[.uk] The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Alex Awards (Awards)) (ISBN 0743247531)

Amazon.com Review:
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

disturbing but excellent reading:
You don't need my review since the book has had such great reviews already. Here it goes anyway: This is the fascinating, true story of a childhood gone wrong in so many ways: neglect, poverty, alcoholism, gone right in a couple of ways: love and intellectual stimulation. It is the story of the combination of the wrong and the right and the eventual triumph over unbelievable obstacles. And it is true!! which makes it all the more amazing and powerful.

Excellent book on overcoming hardships:
Excellent example how we can overcome th worst of circumstances and still have a very successful life.

Disturbing Dysfunction:
A friend referred this book as a 'must read' but now I wonder why I bothered? Jeannette writes with simplicity and narrates well however, the chilling details of her life mucked with such dysfunction and neglect are unsettling. I suppose it's a must read for Creative Writing 101 pupils. Personally, it left a burdensome aftertaste, one I'd like to forget.

Dispassion is a virtue:
I appreciate an author who can write about her family without blame and recrimination, as Jeannette Walls does. Many reviewers fault her for not coming down hard on her parents for their neglectful -- and downright abusive -- attentions. I applaud her for letting her parents' words and actions speak for themselves. I think it is the power of her writing. What could she possibly say that would reveal her parents more fully? You know from Jeannette's desire to flee from them that she has acknowledged -- and processed -- the depth of their depravity. If she had a complicated relationship with them, and not the clear-cut one that many readers want from her, so be it. Don't we all have mixed feelings about our families? If she remembers the good along with bad, then she is fortunate. I wish I could pick and choose among my memories so easily, and ease up on those who have shaped my life. To gain a better appreciation of Walls's approach, I would suggest that you read Rick Bragg's All over but the Shoutin'. Here is an author who bends over backward to excuse, and even celebrate, his family's worst excesses. Bragg's defensive stance gets in the way of his story telling, and put me off as a reader. I was always aware of him in the narrative. Walls, on the other hand, almost entirely removes herself while she is reporting the family interactions. We don't endlessly hear what she is feeling in response. It makes for a more readable book. The book is so readable, in fact, that I went through it all in one sitting, long into the night. Whether or not the author's memories are entirely truthful did not matter to me, although I usually do want the truth. This is one terrific story.

Book Review:
This is a delightful but sad story. I was happy the children turned out as well as they did. No one should have to live this way. I got angry with the parents many times.