The Glass Castle: A Memoir (book)
THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER—FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON
The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.
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.
The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.
The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.
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.
The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.
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Community Reviews
For anyone considering this book, trigger warnings for sexual assault and racial slurs.
This book broke my heart and healed it over and over again. A truly cathartic experience for me, I recommend this book to anyone seeking to make sense of a troubled childhood. Not only is the material captivating, the writing style mimics a diary in an immersive format, allowing you to digest each moment in well-paced momentum. A must-read in my opinion.
This book broke my heart and healed it over and over again. A truly cathartic experience for me, I recommend this book to anyone seeking to make sense of a troubled childhood. Not only is the material captivating, the writing style mimics a diary in an immersive format, allowing you to digest each moment in well-paced momentum. A must-read in my opinion.
Not 100% sure what i think of this book.
The life she had as a child seems unbelievable - not in a good way compared to our standard now days - but the way it is written, she makes it sounds like it's nothing, like she enjoyed it.
Do I think she did - maybe, to some extent , went she was young, when it all sounded like an adventure, when it was all she knew... until it wasn't anymore.
Did she love her parents? Surprisingly enough I believe so, did they deserve it, maybe not...
Definitely lot of unanswered questions from my perspective any way. And I wish the writing would have been a bit more 'black and white' (even if it would have been harder to read) in a way, but maybe it was done this way to let us make our own opinion of the story... who knows.
It evoked a lot of emotions. A powerful book in its own rite but it was also an emotional rollercoaster.
This was a slow read for me. While the messaging is powerful about perspectives and a tough upbringing, I didn’t fully understand where it was going. Wish we had more insight into the adult years.
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