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Jeannette Walls
The glass castle in the title (2005) can be seen as a promise Jeannette’s father breaks throughout their life together, symbolic of the neglect and suffering the children endure throughout their childhood, whether in the deserts of Arizona or a bleak mining town in Appalachia. Despite the broken dreams, the hunger, the cold, the flights from the law, their father’s alcoholism, they are none the less raised in an atmosphere of continuing love, a fact which may have enabled them to rise above their upbringing and make good lives for themselves.
More by Jeannette Walls
Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip. 2000.
About Jeannette Walls
Interviews
Bussel, Rachel Kramer, “Jeannette Walls, Author, The Glass Castle, Gossip Columnist, MSNBC.com,” Gothamist, May 27, 2005.
Distressed Jeans, A Girl and Her Books: Conversations w/ Famous Writers, October 27, 2005.
Hazlick, Denise, “Life in ’Glass Castle’ Only Made Walls Stronger,” MSNBC.com, March 20, 2006.
“Jeannette Walls Answers Your Questions: A Q & A with the Chronicler of New York’s Power Elite,” ABC Primetime, March 15, 2005.
Awards and Accolades for The Glass Castle
American Library Association ALEX Award, 2006
American Library Association Notable Books, Nonfiction, 2006
The American Place Theatre Literature to Life Program, where the memoir was selected for adaptation to a one-woman dramatic piece for performance in high schools
Christopher Award for Adult Books, 2006
King County Library System, Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
Kinsella, Bridget, ”Media Flocks to Scribner’s ‘Glass Castle,’ Publishers Weekly, February 2, 2005.
The New York Times Notable Books List, Nonfiction, 2005
Pennsylvania School Library Association “Top Ten (or so) Favorites, Nonfiction, 2005”
Discussion Guide for The Glass Castle
BookBrowse
Reviews of The Glass Castle
Barnes & Noble BookBrowser summation of reviews
Berry, Jillian, “…The Glass Castle…Sparkles in a Sea of Memories,” The Tech Online Edition, June 2, 2006.
Blades, Bobby, Curled up with a Good Book, 2005.
Goldberg, Lucianne, “”Glass Castle Freedom,” National Review Online, March 23, 2005.
Haycox, Ginger, BC Magazine, February 6, 2007.
njchicaa, DealTime, August 8, 2006.
Prose, Francine, “’The Glass Castle’: Outrageous Misfortune,” New York Times, March 13, 2005.
Williams, Sabrina, Breeni Books, April 22, 2007.
http://breenibooks.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-glass-castle-by-jeannette-walls_22.html
Family
To say that Walls’s upbringing was unusual is to state the obvious. There are other now well-known stories of equally bizarre childhoods, some true and some fictional.
Burroughs, Augusten. Running with Scissors. 2002.
Dunn, Kathleen. Geek Love. 1989 [Fiction]
Pelzer, Dave. A Child Called It: An Abused Child’s Journey from Victim to Victor. 1995.
Sedaris, Dave. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. 2000.
Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life. 1989.
Place
It’s hard to say if the difficulties in the Walls’s lives were exacerbated by their geographic locales, or if life would have been difficult regardless, based on the personalities of the parents. Place does have a strong character in this book, however, whether it’s the desert or the poverty-stricken mining town in West Virginia.
“Good Sites on Appalachian Literature,” Appalachian Heritage: A Literary Quarterly of the Appalachian South.
The Coal Miner’s Daughter. [DVD]
Engelhard, Michael. Where the Rain Children Sleep: A Sacred Geography of the Colorado Plateau. 2004.
Greer, Jerry D., photographer, Appalachia: The Southern Highlands. 2000.
The Joshua Tree/Desert Life [The Joshua tree is an important symbol in the book—see pp 35-38)
Social Conditions
Jeannette Walls lived in an environment of alcohol abuse, neglect, poverty and homelessness. Others have similar stories.
Hart, Elva Treviño. Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child. 1999.
Hartnett, Sonya. Thursday’s Child. 2000 [Fiction, set in a mining community in Australia]
Louise, Regina. Somebody’s Someone. 2003.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939 [Fiction]
Summer, Lauralee. Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars. 2003.
Dream-building and Inventions
There is no denying that Rex Walls is a very bright man, erudite in the scientific world, and a big dreamer about all the things he would invent.
Han, Peter. Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start. 2005.
Horvitz, Leslie Alan. Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed the World. 2002.
Petroski, Henry. The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts—from Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers—Came to Be As They Are. 1992.
Rybczynski, Witold. One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw. 2000.
Theroux, Paul. The Mosquito Coast. 1982. [Fiction]
Overcoming Adversity
There seem to be countless stories out now of people with difficult childhoods overcoming their backgrounds and upbringing to lead relatively normal, successful lives. The titles listed here all reflect the stories of those who have succeeded because of their writing talents, as Jeannette Walls did.
Dobie, Kathy. The Only Girl in the Car. 2003.
Fisher, Antwone. Finding Fish. 2001.
Helget, Nicole Lea. The Summer of Ordinary Ways. 2005.
Lauck, Jennifer. Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found. 2000.
Moss, Barbara Robinette. Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter. 2001.
(Created with the help of the Oshawa Workshop participants. All Web sites accessed July, 2007.
Maureen O'Connor, WordsWorthy/Connecting Books and Readers/ maureen@wordsworthy.com)
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