Scan barcode
A review by okiecozyreader
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
4.0
The short chapters in this book kept me going; thank goodness they weren’t longer. So many difficulties and tragedies. I heard a teacher one time say that in relationships - junk attracts junk - it may be different kinds of junk, but the same amount. This was true in this book - two “parents” who had dreams who “taught” their kids ingenuity out of necessity. When their daughter “made” her own braces (ch 46) out of paper lips, her dad praised her workmanship. They go from run down slum to slum until they are usually kicked out or threatened by authority.
It is an amazing story of three of the children and it makes me wonder how they overcame it all - was it that they felt their parents loved them in some way? Or they had taught them enough to survive strange and awful circumstances?
I read this with the Zibby ambassadors bookclub, facilitated by Zibby author Michelle Wildgen, who did an amazing job!
Quotes -
Ch 5: When Dad wasn’t telling us about all the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do. Like build the Glass Castle. All of Dad’s engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert.
Ch 8: “I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire.”
Ch 17: “Mom liked to encourage self-sufficiency in all living creatures.”
Ch 18: “Mom gave me a startled look. I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.”
Ch 42: “And you can get cold for a while, but you always warm up. Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You’re scarred for life.”
“Mom turned quiet. She seemed to be thinking. Then she looked up. She was smiling serenely. “I can’t leave your father,” she said. “It’s against the Catholic faith.” Then she sighed. “And anyway, you know your mom. I’m an excitement addict.””
Ch 47: “I began to feel like I was getting the whole story for the first time, that I was being handed the missing pieces to the puzzle, and the world was making a little more sense.”
Ch 56: “and sat around talking about Welch, laughing so hard at the idea of all that craziness that our eyes watered.”
Ch 58: “Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure.”
Ch 66: “But Mom acted like her normal self—nonchalant in the face of adversity.”
It is an amazing story of three of the children and it makes me wonder how they overcame it all - was it that they felt their parents loved them in some way? Or they had taught them enough to survive strange and awful circumstances?
I read this with the Zibby ambassadors bookclub, facilitated by Zibby author Michelle Wildgen, who did an amazing job!
Quotes -
Ch 5: When Dad wasn’t telling us about all the amazing things he had already done, he was telling us about the wondrous things he was going to do. Like build the Glass Castle. All of Dad’s engineering skills and mathematical genius were coming together in one special project: a great big house he was going to build for us in the desert.
Ch 8: “I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected to the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn’t have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire.”
Ch 17: “Mom liked to encourage self-sufficiency in all living creatures.”
Ch 18: “Mom gave me a startled look. I’d broken one of our unspoken rules: We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure.”
Ch 42: “And you can get cold for a while, but you always warm up. Once you go on welfare, it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You’re scarred for life.”
“Mom turned quiet. She seemed to be thinking. Then she looked up. She was smiling serenely. “I can’t leave your father,” she said. “It’s against the Catholic faith.” Then she sighed. “And anyway, you know your mom. I’m an excitement addict.””
Ch 47: “I began to feel like I was getting the whole story for the first time, that I was being handed the missing pieces to the puzzle, and the world was making a little more sense.”
Ch 56: “and sat around talking about Welch, laughing so hard at the idea of all that craziness that our eyes watered.”
Ch 58: “Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure.”
Ch 66: “But Mom acted like her normal self—nonchalant in the face of adversity.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Mental illness