I just finished up listening to the audio book The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls.
When I read the book description it sounded like a coming of age story so I grabbed this one and added it to my wait list on my on line library. Finally it came available and I was glued to the book.
I love the book. I loved it a lot. It is a memoir so at times, it makes it a bit of a tough read knowing children went through all the things that these kids did. Reading it’s quite obvious that the parents loved the kids as they could but mental illness made that hard for them to properly care for the kids. There’s a saying that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. These kids are proof of that.
Here’s what Amazon has to say….
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.
The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.
As I was writing this review I discovered that this book is becoming a movie. I am absolutely thrilled to know this is in production to be a movie. Here’s the trailer for it.
You can bet that I’ll be going!
Amazon readers give the book 4.6 stars. I’m giving it FIVE! That doesn’t happen often.
Oh my gosh I HAVE to read this book!
Read this book awhile ago and it was wonderful! 5 stars for sure.
Jo – have you read “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult yet? I HIGHLY recommend it!
I started with Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, then went on to The Glass Castle, then The Silver Star – airport books I just couldn’t put down. Airports don’t have such fine books these day and I travel less. Loved the books and swallowed them down. Glad for the author that her efforts in life paid off and this book will be a movie, after living a very difficult life, being responsible for so much.
I read this year’s ago. This story will haunt you. I agree that it deserves 5 stars.
A five star book! When I read this book at times I thought it must be fiction! It was about a very dysfunctional family with two very irresponsible parents that had not one but three children. Unbelievable how the three children survived daily! Yet the three amazing children that truly raised themselves survived to become very admirable and productive adults. Very difficult at times for me to continue to read yet difficult to put down. I look forward to seeing the movie made from this memoir.
I may have to re-visit this one, I read it years ago. . .movie looks good, not sure it will make it out here to the middle of nowhere, but if it does, I am going!
the trailer says in theaters August 11th…… that is TODAY !!!