Featured Conservative Authors
Conservative Book Zone
Conservative Classics
General Market Books
Shop our bookstore where you will find books for each conservative topic you are looking for!
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
| Our Price |
$ 23.40
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 30.00 |
|
| You Save |
$ 6.60 (22%) |
|
| Item Number |
1501666 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
Overview
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
Publishers Description
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 288
Dimensions: Length: 1" Width: 6.25" Height: 9.25"
Weight: 1.2 lbs.
Binding Hardcover
Release Date Oct 6, 2009
ISBN 1439156964
EAN 9781439156964
|
Availability 8 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 03:58.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Commerce GA.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
More About Jeannette Walls
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Addicting, Devastating, Inspiring Jan 8, 2010 |
I'm not exactly sure how to describe this book. It's amazingly inspiring, yet terribly depressing at times. It makes you simultaneously weep for humanity while also being inspired by human strength. It's very touching - in many aspects.
I highly recommend this book. Highly. I'm an avid reader and this one touched me like few books do. I couldn't put it down - and it was definitely one of thos books that helped me lose sleep certain nights when I couldn't put it down. It's not long, but it will totally suck you in to the life of young Jeannette Walls - leaving you with a feeling of deep connection after reading it.
As I flipped the pages, I got angry, sad, and many times inspired by the strength of the children living in the Walls household. Faced with the unsurpassed selfishness of their parents, each child managed in a different way. Though they all made it through with their lives (surprisingly, considering the neglect they faced), I still find myself wondering about the youngest sister. Still I'm comforted knowing that the three oldest have found their place in this world where selfishness can deprive, but strength can overcome.
This is one powerful book! | | | | Love this book! Speedy delivery and very entertaining! Jan 8, 2010 |
| I purchased this book twice now. One for school and one for my cousin who is in prison. He said he could not put the book down until it was finished! I feel the same way. I am looking into buying another book by Jeanette Walls! She is such a talented writer and makes me realize how lucky I am! | | | | Castle Grasps Storytelling's Fundamentals Jan 8, 2010 |
I like stories whose protagonists cruise the galaxy in sleek starships or thwart devious djinns with only their wits or scavenge for weapons in order to fend off the angry undead. Genre fiction has made me burn many a quart of midnight oil. Literary works haven't, and I've especially never been drawn by personal memoirs. Accounts of failed careers, broken relationships and serious substance abuse have always felt self-serving to me and usually strained in the telling. At least that's what I thought before reading Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle, a memoir which exemplifies that fundamental rule of storytelling: Show and don't tell.
The members of the Walls family aren't stupid. Patriarch Rex Walls loves studying higher math and dabbling in electrical engineering. His wife, Rose Mary, adores great art and all of Shakespeare's plays. No, lack of intelligence doesn't cause their problems. It has more to do with how Rex immediately disappears into the nearest bar whenever he gets a little money, or how Rose Mary would rather sketch a wind-blown Joshua tree or work on her collection of pithy sayings than ensure there's food in the fridge. So from earliest childhood, the four Walls children -- Lori, Brian, Jeannette and Maureen -- live as nomads on the underside of America, surviving any way in which they can. And as the years roll on, they begin to realize that any hope of the family's survival falls directly to them.
With such grim subject matter, The Glass Castle could easily turn maudlin or weepy. What holds it together is how Jeannette Walls offers precious little commentary on the proceedings. She doesn't tell you how terrible it is that her father met with a prostitute while her brother was in an adjoining room or how her mother would regularly feed them entirely on popcorn for days at a time. She doesn't have to; the occurrences serve as their own commentary. Her use of symbolism is also masterful, inserting seemingly off-hand accounts that gradually accrete significance through later allusions. In fact, the technique appears in the title itself, the Glass Castle being a huge, solar-powered, transparent house that Rex says will one day stand proud and self-sufficient in the middle of the desert -- a house that only ever gets built on paper. It's also a harrowing, heartbreaking and highly recommended book, no matter what sort of stories you love. | | | | page turner! Jan 3, 2010 |
I was told to read this book by some co-workers, and I am so glad I did!
It was such a great book- a nice, quick read for people like me who enjoy sappy love stories & non fiction/autobiographies. Its was nice to read because of the quick "chapters" (I don't think there is a chapter that is more than 6 pages), so it was always nice to read a little and easy to put down and go back to later. The story is easy to get into, and it quickly captured my interest with well developed descriptions of family members. I read this book with a visual picture playing in my head of the events and people in the book. | | | | loved this book, will read again its so fantastic Jan 2, 2010 |
| this book is wonderful, i absolutely loved it. rarely have i read a book twice and i will absolutely read this one over and over again. just fantastic. | | | Write your own review about The Glass Castle: A Memoir
|
|
