"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls: A Book Review

There are few memoirs that can compare with The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. The story begins as Walls is on her way to a party in New York City, traveling by taxi down from her Park Avenue apartment. As Walls glances out the taxi window, she spots a woman she knows, digging through the dumpster. That woman? Her mother. Thus begins the remarkable saga of the Walls family. It's a wonderful journey of the spirit of children (particularly those in Walls family), who, without a great deal of help from their families, manage to triumph in spite of it all. That Walls has chosen to share her captivating family history with us is a gift to anyone who loves a good story.

Astonishingly, Walls tells her story without a hint of anger or malice for so many things she endured. Reviewers have compared her situation to those described by Charles Dickens in his novels. Yet every word of this wonderful book is true. You come to feel a whole range of emotions on this reading journey: pity, anger, astonishment, and joy. Walls couldn't have made up more fantastical situations and characters (her parents) if she tried. Indeed, if people read this as a novel, they would criticize it for being too unbelievable. How could any child survive, much less thrive in these conditions? And yet, that is exactly what happened.

Walls's parents are two dreamers, one aspires to entrepreneurship and  to build a "glass castle" for the family (her father), while the other seeks to become a famous artist (her mother). Although they are intelligent people who have much to teach their children (physics, geology, literature, and more), they are completely unfit parents, without a hint of parenting skill between them. Yet their children accept their flaws, learn to love them for who they are, and from early on, learn to provide for themselves. 

There were times reading this book that I just couldn't believe that the children would live until the end of the story, there were so many precarious situations. So many of the hardships they endured were unimaginable. Yet the story is one of love and family togetherness, of ingenuity and survival under the most trying of circumstances. Walls is a perfect storyteller, giving voice to the triumphs of her siblings, a sympathetic (if brutally honest) appraisal of her parents, and an approach to life that focuses on the wonder of life, instead of its brutality. It's an amazingly uplifting story, too.

In the dedication, Walls notes that "everyone who is interesting has a past." Few can match that of Walls and her family.