The Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeannette WallsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-09
ISBN: 074324754X
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Scribner
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- Condition: USED - Very Good
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Book Reviews of The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Book Review: The Glass Castle Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Amazon.com Book Review
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The New York Times Bestseller memoir, The Glass Castle, written by journalist Jeannette Walls, was published in 2005. Jeannette Walls explains her life story from 1957 to 2005, while she grows up with many significant problems but eventually overcomes them in the end. As a young child while growing up, she has to deal with three siblings, two parents, and shifting lifestyles. In the beginning of the story, she is a successful adult who owns her own apartment in New York City, but comes across her suffering mother on the streets. When Jeannette and her mother discuss their situations in a diner, her mother repeatedly explains that she does not want any help to survive. This helps remind Jeannette of her past life, and she continues the novel with short memories of different ages, while growing up during rough times in her life.
The three daughters, Jeannette, Lori, and Maureen, and the only son, Brian, are constantly taken across the Western Hemisphere of America by their two disorganized parents. The mother, Rose Mary Walls, and the father, Rex Walls, become overwhelmed throughout the book and are not able to cope. They have problems with lack of money, attempts to avoid the police, and the mother's constant pregnancies. This keeps the family unstable, and if the children want to survive, they have to discover for themselves the right decisions to make.
Although it is a tough life for the family to survive, they have to learn how to become resourceful with the limited supplies they have. Jeannette explains the positive lessons she learned from her mother, "Most people had trouble surviving in the desert, but Mom thrived there. She knew how to get by on next to nothing. She showed us which plants were edible and which were toxic. She taught us that you could wash yourself up pretty clean with just a cup of water. She said it was good for you to drink unpurified water...Chlorinated city water was for namby-pambies. Water from the wild helps build up your antibodies" (21). Throughout the book I could feel the sense of joy and appreciation that Jeannette expresses for the adventures she experienced, "I loved the desert, too. When the sun was in the sky, the sand would be so hot that it would burn your feet if you were the kind of kid who wore shoes...We'd catch scorpions and snakes and horny toads" (21). As the children grow up, they become more and more independent from their parents.
Lori is the first to decide that she wants to leave, and she is the first one who does actually leave the family. She first goes to Iowa, and eventually to New York City. Lori and Jeannette both think of New York City as, "It was a place of energy and creativity and intellectual stimulation the likes of which we'd never seen. It was filled with people who, because they were such unique individuals, didn't fit in anywhere else" (222). Lori is the first person in the family who realizes that their parents are not going anywhere to go beyond where they are, in the small town of Welch, West Virginia. Jeannette explains why Lori yelled at her one day, "Then she told me that it had occurred to her that if she got out of Welch, and away from the family, she might have a shot at a happy life. From then on, she began looking forward to the day she'd leave...and be on her own" (218). Afterwards, Jeannette is the next to realize it herself, when she says, "I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own. It would take saving and planning" (221). Lori and Jeannette try many times to save money so they can leave, until finally they have an opportunity. While they are raising money, one of the babysitters asks Jeannette to go with them to Iowa, and says that after the summer they will pay for her bus ticket home. Jeannette tells the family to take Lori instead, and buy her a bus ticket to New York City. When Lori's graduation is around the corner, she ends up leaving her family, living in a hotel for women in Greenwich Village, taking art classes, and even fencing lessons. Jeannette leaves when she is seventeen, and stays with her sister in New York City. When Brian grows up, he heads for New York City at about the same age as Jeannette. Lastly, Maurice arrives in New York City. Many conflicts arise from their disconnected family, many divorces, families moving, and arguments, but in the end the family always loves each other.
Society has taught us a way of life that people believe is right, but this novel shows a different view of life. One of the many lessons include the idea that living on the edge gives people a creative and unique way of life. Jeannette explains her father's plans, "When Dad wasn't telling us about all the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do. Like build the Glass Castle...The Glass Castle would have solar cells on the top that would catch the sun's rays and convert them into electricity for heating and cooling and running all the appliances" (25). Even though the family's situation is grim, the book shows that there can always be at least a glimmer of hope, especially if you follow your dreams.
In addition to showing a way of life that is different from most families, the book also shows how to live with what you do have. The parents may not be nurturing toward their children, but they usually seem to have a positive approach to life. Since they do not have everything in life, they learn to accept things ranging from the worst to the best. Because they don't expect so much, they are not so disappointed when things don't always work out so well. Jeannette Walls explains one example of her mother's way of living life with what she has, "Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you...It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encourages them...That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior" (28). This book changes our perceptions of life, shows how to make the right decisions, and points out that negativity gets you nowhere.
