The Glass Castle

A Memoir

Jeanette Walls

Scribner, 2005, 288 pages

This is a heart-wrenching and yet touching account of a girl’s life growing up in western mining towns and a West Virginia slum in the 1960s and 70s. It clearly paints a picture of the life of neglect that is the fate of those unlucky enough to be born into a family plagued by rampant alcoholism. This is not a tale of some roaring drunk beating his wife and children—but of some pretty bright kids coming to terms with something far more troubling.

This is the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It is about the will to survive inequity, and to triumph in the face of apathy. I would never have thought that some cute girl’s story could be so gripping.