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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
jade19721 avatar reviewed on + 115 more book reviews


This was an excellent book. But be forwarned, if your a parent with at least a few working brain cells you will really want to kick her parents in the ass and maybe even bounce their heads off a wall or two.

The Wall's Family consisted of Rex & Rosemary (The parents) and their 4 children, Jeannnette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen. Rex was a brillant man who was incredibly smart, but was an alcoholic and prone to some pretty strange behavior. Rosemary was also a brillant woman, but was more concerned with her artwork than being a mother. The authors earliest memory was of herself standing on a chair by the stove at 3 years old cooking hot dogs. She moved the wrong way and wound up setting herself on fire. She recovered but the day she came home from the hospital her mother encouraged her to continue cooking for herself.

The family moved around quite a bit because Rex had a hard time keeping a job. Sometimes they slept out under the stars in the desert when they did not have a roof over their head. One time they moved from southern california to Nevada where they rented a U haul. The parents sat in front while they put teh kids in the back with their furniture for 14 hours.

Most of the times the kids were left to their own devices to do whatever they wanted, they were hardly ever fed, and the author talks about rooting through the garbage at school just to eat. They finally wound up in Welch, WV in a decrept old house that had no running water. In WV she had to put up with a crazy grandmother, a creepy uncle, and many other obstacles including her father trying to pimp her when she was older.

This book will keep you hooked and you won't be able to put it down.