return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
   Summary and Book Reviews

The Glass Castle: Summary and book reviews of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, plus links to an excerpt from The Glass Castle and a biography of Jeannette Walls.

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle
A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls
Hardcover: Mar 2005,
304 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2006,
304 pages.

Publication information
Author Information
Critics' Opinion:   
Readers' Rating:  
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book

BOOK SUMMARY

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.

Media Reviews

  Booklist - Stephanie Zvirin (starred review)
Shocking, sad, and occasionally bitter, this gracefully written account speaks candidly, yet with surprising affection, about parents and about the strength of family ties--for both good and ill.

  The New York Times - Francine Prose
The Glass Castle falls short of being art, but it's a very good memoir. At one point, describing her early literary tastes, Walls mentions that ''my favorite books all involved people dealing with hardships.'' And she has succeeded in doing what most writers set out to do -- to write the kind of book they themselves most want to read.

  Kirkus Reviews
Walls's journalistic bare-bones style makes for a chilling, wrenching, incredible testimony of childhood neglect. A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story.

  Publishers Weekly
With a fantastic storytelling knack... Walls doesn't pull her punches.

Author Blurb Dani Shapiro, author of Family History
Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit.

Author Blurb Patricia Bosworth, author of Anything Your Little Heart Desires and Diane Arbus: A Biography
The Glass Castle is the saga of the restless, indomitable Walls family, led by a grand eccentric and his tempestuous artist wife. Jeannette Walls has survived poverty, fires, and near starvation to triumph. She has written this amazing tale with honesty and love.

Author Blurb Dominick Dunne, author of The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper
Just read the first pages of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I defy you not to go on. It's funny and sad and quirky and loving. I was incredibly touched by it.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by hillary_marie
The Glass Castle
As I was reading this deeply sad book, I kept wondering to myself, could anything else really happen to this family. It is a true story full of shocking, sometimes disturbing, scenes of the life of a little girl and her interesting family. I...   Read More

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Bebemangzu
It's a book worth reading and recommending to others!
She's a really good writer. Her choice of words and ways of descriptions that tell of her experience growing up stirred me to keep reading. At times, I found myself angry at her parents, sad and happy about the things that she endured, laughing at...   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Courtney Craig
Undescribable
Some stir hearts with pictures. Some with dance. Some with song. And some can move your entire being, creep into the very crevices of your soul, with words. Jeannette Walls did just that. The Glass Castle will be a work of art, a...   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by bobbie d
It's Real
Our book club really liked this book. Couldn't believe that it is a true story! But I guess no one could make this up. This is one of the craziest disfunctional families ever. The father had dreams that would never happen, hence, The Glass Castle....   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Laurie
Wonderful
This is a wonderful story of triumph and trial. There are more than one occasions that could have changed any of these people in an extremely negative way, the author just pushes through in telling the story. She doesn't become bogged down in the...   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Charlotte Cunningham
A great memoir
While I was at work a few days ago, one of my co workers said Hey Charlotte after I read your memoir Why? it made me think of another memoir called The Glass Castle, I think you should read it. Wow, I just finished The Glass Castle. It is a great...   Read More

...163 More Reader Reviews

For two decades Jeannette Walls hid her roots - working primarily as a gossip columnist at several publications including Esquire and USA Today, and as a contributor to MSNBC.  She even wrote a book about gossip, Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip (1999) - described by Publishers Weekly as 'provocative and invariably entertaining, Walls gives dishing the dirt its historical, social and political due.'

Then cracks started to appear in her version of her life and she found herself compelled to tell it how it really was.  She dedicates her book to her husband John, 'for convincing me that everyone who is interesting has a past'.

Readalikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Glass Castle, try these:


A Girl Named Zippy
by Haven Kimmel

This witty and lovingly told memoir takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period--people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.

Blackbird
by Jennifer Lauck

An incandescent memoir of an ordinary girl growing up at the turn of the 1970s and the truly extraordinary circumstances of a childhood lost. Wrenching and unforgettable, Blackbird will carry your heart away.


These are 2 of the 12 readalike suggestions for The Glass Castle. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.


Become a Member
Golden Boy
Editor's Choice
  •  May 23 
  •  May 21 
  •  May 20 
And the Mountains Echoed
Khaled Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed Jacket

Khaled Hosseini has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations
Helga's Diary
Helga Weiss

Helga's Diary Jacket

The remarkable diary of a young girl who survived the Holocaust—appearing in English for the first time.
Fever
Mary Beth Keane

Fever Jacket

A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Click Here
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Movies Based on Books: Summer 2013 (May - August)
Jewish Young Adult Books That Are Not About The Holocaust
Books to Give This Mother's Day
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
Two Lives by Vikram Seth
Two Lives is a memoir written by international best-selling author, Vikram Seth. In this interesting and engaging book, Seth writes about his great... read more
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight... read more
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Sold
Patricia McCormick
2. Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
3. And the Mountains Echoed
Khaled Hosseini
4. A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer
5. Tethered
Amy Mackinnon
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
Paperback (Mar/13)
Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell
Hardback (Feb/13)
The House Girl
by Tara Conklin
Paperback (Oct/13)
The Painted Girls
by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Hardback (Jan/13)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Sisterhood
by Helen Bryan
Four Stars            (Apr/13)
The Last Girl
by Jane Casey
Four Stars            (May/13)
The Caretaker
by A .X. Ahmad
Four Stars            (May/13)
Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
4.5 Stars            (May/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales. (May 20 2013)
Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Which of these Summer movies based on books would you like to see? (Info on each movie here)
The Great Gatsby
Epic
Man of Steel
World War Z
The Lone Ranger
The Wolverine
R.I.P.D.
Percy Jackson
Paranoia
The Mortal Instruments
Select Any That Apply
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters
The Light Between Oceans

Online Book Club
More about
Five Days
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
On Sal Mal Lane


"Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound."

Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"I Y N P O T Solution, Y P O T P"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Menna van Praag
Erica Brown
Helga Weiss
Kate Morton
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us