The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
(Guest Reviewer - Andy Behrman)
2005 Scribner
ISBN: 0743247531

A Memoir. Growing up with parents whose ideals & nonconformity were both their four children's curse & salvation.

In the beginning, Rex & Rose Mary Walls & their children, lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was charismatic, brilliant &, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, & above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted & wrote & couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- & the family Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money & disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette & her siblings had to fend for themselves & support each other as they weathered their parents' betrayals &, finally, found the resources & will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts & tenacity & intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection & generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

As a regular contributor to MSNBC.com Jeanette Walls hid her roots for two decades. Now she tells her own story, in her own way.

Guest Reviewer Andy “Electroboy” Behrman writes:

The Glass Castle by journalist Jeannette Walls is probably the most thoughtful & sensitive memoir I have ever read -- & I read it into the early hours of the morning because I was just so curious to know how her story ended. Walls chronicles her experience with her extraodinarily dysfunctional family with such grace, kindness & humor -- without ever blaming her alcoholic father or, for a lack of a better word, “offbeat” mother -- for her difficult childhood. Instead, she pays tribute to them as two parents who just “loved” in quite a different way.

It obviously took Walls an incredible amount of courage to put pen to paper & recount the details of her rather bizarre childhood -- which although because of the intense drama of her experiences -- like none other I have ever heard about -- any reader will oddly find it easy to relate. l found bits & pieces of my “normal” parents in both Rex & Rose Mary Walls who I defy anyone to describe as normal.

The author's journey across the country, ending up in a poor mining town in West Virginia, where she lived in abject poverty (living without heat & eating from trash cans) & then finally moving to New York City, is a fascinating tale of survival.

Her zest for life, even when eating margarine & sugar & bundled in a cardboard box with sweaters, coats & huddled with her pets, is unbelievably beautiful -- & motivating.

As a memoir writer, I wish I had the opportunity to have read The Glass Castle, before I wrote Electroboy -- it would have been the best blueprint for me to follow!

More from Jeannette Walls:
Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip
Dish: How Gossip Became the News and the News Became Just Another Show
(04/24/05)

Guest Reviewer - Andy Behrman
2005©Andy Behrman