The Glass Castle

by Jeanette Walls | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by katamat of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania USA on 2/18/2007
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by katamat from Spring Grove, Pennsylvania USA on Sunday, February 18, 2007
A good friend suggested it and said it was the story of her life. Knowing what she went through as a child growing into adulthood intrigued me. So......

Journal Entry 2 by katamat from Spring Grove, Pennsylvania USA on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Excellent book. Walls really captures the dysfunctionality of her family with courage and grace. She makes a potentially toxic youth into a humorous adventure through the ups and downs of life. The fact that three of her four siblings made it through life unscathed is amazing. Being that it is an autobiographic memoir makes it that much more remarkable. As you laugh at her funny anecdotes you also cringe at her suffering when she reminisces about the awful moments that might have totally devastated another child. My salute to Jeannette Walls for her incredible journey to womanhood.

Journal Entry 3 by katamat from Spring Grove, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, April 18, 2007
sending on to butterflywithin.

Journal Entry 4 by butterflywithin from Edgartown, Massachusetts USA on Monday, April 30, 2007
Just received this today and will read soon as I finish 'Me Talk Pretty One Day'

Journal Entry 5 by butterflywithin from Edgartown, Massachusetts USA on Saturday, May 5, 2007
What an appalling 'adventure' of a story. Though a memoir, my jaw dropped during some points when I read what the parents had to say. I'm very much into memoirs like this, but have not come across one as disturbing as 'A Child Called It' series.
Sad that the youngest sister wasn't written more about, towards the end of the book. I wanted to see what she had endured since running off to California.
We all have our ups and downs in families, but it just seemed these 2 parents were way too free spirited and had no sense of direction, whatsoever. -- Maybe someday the remaining family members WILL get their Glass Castle ...

Journal Entry 6 by DubaiReader at Dubai, Dubai United Arab Emirates on Saturday, May 2, 2015
Oh dear, confession time!
I just realised that I have an unregistered BC book on my shelves. I suspect it came through BookMooch, but even so.....

It was an eye-opening read, some people are unbelievable!!
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Here is my review:

Truth is stranger than fiction.

In this memoir, Jeanette Walls tells the story of her childhood, travelling America with her highly intelligent, yet dysfunctional parents. Her mother was an artist and shunned any suggestion of 'normal' life within four permanent walls. Her father was a vibrant character when sober, who taught his children science, geography and maths, but when drunk, transformed into a gambling, thieving liar. Much of the time they were escaping in the middle of the night from some debt or misdemeanour of their father's. Sometimes he worked, but often it ended in tears.

I am always amazed at how resilient children can be. These four siblings pretty much raised themselves and frequently had more sense then their parents. When they did spend time in any one place it was generally in squalor, sleeping in cardboard boxes under leaking roofs, often not knowing where the next meal was coming from.

My enduring memory from the book was when Jeanette was asked by her father what she would like for her birthday and she replied that she wanted him to stop drinking - and he did it, at least for a while. He loved his children dearly, but he loved alcohol more. He was an inventor, always coming up with some new scheme that was going to make him huge amounts of money. Perhaps his greatest pipe-dream, was the Glass Castle of the title, the fantastic house, for which he'd drawn elaborate plans, but which never came to fruition.

Jeanette's mother was a complete screw-ball, I wonder if she was in some way mentally ill. She came from a wealthy family, and when things got particularly tough the family would go back and stay with the grandmother on her ranch. This was the childrens' only taste of luxury, with regular meals and a proper bed. Jeanette's mother inherited a fair amount of money and a house, on their grandmother's death, but very little changed in their way of life.

The ending was revealed at the start, so it's no spoiler to say that the mother ended up homeless by choice, a denouement that I would think unbelievable if I'd read it in a novel!
There is an interesting video on GoodReads, where the mother is interviewed, well worth a watch.

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