The Glass Castle: A Memoir |  | Author: Jeannette Walls
Creator: Julia Gibson
Publisher: Recorded Books
Category: Book
List Price: $119.75
Buy New: $59.96
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1097 reviews
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 10
ISBN: 1419341049
EAN: 9781419341045
ASIN: 1419341049
Publication Date: November 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New, great condition
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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 45 more reviews...
 Mountain Goat licked by a cheetah August 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"I had no idea what my life would be like then, but as I gathered up my schoolbooks and walked out the door, I swore to myself that it would never be like Mom's, that I would not be crying my eyes out in an unheated shack in some godforsaken holler." - Jeannette Walls
"I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening (party), when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster ... She had tied rags around her shoulders to keep out the spring chill ... To the people walking by, she probably looked like any of the thousands of homeless people in New York City ... I was embarrassed by them, too, and ashamed of myself for wearing pearls and living on Park Avenue while my parents were busy keeping warm and finding something to eat." - Jeannette Walls
THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls is the second-best book I've read this year to date, the best being Still Alice by Lisa Genova.
Rose Mary and Rex Walls were married in 1956. Over the next several years, they had four children - daughters Lori, Jeannette and Maureen and son Brian. Anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian individualists frequently on the run from something, the couple refused to enter the societal mainstream even to the extent of supplying their children with the conventionally acceptable American upbringing that stipulates freedom from hunger and the provision of adequate shelter and clothing. THE GLASS CASTLE is Jeanette's poignant and powerful memoir of growing up emotionally loved but materially deprived.
From Jeannette's narrative, it's soon apparent that her parents are gifted and intelligent human beings. Indeed, Rex, who's self-taught and knowledgeable about subjects that would challenge many university graduates, reads "Los Alamos Science" and "The Journal of Statistical Physics" and becomes interested in the Chaos Theory. Rex's mind is constantly ablaze with technically sophisticated plans and enrichment schemes, the former including designing The Glass Castle, an energy self-sufficient family home to be built of glass. However, Rex's rebellious streak against society, complicated by alcoholism, dooms him to a succession of failed blue-collar jobs and petty confrontations with the law that keep the Walls constantly on the move from California to Nevada to Arizona to West Virginia to New York City. In the Southwest, the family lives in a succession of dilapidated buildings in isolated, desert mining towns until Rose Mary inherits a home from her mother located in Phoenix, where life for Jeannette and her siblings is relatively good. Then Rex again becomes unemployed and the Walls move to the decaying coal mining town of Welch, WV, where Rex grew up. In Welch, the family's living conditions bottom out when they take up residence in a wretched, unheated, leaky, unplumbed shanty on stilts built on the side of a mountain. Here, the children don't even have enough to eat. Jeannette describes the experience of scavenging food at school:
"When other girls came in (the girls' restroom) and threw away their lunch bags in the garbage pails, I'd go retrieve them. I couldn't get over the way kids tossed out all this perfectly good food: apples, hard-boiled eggs, packages of peanut-butter crackers, sliced pickles, half-pint cartons of milk, cheese sandwiches with just one bite taken out because the kid didn't like the pimentos in the cheese. I'd return to the (toilet) stall and polish off my tasty finds."
I've had occasion to read memoirs by authors recalling happier upbringings: Knots in My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli, Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood by Susan Allen Toth, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson, Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham. In the early pages of THE GLASS CASTLE, I had to ask myself, "Is this a parody?" But one couldn't make up the events that Jeannette relates.
What's remarkable about Jeannette's story is her lack of bitterness towards her parents. Only on a couple of occasions does she even hint at laying blame on them for irresponsibility and negligence. Besides, her love for them endures. To me, and perhaps other readers with more "normal" childhoods, Rex's and Rose Mary's treatment of their offspring was neglect verging on abuse.
The fact that Jeannette and her siblings apparently grew up to be well-adjusted and, in the author's case, happily married and professionally and financially successful, is evidence for the resiliency of the human spirit. But, as you read THE GLASS CASTLE, you will perhaps weep and/or rage for the Walls children.
During their Phoenix period, Rex took Jeannette, whom he'd nicknamed "Mountain Goat", to the city zoo. There, led across a low fence by her Dad to get closer to a cage, Jeannette's palm was licked by a captive cheetah.
An Autobiography that Reads Like a Novel August 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm really not much on non-fiction, but this book reads like a novel. Incredible what this woman went through as a child. Just shows the resiliency of children. So well written; you can picture every place and detail that is described. A book you won't want to put down, and will pass on to others.
Fantastic brave memoir of a life of abuse August 25, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wall is the type of book that makes you want to give your parents a hug and thank them for being such wonderful parents, no matter how bad they were. Wall was raised by free spirits who want their children to become toughened by life and believe firmly in survival of the fittest. Her mother wants to be an artist and not to be bothered by the inconvenience of feeding and caring for her children. Her father is brilliantly smart but also a vicious drunk. Every time I thought that her childhood couldn't get any worse, I would turn the page. Which is worse? The Christmas he lit the entire Christmas tree on fire (on purpose) destroying their presents or the time he chased his pregnant wife with the car through the desert at night until he pinned her against a rock wall. Wall's story of perserverance through adversity is inspiring and amazing. You can't help but admire the courage it took to survive what she did and accomplish everything she has since. The sick thing about the book. I finished it last night, and today I realized I was a bit sad that I didn't have any more of their crazy life stories to read about!
Captivating August 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really liked this book. I felt completely sucked-in to the story. I found it to be well-written, and thoroughly entertaining. The characters are deep and well-developed. I highly recommend this novel; it's a great read!
Some scenarios in the book are outlandish/unrealistic. Additionally I had a hard time accepting that Jeannette would behave the way she did toward the end of the book, but overall I still give it 5 stars.
WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK! August 24, 2008
This story is truly a must read. Jeannette Walls writes an incredible story of courage and triumph! I love that a majority of the book was written from her viewpoint as a child...it makes the story that much more real and honest. I fell in love with all the characters, and yes, even her father and mother.
This book is sensational!
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