The Glass Castle_ A Memoir - Jeannette Walls [0]
The autobiographer is faced with the daunting challenge of…attempting to understand, forgive and even love the witch… Readers will marvel at the intelligence and resilience of the Walls kids.”
—Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review
“A pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps, thoroughly American story.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Charles Dickens has nothing on Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, the unflinching story about her grueling, nomadic childhood. Dickens’ scenes of poverty and hardship are no more audacious and no more provocative than those in the pages of this stunning memoir.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“An excellent book… Walls has a fantastic storytelling knack.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The Glass Castle will at times exhaust you, occasionally fill you with fury, and finally leave you in slack-jawed wonderment.”
—National Review Online
“Jeannette Walls has decided to tell all, and the result is this riveting memoir.”
—Glamour
“You’ll root for the Walls family.”
—Newsweek
“The Glass Castle is the kind of story that keeps you awake long after the rest of the house has fallen asleep.”
—Vogue
“Walls writes with clarity and feeling; it’s her deep respect that infuses this astonishing story with grace.”
—Tampa Tribune
“A beautiful, brave, transformative book.”
—Rosie O’Donnell
“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.”
—Dani Shapiro, author of Family History
“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.”
—Patricia Bosworth, author of Anything Your Little Heart Desires and Diane Arbus: A Biography
“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.”
—Dominick Dunne, author of The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper
My parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls,
on their wedding day, 1956
SCRIBNER
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New York, NY 10020
The names and identifying details of some characters in this book have been changed.
Copyright © 2005 by Jeannette Walls
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SCRIBNER and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walls, Jeannette.
The glass castle: a memoir / Jeannette Walls.
p. cm.
1. Walls, Jeannette. 2. Children of alcoholics—United States—Biography.
3. Children of alcoholics—West Virginia—Biography.
4. Problem families—United States—Case studies.
5. Problem families—West Virginia—Welch—Case studies.
6. Poor—West Virginia—Welch—Biography.
7. Homeless persons—New York (State)—New York—Family relationships.
I. Title.
HV5132.W35 2005
362.82'092—dc22
[B] 2004058907
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5060-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5060-0
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http://www.SimonSays.com
To John,
for convincing me that everyone who is
interesting has a past
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my brother, Brian, for standing by me when we were growing up and while I wrote this. I’m also grateful to my mother for believing in art and truth and for supporting the idea of the book; to my brilliant and talented older sister, Lori, for coming around to it; and to my younger sister, Maureen, whom I will always love. And to my father, Rex S. Walls, for dreaming all those big dreams.
Very special thanks also to my agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, for her compassion,