The Glass Castle - Book Review

The Glass Castle
By JEANNETTE WALLS
Published: 2005


The Glass Castle
A Memoir
By Jeannette Walls
288 pages. Scribner. $14

The Glass Castle is an amazing piece of literature written by Jeannette Walls, published in 2005 containing 288 pages. Jeannette' memoir tells the story of her childhood as she saw it when she was a child. The poverty, alcohol abuse, and many other obstacles these young children faced are expressed in this story. Through the memoir the reader is able to view all of these obstacles and experience them as Jeannette did.

The story opens with a very catchy scene of Jeannette in a taxi in New York City, watching her mother loot through a garbage can. From then on the book is told in flashback, looking at her very transit childhood, and dysfunctional family. The story is told on how she over came her family issues and made a name for herself. Jeannette was a very bright young girl, always doing well in school. She was able to attend Bernard University, the sister college to Columbia at the time, on a very large scholarship. However, getting to the point of moving to New York and going to college did not come easy for Jeannette; she faced many set backs.

Jeannette's father was an alcoholic. He would abuse his wife, could not hold down a job, and could never be trusted with money. Jeannette was one of four children. She was the one person in the family to try as hard as she could to not give up on him, always believing in his plans to build the Glass Castle, or listening to his old stories. Jeannette's mother was also very irresponsible. She did not like to work as a teacher, the career which she was certified in, and made money from. She preferred to be an artist. The four children would be the ones to help her grade papers and make sure she was up for work on time. These children took on a lot of responsibility.

This book is an amazing story on the life these children lived and how they over came their family situation. Poverty, alcoholism, and irresponsible parents did not get to them in the end.