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The cover of The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls, 2005

Raised hungry and on the move by a brilliant, alcoholic father and an artist mother, we children looked after one another, and I got out without ceasing to love them.

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8 parts, about 21 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Follows the author's childhood of desert flight, hunger and fire with parents who loved her yet could not keep her fed or safe
  • Shows how she saved an escape fund, left her coal town on her own and worked her way to college and a reporting career
  • Asks what honest acceptance of difficult parents looks like, from hiding her family out of shame to a Thanksgiving with her mother, sister and brother

Who it is for

  • Readers of memoirs about unstable, difficult childhoods
  • People trying to make peace with a chaotic family past
  • Readers curious how poverty and neglect shape a child's resilience

What the summary covers

  1. A Woman on the Street1 min
  2. The Desert3 min
  3. Battle Mountain3 min
  4. Phoenix2 min
  5. Welch5 min
  6. Getting Out2 min
  7. New York City4 min
  8. Thanksgiving1 min

Recommended by

  • Dani ShapiroAuthor of Family History
    Jeannette Walls has carved a story with precision and grace out of one of the most chaotic, heartbreaking childhoods ever to be set down on the page. 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.
  • Patricia BosworthAuthor of Diane Arbus: A Biography
    The Glass Castle is the saga of the restless, indomitable Walls family, led by a grand eccentric and his tempestuous artist wife. Jeannette Walls has survived poverty, fires, and near starvation to triumph. She has written this amazing tale with honesty and love.
  • Dominick DunneAuthor of The Way We Lived Then
    Just read the first pages of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and I defy you not to go on. It’s funny and sad and quirky and loving. I was incredibly touched by it.
  • Rosie O'DonnellComedian and television host
    A beautiful, brave, transformative book.

About the author

  • Jeannette WallsAmerican author and journalist who wrote a memoir of her childhood family life
    • Born on April 21, 1960, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Rex Walls and Rose Mary Walls
    • Grew up in a constantly moving, unconventional family
    • Moved to New York at age 17 to join her sister Lori
    • Graduated from Barnard College, paying her way through grants, scholarships and a year answering phones on Wall Street
    • Wrote the Intelligencer column for New York magazine from 1987 to 1993
    • Wrote a gossip column for Esquire from 1993 to 1998, then contributed to the Scoop column at MSNBC.com until 2007
    • Her 2009 book Half Broke Horses was named one of the 10 best books of 2009 by the editors of The New York Times Book Review
    • Lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor

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