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Book Review of The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle
Author: Jeannette Walls
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on
Helpful Score: 2


Every bit as good as expected! Jeannette and her siblings grew up being dragged from town to town (sometimes to escape creditors and sometimes to escape child protective services) by their very eccentric father and their tempestuous artist mother, who seem not to have realized the children's need for food, much less for stability. Yet, for much of their childhood, the siblings stuck together and even believed and loved their parents. The father, with his schemes for becoming rich had a touch of imagination and grandiosity somehow reminiscent of Pat Conroy's father, "The Great Santini." Eventually, while Jeannette did well in life, her parents descended to living on the streets, fending off all her offers of help, and apparently supremely happy with their rubbish-bin finds. The mother felt that they were doing something for the earth because people waste too much--an admirable attitude, but it's just too bad that while up in la-la land, they didn't think more about doing something for their own children.