Glass Castle: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeannette Walls
Creator: Julia Gibson
Publisher: Recorded Books
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
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Rating:  1061 reviews
Sales Rank: 93987
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 1419339796
EAN: 9781419339790
ASIN: 1419339796
Publication Date: April 2005
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Amazon.com
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1056 more reviews...
 Great Read July 3, 2008
AA APRN (Shelton, CT)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book per a friends recommendation for a good vacation read. It was an excellent memoir of a life that most of us never even imagine happens to many children out there. At the time time it is humorous and a very fast and enjoyable read.
 A strange and offbeat childhood July 1, 2008
Paper Pen (Long Beach, CA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not the kind of book I would normally read, but my wife recommended it so I decided to give it a try. From the moment I started, I could barely put it down.
Author Jeannette Walls gets you hooked in the first half of the book with disturbing and funny tales of her peculiar childhood. Her parents, though clearly smart in an academic sense, avoided steady work and conventional lifestyles, keeping the family perpetually poor. They often "skeedaddled" out of town in the middle of the night to avoid bill collectors.
Walls and her three siblings had to learn to be self-reliant early on. She was cooking her own hot dogs at age 3 (resulting in getting seriously burned), she learned to shoot a gun at age 4. All the kids learned how to forage for food in dumpsters and garbage cans -- they had to, since the refrigerator was frequently empty. Once, Walls fell out of the car when the door flew open on a hard turn, and her parents almost didn't notice.
Her parents were selfish, unstable and irresponsible. But just when you're ready to hate them, they do something right.
Walls' father was an alcoholic whose parenting philosophy was illustrated when he throws Walls in deep water repeatedly and literally expects her to sink or swim. He's horrid with money, but later on, miraculously comes up with $1,000 to keep Walls in college.
Her mother was artist who seemed to have little idea of how to raise children, and really didn't care. But she did have a love for books which was passed on to her children.
The second half of the book takes a turn for the grim, when the family finally settles in a depressing and unfriendly small town in West Virginia. The kids get in fights, they help their mother shoplift, their roof leaks so bad that Walls' brother has to sleep under a rubber raft. They forage for food yet again.
If the book had started this way, I might have been turned off. But by this point, I was hooked and found the story tugging at my heart. I read eagerly all the way to the end to see how the Walls children would turn out.
This isn't one of those memoirs where the author whines. Walls tells her stories with graceful detachment, offering colorful details, but doesn't ask for pity.
On the whole, "The Glass Castle" shows the resilience of children. Despite their strange and difficult upbringing, it's remarkable how well Walls and her siblings turned out.
Great Read June 30, 2008
M.A. (Mom of 2 boys) (Washington State)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the better books I have picked up this summer! The author keeps you engaged through an awesome retelling of her childhood. This is an excellent book for a book club discussion!
Life lessons and a true gift June 30, 2008
S. M. Roberts (St. Albans, WV United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A fellow West Virginian, I have read this book twice, and seen Ms. Walls in person twice at local speaking engagements. She is the real deal. Her story is inspirational to all of us, and teaches us valuable lessons in today's world of fortune and excess. Her no-nonsense, positive, practical attitude is one which we should all emulate. She chose this attitude in the face of dire circumstances which toughened her into the successful woman she is today. This book articulates with consistent, logical tone the true story of a poor family's struggles in the Southwest and eventually in Welch, WV. The story is unbelievable as her parents make outrageous choices which contradict what is best for their children. The Walls children were hungry, cold, and ridiculed by peers. However they were too proud to let it show, even refusing hand outs. Instead of letting their upbringing ruin her life, Ms. Walls instead sees her hardships as gifts, with a lesson in toughness hidden inside. This book has helped me to look at people differently, with more compassion and understanding. She has helped me understand a parent's impact on a child's life...her parents, although neglectful and selfish, never put their children down or abused them, always believed in them, and taught them the self-reliance and responsiblity that today's children lack. Let us all take our children demon-hunting and give them the gift of the stars in the night sky.
Bravely written, extreme example of a dysfunctional family and child neglect June 28, 2008
R. Carlson
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
WOW! I seldom read non-fiction, but after I saw this book's reviews, I had to give it a try and it did not disappoint. The story is of the author's childhood and growing up in a terribly dysfunctional family with an alcoholic, but brilliant, father, a frustrated and "out there" mother, and three siblings that, along with the author, try to survive some of the most heart-wrenching situations you can imagine......from hunger to cold to sexual abuse. The author tells the story dispassionately, which is amazing to me. If you grew up in a dysfunctional home, you'll find yourself somewhere in this book. If you felt neglected or abused, you'll find yourself here. Though I keep thinking the parents must have done something right as the children, with the possible exception of one, pulled themselves up out of the worst kind of poverty, and have successful lives. It's hard, however, to think of the parents with much compassion. If you came from a dysfunctional background, read this book! You'll find it fascinating! You may also find it disturbing, which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. I will think about this book for a long time...not necessarily a good thing!
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