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The Glass Castle: The New York Times Bestseller - Two Million Copies Sold Paperback – 4 May 2006

by Jeannette Walls (Author)
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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD

'Tragic and comic at the same time... an outrageous story, one that will break your heart' Sunday Independent

'A terrific story, grippingly told' Sunday Times

'I read The Glass Castle straight through in an evening, wearing an expression of slack-jawed amazement' Spectator

While Jeannette Walls was living on Park Avenue, covering the Academy Awards and attending black-tie parties at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, her parents were squatting in an abandoned building on the Lower East Side.

Rex Walls, her father, was an ingenious adventurer and a hopeless alcoholic. Her mother was an artist who abhorred domestic routine and the chores of motherhood: 'Why should I cook a meal that will be gone in an hour when I can do a painting that will last forever?' Funny sad, quirky and loving, The Glass Castle is an almost incredible story of a nomadic, impoverished childhood.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING BRIE LARSON, WOODY HARRELSON AND NAOMI WATTS

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Virago
  4. Publication date
    4 May 2006
  5. Dimensions
    12.6 x 3 x 19.6 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1844081826
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1844081820
  8. See all details
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  1. ‘Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy,’ Mom told me. ‘You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.’
    Highlighted by 385 Kindle readers
  2. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.
    Highlighted by 335 Kindle readers
  3. Mom frowned at me. ‘You’d be destroying what makes it special,’ she said. ‘It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.’
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Product description

Review

Tragic and comic at the same time... an outrageous story, one that will break your heart ― Sunday Independent

A terrific story, grippingly told ― Sunday Times

Like J.D. Salinger or Hemingway before her, Jeannette Walls has the talent of knowing exactly how to let a story tell itself ― Sunday Independent

'I read The Glass Castle straight through in an evening, wearing an expression of slack-jawed amazement. Jeannette Walls has managed to balance her account with great precision; as she and her siblings did, we must both love and hate her parents ― Spectator

There isn't a shred of self-pity in this deeply compassionate book ― Marie Claire

Wall's journalistic bare-bones style makes for a chilling, wrenching, incredible testimony of childhood neglect ― Kirkus Reviews

Affection, shame and guilt run side by side in this unforgettable memoir of a childhood spent ''on the skedaddle'' ― Woman and Home

Funny and brilliantly written through a child's eyes, recreating a unique family life ― Evening Herald

Walls has joined the company of writers such as Mary Karr and Frank McCourt who have been able to transform their sad memories into fine art ― People

Walls has a God-given knack for spinning a yarn, and The Glass Castle is nothing short of spectacular ― Entertainment Weekly

Extraordinary ― Time

Each memory is more incredible than the last... That Walls recounts them so well and in such detail is our good fortune ― Plain Dealer

Some people are born storytellers. Some lives are worth telling. The best memoirs happen when these two conditions converge. In The Glass Castle, they have ― New York Newsday

The Glass Castle is the kind of story that keeps you awake long after the rest of the house has fallen asleep ― Vogue

Utterly engaging and teeming with incident. This is a life so vividly rendered that the reader feels present at every moment ― Express

Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heart-breaking childhoods... This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit ― Dani Shapiro

Book Description

Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heart-breaking childhoods... This deeply affecting memoir is a triumph in every possible way, and it does what all good books should: it affirms our faith in the human spirit.' - Dani Shapiro

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Virago (4 May 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1844081826
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1844081820
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.6 x 3 x 19.6 cm
  • Customer reviews:

About the author

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Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls

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Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona and grew up in the American Southwest and Welch, West Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York for twenty-five years, writing for New York Magazine, Esquire, and MSNBC. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years, has been translated into more than thirty languages and was made into a film starring Brie Larson. She is also the author of the best-selling novels The Silver Star and Half Broke Horses, which was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review. Her new novel, Hang the Moon, will be published by Scribner in March 2023. Walls lives in central Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor.

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

Rachel Matthews
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2024
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This book shows how it is possible to love and hate, it is a double edged sword. It is compulsive reading.
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G. Lindenfield
4.0 out of 5 stars An inspirational well written misery memoir
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2012
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A compelling read. Well crafted and written. It was , (especially for a biography ) a page turner. However I did wonder if some journalistic licence was used to heighten the eccentricities of the characters in the author's family and the drama of their unquestionably roller coaster of a life. But if this was so, as long as her family were not hurt in the process it was justified because it probabaly made the book so much more accessible. An inspirational read even tho it may have been part novel and part biography.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A thought provoking storyline
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2024
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A very emotional read with great descriptive prose and interesting diverse characters. So riveting I read in a short period of time.
One person found this helpful
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Cat Buchanan
5.0 out of 5 stars A crystal clear window on another world
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2022
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It's a fine line that separates a free-spirited nomadic lifestyle from abject neglect in this unputdownable memoir by Jeannette Walls which so gripping I read it in two great greedy gulps late into the night right up till dawn. Despite the most dire of indigent circumstances this family display a remarkable degree of resilience (and charm) forged at the coalface of having to contend with each other during a steady descent into stigmatized poverty and starvation. Initially easy to empathize with a mother who 'Treats the Ten Commandments more like the Ten Suggestions' and prefers creating lasting art to cooking an ephemeral meal, surreptitiously sucking on a chocolate bar while leaving only margarine out for her children contributes to a catalogue of abuse caused by inattentive ambivalence that no amount of imaginative Christmas gifts comprised of planets and stars can cure.
It's precisely the lack of sustenance that prompts substantive observations concerning the fact that 'Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness in any creature' which also serves as a reminder of just how steely this clan really are to have survived in relatively unscathed fashion. When reduced to living rough on the streets her parents refuse offers of financial assistance in favor of a request for electrolysis treatments and boast of their ability to conduct daily ablutions at public library bathrooms where, 'We wash as far down as possible and as far up as possible, but we don't wash possible.' This compassionately related narrative of strength and character is one of the most compelling I've ever encountered and my hats off to Walls for having the courage to share it.
6 people found this helpful
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Brownbill
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 March 2018
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After watching the film on a transatlantic flight I immediately ordered the book. Although really enjoyable, dare I say that I preferred the film?!

