The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about her childhood and life with her parents.
Her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, were dreamers who set out to have a life
beyond the dictates of society. Ms. Walls retells the adventures and missteps of her childhood.
The book opens with adult Jeannette seeing her homeless
mother on the street, rummaging though the trash. Hoping that she’s not
spotting, she runs back to her safe apartment. Ashamed that she ran from her
mother, she opens up on how her mother ended up on the street. The Walls’
family’s life as they lived in various places of the southwest and eventually a
small town in coal country of West Virginia. The Walls children go through
various injuries that would seem extreme to anyone else but to her parents,
they were battle scars of life and they would learn and survive. The family had
the habit of picking up and leaving in the middle of the night. They lived like
nomads, moving from place to place, only leaving when they got caught or were
in danger of getting caught. Caught for what? Jeannette’s dad always told fantastical
stories about why they had to run, mostly in entertain the children.
The Glass Castle is her father’s impossible dream. His dream
of a big house in the desert with glass ceiling and walls with solar panels.
Her father always had a “get rich quick” schemes. Her parents’ relationship was
volatile fueled by alcohol and disappointment. As the children grow and learn
to see their parents’ lives and lies for what they were. They find the strength
within themselves to better themselves. Eventually all the children would make
it to New York City. There, they would graduate high school, college and begins
their careers. All the while their parents live their lives as they always
have, on the edge of society, taking with little giving and making promises
that cannot be delivered.
I enjoyed reading The
Glass Castle, although there were sometimes I thought this can’t be
possible but then I’ve heard stranger stories. Jeannette Walls’ story is told with
brutal honest and love. As you read, you see the world through the wonderment of
a 3 year old eyes to the critical eye of an adult. You get that the parents’
loved their children and they did their best in their education and their care.
They just couldn’t or didn’t want to live the conventional life that everyone
else did.
“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy.
You should
learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more”
–Rose Mary Walls
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