The Glass Castle

I'll build a castle that won't fall down...
-Eisley

I love the title of this memoir. The Glass Castle. It's mysterious and beautiful and brings images to mind of light and architecture and space and reflection. I love the meaning of The Glass Castle in the book: yet another of her father's dreams and unfulfilled promises. I love the vagueness of the summary given on the back cover. I love how, before I read this, I thought my childhood was pretty different and unique but in comparison it was the picture of normalcy.


In The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, what the main character, the author, goes through in this book is unbelievable. Her childhood is an erratic and unstable one, with a bright father, Rex, and an artist and writer mother, Rose Mary. Rex is a brilliant dreamer, interested in physics and aerodynamics but is an angry and destructive alcoholic. Rose Mary, having had to grow up quickly after giving birth to her children, is selfish and has terrible moodswings. Jeanette and her three siblings have to rely on each other and be a support system in a hectic place. From constantly moving and changing schools, to having so little money that they don't know where their next meal will come from, this family is constantly being tested. As Jeanette and her siblings get older, they look for ways to make it our on their own. To have lives with a little stability, and isn't that what we all want?

This book is more than a memoir of an American family, it is a piece of history. Not only a personal history, but of America and a struggling family in the West. America and the world have both changed so much even in just the past 20 years, and now more than ever it's important to look back on how far it's come. It's a story of survival and strength, from someone who knew nothing outside of the craziness she grew up in. All she knew is that she wanted something better.