The Glass Castle is a unique, at times jarring account of a nomadic jagged family traversing the Southwest and stopping wherever they landed. Jeannette Walls is the second oldest of four children of the late Rex Walls, her quite possibly brilliant alcoholic father whose skills in drinking were only matched by his skills in veneering his fables, and Rose Mary Walls, a manic-depressive and emotionally detached mother, who would rather paint than eat and is a self proclaimed “excitement addict” (93 Walls). Through places like Midland, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, to Battle Mountain, Nevada, and finally beelining back to Rex’s hometown, Welch, West Virginia. All they could ever escape was the bill collectors (narrowly) while chasing a fever dream, but never seemed to fully shake off their misfortune and worst habits.

The second section of the book (The Desert) was one of the more enchanting and strong sections for me, specifically in Battle Mountain. It offers a dreamy picture of crack of dawn explorations for chunks of garnet and animal bones, playing games in the Woods by the dump, and a shambly house converted from a railroad depot with a rotating cast of animals who decided to wander in. After they skedaddled from Battle Mountain and moved to Rose Mary’s mother’s old house, a massive white stucco mansion, Jeannette went to a good school where she was recognized for her intelligence, they had new bicycles and full bellies, which may seem small to some but meant the world to them. Up until they moved to Welch, they seemed like maybe, just maybe, they could continue to push their chances, keeping their family intact within an inch of its life. But Welch ended up being more decrepit than anywhere they had been before. The Walls’ kids had survived tumbling out of a U-Haul, starvation, abuse, molestation, injuries, and hiding from the law, with all to shelter them being addicted, mentally ill parents with deeply skewed priorities and perception of the world around them. (“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” Rose Mary said once Lori, Jeannette’s sister, burnt her legs in their freezing house trying to burn wood with kerosene in a coal-burning stove.)

However, once they reached Welch, and Jeannette reached adolescence in general, there was a significant turn in the story. All of the previous recollections seemed laser-sharp, detailed, and immersive. Later parts of the book felt empty, like parts of the story had fallen off along the way. It was a significant shift in the storyline where I began to find more issues with the book itself. With such detailed recollection of a childhood, and then such an absence of connection with the narrator, it forces you to question the reliability of the narrator. It made me worry that her childhood stories were sensationalized or misremembered (more than the acceptable amount when considering the memories formed by a child). I understand that as a victim of sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse, as well as an overall tumultuous upbringing where it’s easier to be detached, it can be difficult to open up. But by cutting out all of the humanity from herself; no mention of her own personal triumphs, growth, and obstacles, she flattens her character out. We are led to only be able to associate her with her family struggles, and not about how she overcame all those things; just that she did and now she was living the high life. She was trying to make a point and allow a cold, clinical narration to make us to form our own opinion, but it feels like we are being forced to pity a character for all of the horrible situations that keep happening to her. Pitying such a character is especially difficult when you hardly have a grasp of who she is as a person. Although you must take into account her background in writing is in gossip columns, for MSNBC, and other journalist works, it still can feel plastic at times. She is never portrayed in a negative light, her emotions and her ethics or her interests are skimmed over if even mentioned. Her at times choppy vignettes of tragic life situations seems very sterile, and come off as posed at times. It makes it hard to believe that that’s all that really happened. Whether or not this is actually true, her disconnection behind her narration is not only a huge injustice to the strength of the novel itself, but can easily lead the reader to feel indifferent to the narrator because there is no significant connection with her. It quickly transitioned from a story about a unique and eloquent perspective on neglect and poverty, into a story about how life can be really awful, and then you’re supposed to think ‘At least my life isn’t as bad as theirs!’, and then it has a happy ending because now the character is successful and everything’s excellent.

The major piece of her personality and thoughts that came through was hard to chew, and I found myself having to think about the situation many times, and changing my opinion several of those times. Although her parents were undoubtedly abusive and hardly fit parents, it feels as though Walls did not take into account all of what her parents went through. Her father was clearly mentally ill, as well as an addict, but it feels distinctly at times she disregarded those things to make it easier for her to disconnect from them. However, her father wasn’t the worst example of this, who even after the biggest of benders and more nefarious decisions still got more sympathy from Walls than her mother. Rose Mary was manic depressive, which was probably not her only ailment, and obviously had a very flighty grasp of reality. There’s a huge stigma surrounding mental disorders that involve symptoms that make someone appear “lazy” or “careless” when those actions, which can’t always be justified, can at least be better understood and worked through besides complete abandonment. I understand Walls’ feeling of never being able to find success if she had to worry about her parents, but it also seemed very cold to be able to condemn someone so harshly for actions caused by an illness.

Overall, the book was interesting and beautiful at times, yet revealed many flaws in an attempt to hide other issues. It is a difficult book to swallow at points, and there are times when you want to drill some sense into Walls’ parents, but learning about your own perception and how you define your own personal “good” or “bad” as you read is a really unique experience. This book will make your morals argue, make exceptions and excuses, and simply help you to better understand why people are the way they are, from any walk of life and any circumstance.