The Glass Castle is a memoir of the extraordinarily wild upbringing of the Walls children. Jeannette Walls manages to keep the reader riveted to the page as she recounts episode after episode of complete and utter family dysfunction. I agree with The Cleveland Plain Dealer in their assertion that "each memory is more incredible than the last." Indeed, some of the earlier episodes seemed downright unbelievable, in part because the precociousness of dialogue coming from these young children and in part because the parents' behavior and reactions seem untenable.
It was inspiring to read of the author's triumph in the face of such a bad beginning (sleeping in cardboard boxes, scrounging the trash for something to eat). With an idealistic, irresponsible, alcoholic father and a dreamy, artistic, depressed mother, it is amazing that each of the children in this family go on to survive their incredible upbringing. The title of the book comes from a dream of the author's father, to build a glass castle, which never comes to fruition. The children are dragged along from one hovel to another, starving for food and ostracized by classmates. But each child manages to break free from this crazy family (most before they've even finished school) and move to New York, where they find jobs and establish functional lives for themselves. The mother and father eventually head to New York to rejoin their children and end up living on the streets for years by choice.
This book was highly engaging. The storytelling was superb (if unbelievable, at times). I discovered that Jeannette Walls has also written another book about her family life, called Half-Broke Horses. While The Glass Castle revealed quite a bit about her father's underachieving life due to alcoholism, the next book focuses on her intelligent, capable mother (and her mother's mother) and her background. I will have to look for that book, as well. Interesting reading. Great story of triumph over adversity.
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