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Business Stationary Mart - The Glass Castle: A Memoir
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $5.39
Your Save: $ 9.61 ( 64% )
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Manufacturer: Scribner
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.82092
EAN: 9780743247542
ISBN: 074324754X
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2006-01-09
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mountain Goat licked by a cheetah
Comment: "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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Autobiography that Reads Like a Novel
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic brave memoir of a life of abuse
Comment: 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!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: WHAT AN AMAZING BOOK!
Comment: 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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Editorial Reviews:
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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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