Audiobook Spotlight: The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2010)

In this stunning memoir, Jeannette Walls recounts both the glorious and horrifying moments of her peripatetic childhood in the 60s and 70s- exploring the stark beauty of the desert with her siblings, to almost burning to death as a three year old cooking hot dogs alone. Walls’s parents move the family frequently- “doing the skedaddle” as Walls’s father Rex calls it- abandoning debts and responsibilities across the country. Walls recalls her father’s changeability unflinchingly- when sober he shared his brilliant scientific mind as a loving and engaged father. When drinking, he stole, lied and terrified his children and wife. Walls’s artist mother appears to spend much of her time eating her secret stash of candy, waiting for her “big break”, refusing to work despite a teaching degree and pleas from her starving children. Both parents largely leave the children to their own devices, leading to their development of great ingenuity and self-sufficiency. Despite the numerous difficulties Walls faced while growing up, she manages to write of her parents and childhood with great affection and respect.