The Glass Castle by: Jeannette Walls

Lauren Geiger

EDRL 524

September 30,2016

Memoir Book Review

Book: The Glass Castle by: Jeannette Walls

Annotation: This novel is a true story that follows the life of Jeannette Walls. The memoir starts in Jeannettes early childhood years and tells the profound stories of living with an alcoholic father, and passive mother. Jeannette is the second oldest of four children who plays the role of the mother to all of her siblings. As the family changes location due to outstanding debts that her parents acquire, the memoir goes through all of the trials and tribulations that come along with being hungry, not having a stable home environment, and children raising children. There are definite ups and downs as the story progresses, but ultimately the trauma overwhelmingly outweighs the positive experiences.

Opinion: Coming from a similar childhood, this novel hit close to home for me. Jeannette Walls does a fantastic job of painting a picture through words of her experiences as a child, sibling, and student. It is amazing to me how positive and resilient she is as the story progresses and things get worse. This memoir is a great example of a family that is unstable and inconsistent but remains somewhat presentable to society. I loved that she takes the reader through all the situations she is forced into from her perspective because it allows readers who have never experienced anything like this to better sympathize with the situation.

Questions for future readers: If you had a student in your class who you had noticed to be inconsistent in attendance and showed signs of homelessness, how could you approach the situation to best assist the child in their psychological and physical needs?