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The Desert
Jeanette Walls was born on April 21st, 1960 in Phoenix Arizona where she lived until she was 3, when her dad came hom and unexpectedly told everyone to pack up and leave. They leave because of her father being chased by bill collectors, but he told the children the FBI was after him. While she lived in Phoenix, Jeannette was cooking hotdogs one day when she was 3 years old and burned herself severly. Not being able to pay for the hospital bills, her father grabs her and runs out of the hospital. -
To Vegas!
On the way to Las Vegas, her father, Rex, stops at a bar and proceeds to drink, smoke, and drive at the same time, and on a sharp turn, Jeanette is flung from the car and gets injured from rocks embedding into her skin, and her father keeps driving, seeming not to have noticed. After a while he comes back and make a joke about her nose being a "snotlocker" as a way of apology. In Vegas, Rex develops a way to cheat in Blackjack and supports the family for 6 months before being caught. -
The City by the Bay
The Walls family stays in a hotel which doubles as a brothel until it burns down and they decide to stay in their car on the beach. However, the police eventually caught on and asked them to leave. They decide to move back to the desert. -
Midland: The Middle of Nowhere
The family settles in Midland, California after her mother stopped to paint a picture of a Joshua tree. Rex gets a job a gypsum mine which he proceeds to lose before Christmas which comes a couple weeks late, but the children do not seem to mind as they have never believed in Santa. -
Blythe
In Blythe, California Jeanette goes top her school and loves it, eagerly reading as much as she can, and inevitably gets picked on for it by her classmates. One day on her way home from school, she gets jumped by a group of mexican girls who beat her up. The next day they try to do it again, but her brother was with her this time and they fended them off. -
Time to Skedaddle
Rex outruns a police car trying to ticket him for brake lights thinking he would recognize the license plate and parks the car in a parking garage.They rent a U-Haul which the kids have to ride in the back of including the newborn Maureen. The door flies open at one point and Brian almost falls out trying to shut it. Rex eventually gets warned of this via a passing car and locks the door. -
Tough Times at Battle Mountain
The Walls move into an abandoned depot station with no furniture. The kids have to sleep in refridgerator boxes. Jeanette enrolls in 2nd grade, earns money by collecting cans while Rex gets a job at a mine. He ridiculously buys a piano for their mother. Jeanette and Brian accidentally set a shed on fire that nearly kills Brian. Animals have gradually started setting up residence at the Walls house including cats, dogs, a wounded coyote, a vulture, and lizards. -
The Going Gets Tougher
Rex loses his job and the family starts to starve as the kids are reduced to stealing out of other children's lunches. Rex and Mary start to fight and Mary tries to kill herself by jumping out a window, but the kids and Rex prevent it. Mary gets a job as a teacher and hates it, but the kids love her. The administration did not approve however and Mary ends up having to paddle Lori, her daughter to prove she can discipline. -
Enough is Enough
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Full Circle
Jeanette's grandmother dies leaving Mary her house and money. They move back to Phoenix and Rex gets a job. Lori experiences the wonder of glasses for the first time, the children get bicycles, and are harassed by perverts and gypsies throughout their neighborhood. A Pervert breaks in to her room one night and her and brian chase him away with weapons. Rex takes them to the Grand Canyon and the car breaks down forcing them to walk back. -
A Long Decade
Jeanette turns 10 and asks her dad to quit drinking who cahins himself to abed and quits cold turkey but resumes after a year later and loses multiple jobs in the process.Rex and Mary get in a fight when Rex is drunk and nearly end up killing eachother. Mary sells a plot of land in Texas she inherited and the family decide to leave to West Virgina where Rex's family lives. -
Welch
The family moves in with Rex's parents who do not permit laughing and force the children to live in the basement in a single bed. Jeanette gets placed into a special ed class and gets ostracized by the teacher which results in he getting beat up later. The parents leave to Arizona to collect some items and while they are gone, their grandmother tries to molest Brian, which Jeanette interupts and Lori stops Erna, their grandma from slapping Jeanette. This leads to an all out fight between them. -
Things Get Ugly
The parents come back claiming their was a robbery in phoenix and the car brok down so they had to take the bus. They get kicked out of Erna's house because of what happened with Brian and they somehow buy a house with a leaky roof and no indoor plumbing. Rex claims this to be the future sight of the "Glass Castle." A bully named Ernie Goad and his goons harass the kids until they retaliate by creating a catapult with a matress. The children are going hungry and Rex leaves for days at a time. -
Winter
In the winter, the kids had to keep warm at night by sleeping with their recently adopted dogs due to no insulation. They tried to collect coal and wood to burn to keep warm but it did not do much. The family has to melt snow for water. Erna died and Lori sung "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" at the funeral which caused Rex to go into a fit of rage and drinking spree. Jeanette had to go find him by calling all the local bars and being forced to accept the charity of strangers for a ride home. -
Peace Out
After having Rex break into the kids' piggy bank, steal a check from the land out in Texas, and use Jeanette as a way to easily earn money hustling. Lori graduates high school, moves to New York and becomes a waitress. Jeanette works at a jewler's store and babysits saving money to get out of Welch as soon as possible in order to spend her senior year in NY. -
New York
Jeanette moves to New York as she finishes junior year where she is soon followed the next year by Brian and Maureen. She works at a newspaper and goes to college via grants, loans, and being a secretary on wall street. Rex and Mary soon move in with Brian and Lori respectively. Brian tells Rex to stop drinking or leave and Lori tells Mary to clean up her stuff that was cluttering her house and finally kicked her out. They both sleep in the van until it gets towed and they become homeless. -
Some Glass Castle
Jeanette has her own column in a newspaper and graduated college while Rex and Mary joined a house of squatters. Brian becomes a police officer and gets married as wells as Jeanette. Maureen becomes rebellious by dropping out of college, moving into the squatters den, and eventually stabbing Mary when she asks her to leave. Maureen moves to California. Shortly after, Rex dies of a heart attack. Jeanette leaves her husband Eric and later becomes married to a man named John.
