About The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls opens her memoir in a taxi in New York City. She is dressed for a party, and she looks out of the window to see her mother digging through a dumpster. Then she goes back to the start. Her father, Rex, is brilliant, charming, and an alcoholic. Her mother, Rose Mary, is an artist who would rather paint than cook or hold down a job. With Jeannette and her siblings, Lori, Brian, and Maureen, they move from one desert town to the next across the American Southwest, often leaving in the middle of the night. Rex promises that one day he will build them a glass castle, a house of glass and solar power that he has drawn out in detail. When the money runs out for good, the family ends up in Welch, West Virginia, Rex’s coal-mining hometown, in a house with no plumbing. The children learn to feed and protect each other, and one by one they plan their way out to New York. The memoir was adapted into a 2017 film. It works for book clubs because nobody agrees about Rex and Rose Mary, and because Walls tells it all without self-pity.

Discussion questions for The Glass Castle

The memoir opens with Jeannette in a taxi, hiding from her mother on the street. Why do you think she starts there rather than in her childhood? How did that scene shape the way you read the rest?
At three years old, Jeannette is badly burned while cooking hot dogs on her own. Later, her father takes her out of the hospital without paying. What does this early episode tell you about how the family works?
Rex teaches his children physics, astronomy, and how to think for themselves. He also drinks away the food money. Can a parent be both a gift and a danger? How do you hold both at once?
Rose Mary says that suffering builds character and that children should be free to learn from their mistakes. Is she an idealist, a neglectful parent, or something else? Did your view of her change as the book went on?
The glass castle is a plan Rex never builds. What does it come to mean for Jeannette? Why do you think she chose it as the title?
Walls describes hunger, cold, and danger in a calm, almost matter-of-fact voice. Why do you think she writes that way? Did it make the book easier or harder to read?
The siblings protect each other when their parents do not. Talk about the bond between Jeannette, Lori, and Brian. Why do you think Maureen’s path is so different?
In Welch, the family is poor even by the standards of a poor town. How does the book show class, shame, and the way other people look at children like Jeannette?
Jeannette defends her parents for a long time, even to herself. When did you see that loyalty start to break? What finally made her leave?
Rose Mary turns out to own land worth a great deal of money while her children go hungry. How did you react to that? What does it say about her choices?
As an adult, Jeannette hides her background from colleagues and friends. Have you ever kept part of your past private in order to fit in? What does it cost to tell the truth?
The book ends with a family gathering after Rex’s death. Did the ending feel like forgiveness, acceptance, or something more complicated?

Themes in The Glass Castle

Love and neglect in the same house

Rex and Rose Mary clearly love their children. They also leave them hungry, cold, and unsafe. The memoir refuses to settle into either “my parents were monsters” or “my parents were wonderful.” That refusal is why it starts so many arguments.

Poverty seen from inside

Walls shows poverty in practical detail: what you eat when there is nothing, how you hide holes in your clothes, how you learn to stay out of sight. She never asks for pity, and the book is sharper for it.

Siblings as the real parents

When the adults fail, the children take over. They pool money, plan escapes, and look out for each other. The memoir is in many ways a story about a sibling bond strong enough to carry three of them out.

Dreams and the stories we tell ourselves

The glass castle, Rex’s grand plans, and Rose Mary’s art all hold the family together and keep it stuck at the same time. The book asks when a dream helps you survive and when it becomes a reason not to change.

People in The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls: the author and narrator, the second of four children.
Rex Walls: her father. Clever, funny, and inventive, and a heavy drinker who cannot keep a job.
Rose Mary Walls: her mother, a painter and trained teacher who resists the duties of looking after a family.
Lori Walls: the eldest sibling, a reader and artist, the first to move to New York.
Brian Walls: Jeannette’s younger brother and her closest ally growing up.
Maureen Walls: the youngest sibling, who has the hardest time finding her way.
Erma Walls: Rex’s mother, who lives in Welch.

Suggested book club format

Length: About 290 pages, roughly seven hours of reading.
Session count: One session works for most clubs. For two, break when the family arrives in Welch, which shifts the tone of the book.
Icebreaker: “What is one thing your family did that you only later realised was unusual?”
Moderator note: The memoir includes child neglect, alcoholism, hunger, sexual abuse, a serious childhood burn, and violence within the family. Some members may have lived through similar things. Let people share as much or as little as they want.

How a real club read this

Share how your circle discussed The Glass Castle: tell us about your reading circle.

More books like The Glass Castle

Educated by Tara Westover: another memoir of a childhood outside the rules, and the cost of leaving the family that shaped you. Educated discussion guide.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner: a daughter’s memoir about a complicated mother, written with love and honesty. Crying in H Mart discussion guide.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: Appalachian poverty and failing adults, seen through the eyes of a child who has to grow up fast. Demon Copperhead discussion guide.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: a girl left by her family who learns to survive on her own, and a town that looks down on her. Where the Crawdads Sing discussion guide.

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The Glass Castle