The Glass Castle

Today's Nonfiction post is on The Glass Castle. It is 288 pages long and is published by Scribner. The cover is white with a little girl in the center covering her face as she turns to the side. The intended reader is someone who is interested in memoirs. There is foul language, talk of sex, and violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- A tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story.

Review- This is an fascinating and disturbing memoir. Walls starts with her first memory, which is cooking hot-dogs for dinner because her mother was working on a painting and could not be bothered to cook for her four children. A fire starts and she gets badly burned. After she gets out of the hospital, once again she is hungry and her mother cannot be bothered to do anything for her children, so she starts cooking again. Her mother praises her to doing that. That is the reader introduction to this family. Walls tells her story without glossing over what happened to her from hunger to being placed in dangerous situations because her parents had no clue about how to parent, or even how to protect their children from bad things. Walls and her siblings did make it and they have lives but they have paid a very high price for the choices that their parents made. As interesting and well-written this memoir is, it is only for the those with a strong stomach.

I give this memoir a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.