The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle--------------------------------------------------This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey fromthe deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to anantique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates hernomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' butalcoholic parents. At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhoundbus to New York with her older sister, her younger siblings followlater. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents soughtto escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane,middle class existence' she had always craved. In her apartment, overlookedby 'a portrait of someone else's ancestor' she recounts poignant rememberedimages of star watching with her father, juxtaposed with recollectionsof irregular meals, accidents and police-car chases and reveals hercomplex feelings of shame, guilt, pity and pride toward her parents.--------------------------------------------------Author Biography: Jeannette Walls lives in New York and on Long Islandand is married to writer John Taylor. She is a regular contributorto MSNBC.com.