage the interpersonal aspects of a job become more prominent, while her mother withdraws farther from reality and responsibility. An especially grim section of the narrative takes place in West Virginia, where they appear to be the poorest of the poor in their community.

Walls is a good writer and the effort of reading this is emorional, not literary. I hope we'll see more from her. Read with Laura Love's You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes for another narrative about growing up with an unstable mother, and Paul Theroux's Mosquito Coast for a fictional similar situation and developmental dynamic between father and child.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780743247542
Subtitle:
A Memoir
Author:
Walls, Jeannette
Author:
Walls, Jeannette
Publisher:
Scribner Book Company
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Subject:
Homeless persons
Subject:
Entertainment & Performing Arts - Television Personalities
Subject:
Poor
Subject:
Childhood Memoir
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Copyright:
2006
Edition Description:
B102
Publication Date:
January 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
288
Dimensions:
806x532x76 56
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