The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle

2005 • 304 pages

Ratings223

Average rating4.2

15

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.
The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

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Popular Reviews

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Kim's pick for book group May 2011. Some found it unbelievable. Mental illness and alcoholism mixed.

May 1, 2011

Made me rethink what my life is like and my privileges.

September 2, 2017

OMG - this is a memoir, and it is a hair-raising tale. How the children in her family survived, we will never figure out.

August 1, 2006

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#687 in What are your favorite books of all time?

When you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...

#1
The Lord of the Rings
#2
Dune
#3
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Way of Kings
1984
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Pride and Prejudice
The Martian
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Hobbit
Project Hail Mary
The Hunger Games