At times I did not enjoy the author's form of writing that was somewhat short and choppy instead of descriptive and graceful, "I also knew I should return it. But I didn't. I meant to, and every morning I'd put it in my pocket... That ring was too darn pretty" (85). She may express her feelings in a unique manner, but at times the writing style is too broad. Another criticism has to do with the actions and accusations made by Rose Mary Walls. All her life, Rose wanted to become a famous artist, and throughout the book she blames her lack of good fortune on her children and life for neglecting her dreams. In reality, it was not her children's fault, but yet her own poor judgment, "She retreated to her sofa bed and stayed there for days on end, crying and occasionally throwing things at us. She could have been a famous artist by now, she yelled, if she hadn't had children, and none of us appreciated her sacrifice" (187). By the mistakes people make in this book, you realize that you have learned so much from it that you can see these faults for yourself.
Although the novel is somewhat disturbing, I learned so many lessons have helped me tremendously. I have never read a book that gives me so much advice about what I have already experienced, and that I will experience one day. I now have a better perception of life, to not feel sorry for myself because there are people who are in much worse situations than mine. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a different view of life, to inspire and change. With all the lessons I learned from this book, I am sure you can realize something within yourself that you have not yet discovered.
Summary of The Glass Castle: A Memoir
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.
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.
Q: How long did it take you to write The Glass Castle and what was that process like?
A: Writing about myself, and about intensely personal and potentially embarrassing experiences, was unlike anything I?d done before. Over the last 25 years, I wrote many versions of this memoir -- sometimes pounding out 220 pages in a single weekend. But I always threw out the pages. At one point I tried to fictionalize it, but that didn't work either.
When I was finally ready, I wrote it entirely on the weekends, getting to my desk by 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. and continuing until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. I wrote the first draft in about six weeks -- but then I spent three or four years rewriting it. My husband, John Taylor, who is also a writer, observed all this approvingly and quoted John Fowles, who said that a book should be like a child: conceived in passion and reared with care.
Q: How did you decide to follow The Glass Castle with Half Broke Horses?
A: It was completely at the suggestion of readers. So many people kept saying the next book should be about my mother. Readers understood my father's recklessness because they understood alcoholism, but Mom was a mystery to them. Why, they would ask, would someone with the resources to lead a normal life choose the existence that she did?
I would tell them a little bit about my mother?s childhood. She not only knew that she could survive without indoor plumbing, but that was the ideal period of her life, a time that she tries to recreate. I think that for memoir readers, it's not about a freak show? they?re just looking to understand people and get into a life that?s not their own. I thought, let me give it a shot, let me ask Mom. And she was all for it. But she kept insisting that the book should really be about her mother. At first I resisted because my grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, died when I was eight years old, more than 40 years ago. But I have a very vivid memory of this tough, leathery woman; she sang, she danced, she shot guns, she?d play honky tonk piano. I was always captivated by her. Lily had told such compelling stories?I was stunned by the number of anecdotes, and that Mom knew so much detail about them. Half Broke Horses is a compilation of family stories, stitched together with gaps filled in. They're the sort of tales that pretty much everyone has heard from their parents or grandparents. I realized that in telling Lily's story, I could also explain Mom's.
Q: Why did you decide to write Half Broke Horses in the first person, and how much of this "true-life novel" is fiction?
A: I set out to write a biography of Lily, but sometimes books take on a life of their own. I told it in first person because I wanted to capture Lily?s voice. I?m a lot like my grandmother, so it came easily to me. I planned to go back and change it from first person to third person and put in qualifiers so the book would be historically accurate, but when I showed it to my agent and publisher, they both said to leave it as it is. By doing that, I crossed the line from nonfiction into fiction. But when I call it fiction it?s not because I tarted it up and tried to embellish things, but wanted to make it more readable, fluid, and immediate. I was trying to get as close to the truth as I could.
Q: How has your relationship with your mother changed in recent years?
A: Several years ago, the abandoned building on New York?s Lower East Side where Mom had been squatting for more than a decade caught fire and she was back on the streets again at age 72. I begged her to come live with me. She said Virginia was too boring, and besides, she's not a freeloader. I told her we could really use help with the horses, and she said she'd be right there. I get along great with Mom now. She's a hoot. She's always upbeat, and has a very different take on life than most people. She's a lot of fun to be around -- as long as you're not looking for her to take care of you. She doesn?t live in the house with us-- I have not reached that level of understanding and compassion-- but in an outbuilding about a hundred yards away. Mom is great with the animals, loves to sing and dance and ride horses, and is still painting like a fiend.
Q: What do you hope readers will gain from reading your books?
A:Since writing The Glass Castle, so many people have said to me, "Oh, you?re so strong and you?re so resilient, and I couldn?t do what you did." That?s very flattering, but it?s nonsense. Of course they?re as strong as I am. I just had the great fortune of having been tested. If we look at our ancestry, we all come from tough roots. And one of the ways to discover our toughness and our resiliency is to look back at where we come from. I hope people who read The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses will come away with that. You know, "Gosh, I come from hearty stock. Maybe I?m tougher than I realize."
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