In general, not bad advice, but it was said while I hated him for not holding down a job, for not providing for his children, for being a worthless drunk. And let’s not even get into her sympathy for her daughter’s molester.īut as much as I disliked her mother, I definitely hated her father. She was too weak to stand up to her own issues of selfishness and immaturity. She was too weak to take the kids and leave her no-good, alcoholic husband. She was selfish, but most of all she was weak. Her mother snooty despite the lack of food on the table, acceptable clothing on her children and lack of roof over their head.

The combination of the two made for an audiobook that I hated to stop listening to but sometimes needed a break from. Walls’ writing and storytelling are phenomenal. The more I ruminate and gather my thoughts on this book, the more my thoughts will go down the rabbit hole of mental illness and alcoholism that so exemplified Walls’ childhood.

But I decided that wasn’t a very good idea because I at once loved and hated this book. The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.I wanted to sit on this book for a while, to ruminate on it, to let the words and stories really steep in my mind. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing-a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. 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. The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” ( Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.

THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER- FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON

St Joseph's University (Brooklyn Voices Series).

The glass castle audio book