The Glass Castle

Critics

• Learning how to swim

  The Glass Castle is a memoir of an extraordinary childhood. Jeannette Walls and her three siblings survived an upbringing truly stranger than fiction — if it were invented, it would not be credible. Rex Walls, Jeanette’s father, is a brilliant and ch ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

21 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  The Glass Castle is a good memoir of a childhood of hardship. It's a wonder the writer, Jeannette Wells survived to write this tale.

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  Lgpitre said on Dec 12, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  I still can't decide if I really "liked" this one or not. Girl with distant mother and alcoholic father sounded like something I could relate to. I wanted to read it, but even though I whipped through this one a rapid pace, I really found it almost unbelievable. Nothing like Frank McCourt's Angela's ... (continue)

  I still can't decide if I really "liked" this one or not. Girl with distant mother and alcoholic father sounded like something I could relate to. I wanted to read it, but even though I whipped through this one a rapid pace, I really found it almost unbelievable. Nothing like Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes memoir. I found that deeply moving and tragic, and I just didn't get that same feeling reading this book. I just found myself questioning it the entire way through.

  Loved her writing style, just not sure I'm buying the story.

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  Leahrussell76 said on Aug 15, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  For me, it's a "sad" story that I don't want to re-read it again.

  It talks about the effect of family, and attitudes of parent have on children when they are growing. Children can find happiness in simply, little things, they know when adults lie but they don't care.

  They can live with ... (continue)

  For me, it's a "sad" story that I don't want to re-read it again.

  It talks about the effect of family, and attitudes of parent have on children when they are growing. Children can find happiness in simply, little things, they know when adults lie but they don't care.

  They can live with what you give them, and they have a way around it. When an adult thinks life is tough and go on moaning about it, children try to make themseelves happy no matter what.

  Their parent kept the 'child' in themselves and the whole family lived happily and dream of dreams that might never happen.

  But when children grew up and the little child was lost, they find their parents silly and sad because they realize the dream will only be dream.

  They start to care about what other people think about them and their parents. When they can no longer stand their parents living happily whith whatever they got (and in poverty), they left, refuse to admit the parents.

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  小米 said on Aug 11, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This was a truly compelling memoir. I can understand well the blurb about how it will keep you up at night long after the rest of your house has gone to sleep. The Walls family's life took off at go and very rarely settled down after. From mining town to desert, eating well to near starvation, perio ... (continue)

  This was a truly compelling memoir. I can understand well the blurb about how it will keep you up at night long after the rest of your house has gone to sleep. The Walls family's life took off at go and very rarely settled down after. From mining town to desert, eating well to near starvation, periods of bliss to absolute chaos, there was never a dull moment, and rarely any certainty. But this was a family that stuck together. And even after the kids had given up on their parents, they still stuck with each other. I would definitely classify this as one that belongs on the Everyone Must Read list. Because this is one family who encompasses the best and worst of the American Dream, and it's good to take a break from the insanity that is now to see what insanity was then.

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  Jaemi K said on Jan 23, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Recommended by the lady at the check-out counter at Border's.<br />A totally moving, compelling & hauntingly beautiful story! Heartbreaking too but one of the most sensitive memoirs I remember reading.

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  Nini said on Nov 17, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Finished already as once started it was so compelling I hardly put it down! A great memoir of a family of four children that showed tremendous resilence considering their parents choice of lifestyle! It was a surprise that no self pity showed in the author's writing at all especially as considering ... (continue)

  Finished already as once started it was so compelling I hardly put it down! A great memoir of a family of four children that showed tremendous resilence considering their parents choice of lifestyle! It was a surprise that no self pity showed in the author's writing at all especially as considering the Father's intelligence and the Mother's background, life could possibly have been so different. A great read, I am so pleased I signed up for this one, thanks again bestfriends.

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  Lindyloumac said on Nov 6, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Mass Market Paperback 355 Pages
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 1416544666
• ISBN-13: 9781416544661
• Publisher: Scribner International
• Pub date: Jan 01, 2007
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani

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