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The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

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What Members Thought

Aug 07, 2019 Kitty Marie rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-finished, own, 2019-books

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel getting into this one, having rarely read non-fiction memoirs. Turns out that the writing style employed here flows similarly to fiction, very approachable and easy to engage with. Even if the content is heavy and uncomfortable.

The story starts with our meeting Jeannette when she’s little more than a toddler. She has one slightly older sibling and two younger ones. Her family is highly unconventional. A group of eccentric drifters who believe in utter self-sufficiency I wasn’t sure how I’d feel getting into this one, having rarely read non-fiction memoirs. Turns out that the writing style employed here flows similarly to fiction, very approachable and easy to engage with. Even if the content is heavy and uncomfortable.

The story starts with our meeting Jeannette when she’s little more than a toddler. She has one slightly older sibling and two younger ones. Her family is highly unconventional. A group of eccentric drifters who believe in utter self-sufficiency and exist on the absolute fringes of society. Her mother is a very self-involved artist. Her father is a creative dreamer who struggles with addiction. They both make often shocking decisions that constantly put their four little children at risk and in destitute conditions.

The parents are very realized characters, written with a complex blend of affection and profound disappointment on the part of the narrater. At some earlier sections I had an inkling of sympathy for the parents, given the harshness of their lifestyle and lack of support. The reader is meant to think of them as multi-layered, very flawed but very human individuals. It’s hard empathizing with them the way the heroine does, as so much of the neglect faced by their children is nearly unforgivable.

Many sections are startling in general. Some examples-

- The parents refuse to lock doors or windows and strangers come traipsing into their home.
- At a young age, the kids fear being assaulted and gather weapons or gadgets to defend themselves and each other from pedophiles and bullies.
- Their father, believing himself to be in tune with nature and all its creatures, climbs into wild animal enclosures at a local zoo and encourages his kids to pet them.
- At one point the kids live in a house so fallen into disrepair that they risk electrocution by navigating the kitchen.

These are just a few of the outrageous things that occur. The descriptions of poverty are also very vivid, the way the struggles of the desperately poor in Appalachia is conveyed is shocking to read about.

I liked this book. But it’s hard to explain what is appealing about it.

My review up to this point probably makes this reading experience seem darkly dysfunctional. But Jeannette Walls’s writing is majorly unique in a sense of taking these events and infusing them with a unique perspective that isn’t gloom-filled. There are even several moments containing a sort of dark humor. The descriptions are concise but often written in beautiful or enlivening ways.

She is very in-tune with telling this story of her childhood and the childish viewpoint is endearing and genuine. The story unfurls like a series of vignettes, with each scene being a few pages and having a strong closing line. The pace is brisk due to this approach. The focus is so clear and close during the main character’s childhood and teen years.

And that brings me to the criticisms portion of things. Toward the end of the book, as the heroine edges closer to adulthood- she comes closer to a world with greater opportunities. But at that point the focus becomes more distant, more telling instead of showing as moments fly by too fast. I also felt like her parents were so detailed but her siblings, while very likable, were noticeably less vibrantly characterized.

This book is under 300 pages so understandably it would have to be substantially longer to make room for everything, but there would certainly have been something to be gained from showing with deeper clarity how her life improved after all of those hardships. Totally open to reading a sequel. As a stand-alone, this book is still well done and provides a lot to talk and think about. ...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Annette Olsen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

Absolutely fascinating look at a family that is both tragic and heroic. Her parents are complex. Their stregnths are also their weaknesses and both are more concerned with being the people they want to be than in caring for their family. The author gives a voice to this story that is straight forward but without self pity. Her love for her family, and particularly her father is obvious. At times she even seems a little nostalgic. Not for the actual past, but for the handsome father full of adven ...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Abbyb1 rated it really liked it

I couldn't get over how flat and emotionless the author's tone was - particularly when she is recounting her early childhood where she faces such a lack of attention from her parents. Her detachment is true to life I suppose since she was raised to consider that her mother and father's negligence was "normal". It wasn't until she began attending school and seeing how others lived that she realized that something was amiss about her family always doing the "skedattle" and living in abject poverty ...more

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