The Glass Castle

About the Book: The Glass Castle

The bestselling, critically-acclaimed, highly publicized and celebrated memoir, with great word of mouth-now in the trade papberback format in which Mary Karr, Alexandra Fuller, and Augusten Burroughs became huge bestsellers.

A triumphant tale of a young woman and her difficult childhood, The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and wonderfully vibrant. Jeannette Walls was the second of four children raised by anti-institutional parents in a household of extremes.

Their father, Rex Walls, was a charismatic and brilliant man who, when sober, captured his childrens imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he would steal the grocery money and disappear for days, disappointing Jeannette, his biggest supporter, again and again.Their mother, a painter, a writer, a free-spirit who couldnt stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." She loved being on the brink of a new adventure and Rex Walls was always embarking on new ones, usually because he had to-because the rent was unpaid or hed broken the law. and Jeannette and her brother and sisters were always taking on the household responsibilities, finding food, cleaning house, encouraging their parents to work, protecting one another and finally supporting each other as they moved out of their parents dysfunctional lives and finished their educations in New York.

About the Author: Jeannette Walls

The author grew up in the Southwest and in West Virginia. She lives in New York and on Long Island, and is married to writer John Taylor. She is a regular contributor to MSNBC and has worked at several publications including Esquire, USA Today and New York Magazine.

Reviews

"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