Beautifully Written Book about a Very Unpleasant Childhood

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	• The Glass Castle: A Memoir Jeannette Walls Scribner, 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 1040 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Sad Testament

I read this book on the recommendations of friends. I have to say, I did not find it as important, moving, or interesting as most. I suppose I finished it out of some type of morbid curiosity.

There are three things that really irked me about the book. First, the author presents some of the dysfunction in a comedic way. In doing so, the situation appeared to be minimized. I also was angered at the parent's rationalization. Starvation does not make one tougher, abuse does not improve one's character, and deprivation is not an adventure. Finally, although I am glad that the author and siblings escaped the situation, the "happy ending" may be misleading to the uninformed. Working for thrity years in the mental health field, I can tell you that most people do not make it out of the nightmare. Furthermore, I would like to know how the author adjusts longitudinally. Children placed in horrible situations carry baggage. At some time in her life, the nightmare will return.

What is the point of this book? Was it sensationalism, did the author want to prove to herself and others that she made it, or is there some type of lesson imbedded in the text. If I read it through the last lense, the book teaches many important lessons: 1. Children can bond to anything. 2. Addicts are rarely good parents. 3. Mental illness is often overlooked in society as people are simply dismissed as quirky. 4. Really intelligent people can be really messed up. 5. People with mental illness do not make good parents. 6. The community is woefully negligent in monitoring the innocent and helpless in its midst. 7. States and other public agencies must be much more proactive in guarding the safty of children. 8. Never live in West Virginia.

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Better than Therapy

Glass Castle was much more than a memoir. Jeannette Walls does an excellent job of describing her sad, starving, abusive childhood without letting it own her. She is able to give us a moving story of living for years hungry, cold and dirty with endless broken promises of change and throughout Walls manages to write in an incredibly loving and forgiving manner without making excuses.

I was encouraged by her ability to tell with honesty and without excuses of her father, a never ending drunk and her mother, a self absorbed neglectful woman. Jeannette Walls give us an incredible example of love and forgiveness while never making excuses.

Jeannette has a tenacity and strength that works much better than any therapy ever could.

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Great read

Great great read. Amazing how these kids were raised and still were able to rise above it. Was able to get right into the story and was engrossed thru the whole book.

Beautifully Written Book about a Very Unpleasant Childhood

This book is about Jeannette Walls childhood and early adult life. She writes lovingly and truthfully about her poverty-stricken and eccentric childhood. She doesn't spare the sordid details (although there are many more, I'm sure) and doesn't spare the good things either. She writes from the perspective of each age of her life - so we're seeing things as she saw them. She always saw that they were poor and that her parents were eccentric, although that's not her word, it's mine. Yet she was able to keep a child's voice until she finally saw the larger world and that she wanted a place in it.

The story was in short chapters, moving the story forward incrementally yet globally. Intellectually you knew that she left lots and lots out, but everything she wrote was key to explaining their family and experiences.

I could not find a single thing about this book that annoyed, jarred, irritated, or otherwise caused me to stop reading and consider the writing style, perspective, accuracy, or story being told as I was reading it. I'm usually very sensitive to how the author is telling the story, so this was quite unusual.

I didn't hear bitterness, pity, or self-pity. There was anger, and as she got older she apparently started expressing it. She mentions Brian's early criticism of their father's letting them down, and Lori's anger at Erma and how fast she wanted to get out of Welch. I also heard exasperation, embarrassment, and bewilderment at times.

Her favorite memory of childhood was a Christmas with no money. Her dad took her outside and let her pick a star for her present. She picked Venus. He turned here choice into a lesson on light waves... he was a highly intelligent and flawed man.

I read a blog about this book and one reader criticized Walls' denial and blindness to her parents abuse of them. I don't feel that at all, and her telling of the story is "this is the way it was, this is what my life's been". Acceptance. Like she said in an interview, she was deathly afraid that she'd lose her friends, job, and "meager" respect she'd gained in this world after publishing, but was glad to say she was wrong.

Anybody who can put their story out on the line like that has my respect. It put into better perspective my privileged childhood of the middle class - warmth, food, clean mended clothing, shelter, stability. It also put into better perspective the problems of my childhood too.

Such an inspiring book.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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, College & University Division
703.516.4000 (P)
703.516.4819 (F)

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