The book is good, the characters well written and the father extremely complex. I read it in a couple of days as it is an easy read and very engaging.
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NaturalR
3.0 out of 5 stars What the....!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2022
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Walls starts by thanking her parents for all they've done for her.... then proceeds to write 260 pages or so of the absolutely horrendous neglect and abuse they put her through!!! It's so messed up and difficult to read.

The last 50 pages is her in New York which makes the book seem oddly paced. As if Walls needed to vent her trauma rather than tell a story. The building of her life is rushed over but I suppose it was much easier to survive economically back when this took place, compared to now.

I read it all in a weekend because it is compelling. It's just... extremely messed up.
4 people found this helpful
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Book Lover
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite ever books
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2016
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Imagine the embarrassment of sitting in a taxi which is stuck in traffic on the way to a posh party and spotting your homeless, dirty, unkempt mother in the street rooting through the bins. This is what happens to Jeanette Walls at the start of The Glass Castle - an autobiographical account of growing up in a dysfunctional, poor American family. I was immediately hooked.
Jeanette's earliest memory of is of cooking hotdogs for herself, aged three, (this was not an unusual occurance) and burning herself so badly that she needed skin grafts. She spent six weeks in hospital until her father 'rescued' her, smuggling her out in the middle of the night.
Jeanette and her three siblings experienced hunger, cold and neglect, and regularly moved from town to town as their parents 'skedaddled' because they hadn't paid the rent.
Their father, Rex, a bright, well-read but feckless man, who didn't like taking orders, succumbed to alcohol. Their mother, Rose Mary, could recite Shakespeare and could have made a decent living as a teacher. She preferred to be a tortured artist and spent her time painting rather than preparing a meal for her small children.
Amazingly, the author found a way out of her desperate situation. She escaped to New York and her pathway to a better life was through education (as it was in two other brilliant books I've recently read  Animal QC  and  Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis ).
There are so many 'oh my goodness' moments in The Glass Castle, but it is not a misery memoir. It is a story told without bitterness and in a delightfully matter-of-fact way. It is not dramatised or overblown; the situation and attention to small details tell the story and you find yourself rooting for the Walls children, who despite everything they have endured obviously love their parents.
If I could give this book more than five stars I would.
4 people found this helpful
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Nettlefairy
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, eye opening, shocking must read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2020
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Wow, what an eye opening read! It is very well written and really draws you in to her experience so that you can relate to how it must have been for her growing up like this.

Shocking at times, I found myself feeling awfully frustrated with her parents! I do believe that they love their children in their own way but just have their own warped, weird outlook on life which is actually very damaging and worrying.

It is interesting to read about all of the different places they lived in their life too, you get a real feel for the surroundings and culture of different parts of America. The Appalachian mountains included!

It is an inspiration to me that this lady managed to change her life for the better despite her difficult circumstances.

I’ve seen the film too, but in my opinion he book is better as there are bits that they left out in the film.

Highly recommend!
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Lynn Kelley
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Canada on 11 May 2024
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So many touching and funny parts.
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Lis Vaessen-Özönder
5.0 out of 5 stars Memoir reads like fiction
Reviewed in the Netherlands on 18 April 2024
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Amazing, fast-paced read! This book sucked me in as from the very first sentence. I usually don't read memoirs but this book is different: it's so fast-paced and astonishing what happened throughout her life that you tend to forget this is a work of non-fiction!
Heartbreaking and at times making me laugh out loud.
Thought-provoking, I heard several teachers /schools incorporate this book as reading material!
Terrific book, highly recommended to everyone (16+).
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Antonella
5.0 out of 5 stars Molto emozionante
Reviewed in Italy on 15 February 2023
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Una storia bellissima che fa ridere e fa commuovere
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Jackie
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have ever read
Reviewed in France on 31 January 2023
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Thank you so so much for sharing your story Jeanette. This is a book that will stay with me forever. You, your brother and both of sisters deserve a medal for the success you made of your lives. I felt so proud of you all by the end of the book. What an incredible story of love and survival.
One person found this helpful
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Dr. Yogi
5.0 out of 5 stars Faszinierende Geschichte einer schwierigen Kindheit
Reviewed in Germany on 28 December 2021
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Jeannette Walls schreibt faszinierend über ihre Kindheit in großer Armut mit völlig unangepassten, unkonventionellen Eltern, deren Traum vom Glass Castle immer wieder zerbricht und die an der Überwindung ihrer eigenen Dämonen immer wieder scheitern. Das Verhältnis der Autorin und ihrer Geschwister zu ihren Eltern ist sowohl von Liebe als auch immer wieder von Verzweiflung und Hassgefühlen geprägt. Dennoch gelingt es den Eltern, ihren Kindern humane Werte zu vermitteln und sie letztendlich zu Kämpfern zu erziehen, die ihren Weg finden und das Leben meistern.
Die Kapitel sind kurz, der Stil schnörkellos und direkt, es lässt sich spanend hintereinander weg oder in kleinen "Häppchen" abends vor dem Einschlafen lesen – tolles Buch, super erzählt.
2 people found this helpful
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