Summer Reading Book Review - The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

This memoir is one for the ages - at times throughout the reading I had to remind myself that this was a true story. Beginning with the startling scene of Walls spotting her homeless mother rifling through garbage as she cruised through Manhattan in a cab on her way back to her Park Avenue apartment, the book expands into an intimate and touching story of a family. Walls descibes her childhood spent moving from town to town on a whim. Hunger wasn't uncommon and money was always scarce for the Walls family. An alcoholic yet bright and entrepreneurial father and a whimsical artistic mother created a childhood of wonder and survival for the four Walls children. Readers can't help but be struck with how incredibly well Walls is able to recollect her world exactly as she saw it as a child. There is no filter of adult resentments and realizations of the poverty and insanity of her own childhood - it is written simply as she remembers it, full of unconditional love amidst the tumult.

I can't recommend the book strongly enough. From California to Phoenix, West Virginia and New York Walls has told a great American tale of overcoming adversity and the deep love of families - full of flaws and tribulations - yet all the while pulsing with love. You'll fly through it this summer and be left with quite a bit to think about.

Reviewed by Meg Evans