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The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
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The Glass Castle: A Memoir

by Jeannette Walls

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6,982301217 (4.18)364
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English (298)  German (2)  French (1)  All languages (301)
Showing 1-5 of 298 (next | show all)
It's amazing to me that people willfully live like this.

The Glass Castle is a poignant memoir describing the author's childhood living in extreme poverty. Although her parents have the means to provide for her family, they rarely do so. Therefore, the children have to grow up quickly and find ways to avoid starvation on their own.

Although the story itself could be heart-wrenching or terribly depressing, Walls' sense of self-worth and self-sufficiency keeps the storyline buoyant, even humorous at times. The family, although highly dysfunctional, is also quirky, which adds a redeeming quality to Walls' parents' fiascoes.

Walls' writing is light when dealing with heavy topics. I found that it was difficult to pull myself away from the book, and I was rooting for the Walls children throughout. I give this book 5 stars for style, content, and a powerful sense of optimistic willpower throughout challenging circumstances. ( )
  echoesofstars | Nov 21, 2009 |
2007 ( )
  katiemertz | Nov 20, 2009 |
Living abroad, I had never heard of "The Glass Castle", and only bought it on a whim when it was touted to me by a Borders cashier. But I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It helped to know the ending...you know Walls will make it out. While I know that it was her early childhood, when the fantasy was alive and the skedaddle was a game, that makes the most entertaining and gentle episodes, I would have like to read more about the Barnard and young New York years...how did this family find their place in a world with which I am a little more familiar? But really, this is her parents' story as much as her own. Walls did an outstanding job of presenting her parents in all their failings yet in a balanced light, and so you can feel their brilliance and charisma, even as they let you down again and again. ( )
  naomio9 | Nov 15, 2009 |
Provocative. Unbelievable. Amazing. This is story about a girl who grew up in a household characterized solely by neglect. This true story explains how she became the mature, well-rounded woman who goes on to write her memoir. It goes without saying- this novel is a must read. The first page draws the reader in with ease and the conclusion provides closure. As for the "meat" of the story, there's never a dull moment. "The Glass Castle" is deep and thought provoking, read it! ( )
1 vote aconnx3 | Nov 13, 2009 |
very interesting and well-written!! I like Walls's style, it reads very quickly. ( )
  KendraRenee | Nov 12, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 298 (next | show all)
''The Glass Castle'' falls short of being art, but it's a very good memoir. At one point, describing her early literary tastes, Walls mentions that ''my favorite books all involved people dealing with hardships.'' And she has succeeded in doing what most writers set out to do -- to write the kind of book they themselves most want to read.
 
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People/Characters
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Epigraph
Dark is a way and light is a place,
Heaven that never was
Nor will be ever is always true
-Dylan Thomas
"Poem on His Birthday"
Dedication
To John, for convincing me that everyone who is interesting has a past
First words
I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Homelessness in popular culture

Jeannette Walls

Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 074324754X, Paperback)

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

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)

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