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.