The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle

Author: Jeannette Walls
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Reviewer: Lydia

“I was on fire.”

So begins The Glass Castle, a novel that is riveting and repulsive in equal measure. This autobiography was on the New York Times Bestseller List for weeks, and the beautiful writing and the stunning, if sometimes improbable-seeming story, live up to the hype.

The Glass Castle is a memoir in which Walls recounts her childhood of extreme and abject poverty—a childhood made all the more bittersweet because it could have been easily avoided. Her parents were nomads who despised normal nine-to-five jobs and everyday familial responsibilities. They lived in decrepit houses—if they even had a house at all—they didn’t attend public schools, they didn’t receive proper nutrition and medical care, and they lived in a constant state of danger and depravity.

There are many graphic scenes throughout the novel which involve children. For example, the book begins with the quote above when Jeanette is cooking by herself at three years old and ends up on fire. What ensues is a humorous, albeit horrific, escapade involving the Walls and the local hospital. This humorous streak continues throughout the book, even as Jeannette recalls how she resorted to eating food with maggots in it and how her brother had to put a tarp over his bunk bed in order to avoid being rained on from the hole in the ceiling.

What surprised me the most about this book is the way in which Jeannette forgives her parents, one of whom is deceased, despite everything that had happened to her and her siblings. As written in the story, Jeannette managed to make her way to New York City, attend an elite school, and become a famous writing living on Park Avenue (of all places!). This irony is explained better in the book. All in all, this memoir reads more like a fictional tale, and Walls’ writing style is descriptive and gorgeous, even as she recounts a life filled with much pain and sadness. Walls opens the reader’s eyes to the startling and glaring truth of poverty in twenty-first century America.