"The Glass Castle"

[fiefoe]

Jeannette Walls certainly knows how to grab the reader's attention with the opening line: 'I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.'

Wonders never cease:

• (In hospital after getting burned at 3:) "I know (I am going to be okay)," I said, "but if I'm not, that's okay, too."
• Once I had a couple of (scabs) free, I'd pretend they were talking to each other in cheeping voices.
• That was the thing about the hospital. You never had to worry about running out of stuff like food or ice or even chewing gum.
• He took the essentials-... his pistols, and Mom's archery set.
• Anyone who didn't like to travel wasn't invited on our adventure, Dad said. He stopped the car, grabbed Quixote (the cat) by the scruff of the neck, and tossed him out the window.
• We were sort of like the cactus. We ate irregularly, and where we did, we'd gorge ourselves... We filled our entire car full of green grapes - the trunk, even the glove compartment.
• One time when a neighbor's TV set broke, Dad opened the back and used a macaroni noodle ot insulate some crossed wires.
• Dad told us bedtime stories. They were always about him.
• When he's plucked all the pebbles from my cheeks and forehead, he... tried to stop my nose from bleeding... "Damn, honey," he said, "You busted your snot locker pretty good."
• I wondered if the fire had been out to get me... what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.
• Mom made Dad stop the car. She'd seen a tree on the side of the road that had caught her fancy.. (The ancient Joshua tree) existed now in a permanent state of windblownness, leaning over so far that it seemed ready to topple, although, its roots held it firmly in place.
• The longer you looked...  the more stars you’d see, layer after layer of them gradually becoming visible.
• (Christmas:) "Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten," Dad said, "you'll still have your stars."
• Lori, Brian and I braced on eachother with our arms, like we always did when Dad went on some wild chase that we knew would get bumpy.