The Glass Castle: A Memoir | Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle: A Memoir | Jeannette Walls | Fabulous Insight into Another World

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The Glass Castle: ...

	The Glass Castle: A Memoir Jeannette Walls Scribner, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 1118 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Unforgettable memoir

Jeannette Walls' memoir of her family is a frank, unvarnished look at two parents who were self-absorbed, deep in denial, and yet at times loving and supportive of their children. Walls was quite close to her father despite the fact that he was a sometimes-violent, often-inebriated man. When he was sober, he taught his children to enjoy classic literature and to be compassionate and brave. Both parents lived in a fantasy world, her father always promising to make a fortune and build a lovely "glass castle" for the family, and her mother preferring to be a painter and earn no money instead of using her education to work as a teacher(although she did get jobs sporadically when circumstances became particularly dire.) The children lived in unspeakable conditions and were usually expected to fend for themselves. The author went through many years of trying to hide her past and her family, but her husband convinced her to write this book which is a real gift to readers, and hopefully, a catharsis for the author as well.

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Fabulous Insight into Another World

Jeannette Walls writes a captivating memoir about her and her siblings struggles growing up in the less than ideal world of poverty, hunger, and alcoholism. Her descriptions are raw and vulnerable. I could nearly feel the pain and frustration she must have felt. At the same time, her family's patience in dealing with their own family "demons" helped to inspire me to do the same in my own life. This book will catch you from the very first page. A definite must read!

An unforgettable book.

The author, her sisters Lori and Maureen and her brother Brian were raised by parents who were dreamers. And of course, dreams do not pay the rent or feed the family. The children were often hungry (imagine eating Wonder bread and lard sandwiches), dirty, and dressed in hand-me-down clothes. Each child learned to cope in their own way with their extreme poverty, their father's alcoholism and extended absences, and their mother's moody and abstract sense of reality.

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The Glass Castle

I thought this was a great book about how children survive with mental illness in the family. The child learns to deal with the person as they are, not as you wish they were. You also learn that you can not control the person or the illness if they don't want help. Money or lack of was not the issue, it just showed that even wealth can't control or stop mental illness.

wow!

Walls' book is as revealing as it gets. This book evokes the gamut of emotions and should be read by anyone who considers their family dysfuncional. The story is well-told and clearly written.

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