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The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

珍奈特一家人總是過著游牧民族般的漂泊生活，為了躲債主，他們常常漏夜打包「落跑」。四個孩子就像沙漠裡的仙人掌，常常有一餐沒一餐，還好垃圾桶裡可以翻出不少食物，路邊的野草也可以拿來做沙拉。
滿腦子奇思異想的爸媽有著自己獨特的人生哲學，從小就教孩子無所畏懼地擁抱生命：他們和沙漠裡的蠍子、蛇和角蜥為伴、半夜到沙漠裡抓鬼；聖誕節時，爸爸輪流帶他們到沙漠裡挑選星星當禮物；沙漠突然下起雨時，他們會站在溫暖的水流裡唱歌跳舞，試圖抓住看起來最霹靂的閃電，就像在欣賞一場絢麗的煙火秀。
然而，爸爸愈來愈沉迷於酒精，回到家只會發酒瘋，甚至偷走家用買醉。有著藝術家性格的媽媽整天畫畫、寫作，擁有教師資格卻不去學校工作，從外公那裡繼承了一筆高價土地卻拒絕出售，更堅決反對接受社會福利津貼，一家人只好繼續過著沒飯吃、沒炭燒、沒水用的困苦生活。爸爸常說，他很快就會挖到金礦，有了金子就能為全家在沙漠裡蓋一座玻璃城堡；但是，隨著孩子長大，他們漸漸明白，這座玻璃城堡永遠只是存在於藍圖上的夢想，就如同爸爸的其他承諾一樣，是一張無法兌現的空頭支票。終於，有一天，孩子們決定出走，開始尋找自己的人生。