The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls' account of her dysfunctional childhood and of her attempts to overcome it. As such, The Glass Castle is similar to Mary Karr's The Liar's Club or Kent Walker's Son of a Grifter. As with those books, The Glass Castle might not make you a better person - but it will be hard to put down.
The Walls family lived a half-step ahead of the bill collectors despite the parents' intelligence. Her father was an alcoholic, while her mother simply refused to work. Eventually, the four children escaped. The Glass Castle is best when it focuses on the family's problems. After the kids leave, their lives improve, but the story isn't quite as good.
Walls has great sense of humor. Within her tragic tale, she inserts wry remarks in unexpected places. I laughed out loud many times, which caused my wife to remark "that must be one funny book."
The humor is of the "I'm laughing to keep from crying" variety. In one scene, her family shops for a car with a budget "in the high two figures" (p. 150). In another, her father and his mother-in-law argue after the Walls moved into her home:
"You flea-bitten drunk!" Grandma would scream.
"You g--d---ed flint-faced hag!" Dad would shout back.
"You no-good two-bit pud-sucking bastard!"
"You scaly castrating banshee bitch!" (p. 20).
The Walls family shows that there is indeed a fine line between comedy and tragedy.
Walls is a talented author and she has a great life story. I highly recommend The Glass Castle.
Get more detail about The Glass Castle: A Memoir.
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