The Glass Castle
First hardcover edition (2005)
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| Author | Jeannette Walls |
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| Cover artist | Rodrigo Corral |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Scribner |
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Publication date
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2005 |
| Media type | Print & E-Edition |
| Pages | 289 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip |
| Followed by | Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel |
The Glass Castle is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls. The book recounts the unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing Walls and her siblings had at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents.
The memoir spent a total of 261 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. By late 2007, The Glass Castle had sold over 2.7 million copies, had been translated into 22 languages, and received the Christopher Award, the American Library Association's Alex Award (2006) and the Books for Better Living Award.
Jeannette Walls is the second oldest of 4 children born to Rex Walls, an alcoholic and Rose Mary Walls, a painter and artist. Until Jeannette is 6, the family moves around Arizona and California every few months when Rex and Mary's debts grow too numerous. When Jeannette is 7 the family moves to Battle Mountain, Nevada where they enjoy stability for the first time as Rex works for the mining company and the family lives in a converted railway station. Eventually Rex loses his job and the children grow hungry. Rose Mary, who has a teaching certificate, is able to get a job teaching at the local school but Rex quickly siphons away her pay check. Even so, the family is happy there until a young boy develops a fixation on Jeannette and attacks her with a bb gun when the children are home alone. Jeannette's older sister Lori retrieves their father's pistol to scare him away but the police are called and when Rex and Rose Mary learn that the children might be taken away from them, they decide to run away to Phoenix, Arizona. Jeannette initially believes they are moving to live with her maternal grandmother, Grandma Smith, but on the way over she is informed Grandma Smith is dead and they are going to live in the property Rose Mary has inherited from her mother.
Initially life is happy for the children as their mother's house is huge and Grandma Smith also left her a significant amount of money. However the money quickly disappears and the house falls into a state of disrepair. For Jeannette's 10th birthday Rex asks what she would like and Jeannette asks him to stop drinking. He ties himself to a bed for a week in order to get over his need for alcohol and afterwards decides to take the family on a trip to the desert. When their car breaks down in the desert a woman who picks them up and takes them to the city refers to them as "poor" causing Rex to relapse. Rose Mary decides since they have no money it is time to move again and takes the family to their paternal grandparents in Welch.
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