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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. InThe 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
Beautifully written and very memorable I'd been wanting to read this book for a while but it wasn't till now that I got to read it and I don't regret it. The Glass Castle is very good and interesting book written by Jeannette Walls who relates her story of a childhood spent being very poor and with smart and creative parents who loved sciencie, art and books but that tended to neglect their four children. In other words, her dad was an alcoholic and her mother regretted having kids because it had interfered with her art activities.
I have to say I was really captivated by her story of growing up in a situation full of poorness, cruelty from other kids, dirtiness, negligence, to name a few. She had to deal with a dysfunctional family, shame and guilt, but she overcame all that and became a very talented writer.
This book has changed my outlook on life, it has made me appreciate a lot of things.
It is a really good book that I totally recommend. It will make you feel anger, sadness, hope, desperation, and love. This book also makes you realize that sometimes there's always somebody that probably had it worse, and it also will make you appreciate more things.
vgxoxo@hotmail.com
Castles in the Air A beautifully written memoir of perseverence, hope and sadness. The neglect and the abuse of her childhood was continually reframed for her by her parents into adventure or loyalty. In spite of crazy making double binds, Jeannette Walls comes to believe in herself when there is little else of substance and stability in her life. She builds from there with determination, strength and love, both for her family and herself. An truly admirable feat. A heavy read carried by the humor and love the writer refuses to give up. A real adventure.Winner of an "Academy Award for Books" The Glass Castle is one of eight books of the thousands published in 2005 to receive a Books for a Better Life award in a ceremony like an "Academy Awards" for books. Hurrah to Larry McMurtry, who won an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain and reminded the audience of the importance of books. The seven other winners in this amazing prize-winning list are: The Tender Bar (J.R. Moehringer), Undoing Perpetual Stress (Richard O'Connor), The Treehouse (Naomi Wolf), The Sociopath Next Door (Martha Stout), Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships (John Welwood), Unattended Sorrow (Stephen Levine), and Jim Cramer's Real Money.
