The glass castle: a memoir

her tea. "Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to ...

all his hair, and it was still coal black, and his dark eyes twinkled above the paper surgical mask he ...

me looking at his trembling fingers and held them up. "Lack of liquor or fear of God—don't know which i ...

the sofa with an arm around Mom and a pint bottle in his hand. He laughed. "This crazy-ass mother of y ...

stared at the folded clothes. His face took on that wounded expression he got whenever the world called h ...

In August, Dad called to go over my course selection for the fall semester. He also wanted to ...

from a hole in the ground." "Dad," I said. "you guys need this money more than I do." "It's ...

building's front door, but where the lock and handle should have been, there was only a hole. Inside, a ...

their fellow squatters and the friends they'd made in the neighborhood and the common fight against the city's hou ...

his butt so hard, his asshole will be up between his shoulder blades." "He treats me fine, Dad," I said. ...

to discuss with her. I now had a good job, I said, and was in a position to help her and Dad. I ...

column, then call me with tips. "This Astor broad has one helluva past," he told me one time. "May ...

"Coal mining." As she questioned me, she studied what I wore, assessing the fabric and appraising the cost of ...

Jim's land," she said. Mom and her brother had each inherited half of the West Texas land that had been o ...

"More or less," Mom said. "So if Uncle Jim's land is worth a million dollars, that means your land i ...

she kept repeating that it was important to keep Uncle Jim's land—land that had belonged to her father ...

bartender or waitress, but the jobs never lasted long. Ever since she was a kid, she'd been looking ...

I told Mom that Maureen should get professional help, but Mom kept insisting that all Maureen needed was fre ...

hell up or he'd arrest them. I just stood there looking from one distorted face to another, liste ...

Island that he restored, and he and his wife had a child, a little girl. They were his family now. Lor ...