| Jeannette Walls proves in her astounding memoir | | | | cannot abide work and only occasionally holds |
| that bad parenting and abject poverty do not | | | | down a job - with the help of her children who |
| necessarily condemn children to a dismal future of | | | | get her out of bed. |
| the same. In "The Glass Castle" published in 2005 | | | | The infrequent paychecks of the mother rarely |
| by Scribner, Walls reveals the intimate details of | | | | go into the rumbling bellies of her children. Rex will |
| her upbringing within a dysfunctional yet loving | | | | invariably claim his wife's paycheck and set about |
| family. | | | | squandering it. |
| "The Glass Castle" immediately grips you with an | | | | This desperate state goes on for years as the |
| opening scene in which Walls, as an adult in New | | | | Walls children sleep in cardboard boxes instead of |
| York City, sees from the window of her taxi her | | | | beds, endure scalding fights between their |
| mother scrounging through a dumpster. Her | | | | parents, and eat anything they can find. Their |
| mother is homeless - one of those bag ladies that | | | | mother teaches them how to swallow spoiled |
| all of us see - but now you suddenly have to | | | | food by holding their noses. |
| wonder what it would feel like if that was your | | | | But even amid these horrors of poverty and |
| mother dangling at the fringe of our society. | | | | alcoholism, Jeannette Walls expresses the genuine |
| From this shocking moment, Walls transports you | | | | love within her family. They are loyal to each |
| back to her earliest memory. She is three years | | | | other, and Rex, in his sober moments, is wise, |
| old and suffers a terrible burn to her torso when | | | | encouraging, and tender with his children. |
| her dress catches on fire as she is boiling hotdogs | | | | In her memoir, Walls brilliantly crafts her |
| on the stove. A long stay at the local hospital | | | | experiences so that we can see the |
| near where her family is currently living in Arizona | | | | transformation of awareness that takes place as |
| ensues while Walls recovers. To the hospital staff, | | | | she grows up. As a little girl, she is uncritical of her |
| the negligence of the parents is obvious, but | | | | parents. She loves them and does not realize how |
| Jeannette does not associate the murmuring | | | | awfully deprived her life is. But as she and her |
| disapproval around her with her parents. | | | | siblings mature, they definitely realize that the |
| If any action on the part of social services is | | | | shortcomings of their parents are not acceptable. |
| planned, we never find out because her father, | | | | The adolescent years of Jeannette are spent in |
| Rex Walls, plans an early check out from the | | | | West Virginia, where her father retreats to his |
| hospital in his trademark "Rex Walls' style." This | | | | hometown after going completely bust in Arizona. |
| means that he will grab his little girl and skip out of | | | | The life of the Walls in West Virginia is appalling as |
| the hospital bill that he has no intention or means | | | | they occupy a shack at "93 Little Hobart Street." |
| of paying. | | | | The roof leaks. The plumbing does not work. The |
| Jeannette is whisked away with her father, | | | | Walls family buries its trash and sewage in little |
| mother, older sister and younger brother and the | | | | holes it digs. They almost never have any food. |
| family hits the road. It begins just one of many | | | | Jeannette goes through high school digging |
| journeys in which the Walls family ends up in | | | | leftover sandwiches out of the garbage, and Rex |
| ramshackle trailers and shacks throughout the | | | | fills the role of town drunk. As miserable want |
| deserts of Nevada, Arizona, and California. They | | | | defines their lives, Jeannette's mother does the |
| stay someplace a while until Rex can't pay the | | | | most infuriating things. When Jeannette and her |
| rent or won't and they skip town and do it all | | | | brother find a diamond ring, they immediately |
| over again. | | | | want to sell it for food, but their mother keeps it |
| Rex inspired the title of the book with the plans, | | | | to "improve her self esteem." And so they go on |
| lovingly worked out on paper, for his "glass castle" | | | | starving. |
| that he aspires to build some day. He often | | | | As Jeannette Walls tells the story of her |
| reassures his children with the promise of this | | | | disgraceful upbringing, you will admire her |
| fanciful housing. It is to be a solar-powered house, | | | | perseverance and that of her siblings. The Walls |
| but first he needs to raise the money to build it, | | | | children eventually take charge of their own lives |
| which entails numerous gold prospecting schemes | | | | and support each other into normal adult lives in a |
| that are doomed to failure. Because gold-hunting | | | | beautiful display of closeness among siblings. |
| never pays the bills, Rex also finds work as an | | | | Every page of "The Glass Castle" will shock you |
| electrician or handyman. He is smart and | | | | with the shameless and selfish actions of parents |
| mechanically talented, but his earnings inevitably | | | | who are unable and unwilling to even try to take |
| are washed away in the flash floods of drinking | | | | care of their children or themselves. Despite her |
| that perpetually leave his family destitute. | | | | appalling parents, Walls rarely chastises them with |
| In an engulfing narrative that sweeps you deeper | | | | her writing. Her love for her parents often comes |
| into an almost unimaginable existence of privation, | | | | through with aching dismay. |
| we see how Jeannette and her siblings cope with | | | | Much more happens throughout this amazing |
| their destructively alcoholic father and beg their | | | | memoir than has been mentioned here. "The |
| mother to function and get them food. The | | | | Glass Castle" is mesmerizing and an impossible |
| mother, in fact, has a teaching degree, but she | | | | book to put down. It is truly a masterpiece of |
| rarely can drag herself into employability. Although | | | | storytelling and far superior than the typical |
| the various rural areas where they live are always | | | | bestseller. |
| desperate for a qualified teacher, the mother | | | | |