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Book VS. Movie: The Glass Castle
The Book: The Glass Castle The Author: Jeannette Walls Released: Jan. 2006 Genre: Memoir
Now, I didn’t necessarily pick this book out on my own. I was taking the Sociology of Family Dynamics and this book was on the required reading list. That being said, I could have picked any of the books on the list but this story jumped out at me. I genuinely enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to. While this book is only 320 pages, you never feel like the story is rushed.
I would highly recommend this to anyone, it’s a touching story and the writing is very well done.
What it’s About:
The Glass Castle is a gorgeous work of story-telling in the form of a memoir. This is the story of the Walls children and their unconventional parents. Dysfunctional and very unconventional. Jeannette, one of the Walls children and the author of this memoir chronicles her life with her siblings growing up and into adulthood. When the Wall’s father, Rex is sober he his brilliant, whether it be physics or architecture or even geology. He pushes his children’s imagination. But, when he’s drunk, which he usually is he is the definition of destruction. And his wife Rose Mary, the Walls children’s mother is his enabler. A natural born free spirit and self-proclaimed artist she was never really built for a family.
While their parents loved them, the kids learned to fend for themselves. Becoming bonded and loyal to only each other the kids protected, fed and clothed each other.
This is a story of an odd family and how they all survived in their own way.
The Movie: The Glass Castle The Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Released: August 2017 Genre: Drama, Biography
What it’s About:
The film follows the exact same story as the book, I was actually shocked how close the film was to the book.
Comparing the Book to the Movie:
When they announced that they were making this book into a movie, I was concerned like most people are when a good book gets picked up. But, the cast was stellar, Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts I could go on and on.
If you couldn’t tell by my scoring but I like the book just as much as the movie. You know when you have the characters in your mind while you’re reading the book? The casting director deserves an award, because everyone was as I imagined. Except one, Rex Walls.
While reading the book I think to say that I loathed this character/person would be a mild phrasing. Anytime he was drunk and horrible during the story I got angrier and angrier. I had little to no sympathy for him, you learn about his childhood struggles and of course my heart hurt for him but overall, I was massively frustrated.
For the film, they cast Woody Harrelson to play Rex Walls. I adore Woody Harrelson to begin with, but the way he played this character had me feeling all the feels for this man sometimes. Harrelson has a natural charm and he brought that to Rex Walls. I liked and felt for this character while watching the movie more than when I was reading him off the page.
This was the largest difference for me between book and movie, after that it was pretty exact. However, I would recommend reading the book before watching the movie. I feel like the book really does the beautiful story telling justice.
Happy reading and watching babes!