Family Matters
Best-Selling Author Jeannette Walls Looks Back On Dysfunctional Childhood
Jeannette Walls, No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of "The Glass Castle: A Memoir," may not be a household name - yet.
But she's likely to be the talk of the town when she gives the keynote speech at the Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services Reflections of Hope Luncheon on Feb. 13 at Boca West Country Club in Boca Raton.
The annual event, dedicated to removing the stigma of mental illness, raises money for the nonprofit's Welcome Home Program, which offers services for the mentally ill. Walls, 58, has a great deal to say on the subject since she grew up in a close-knit but very dysfunctional family - as described in her 2005 autobiography.
"In retrospect," she says, "I didn't know my dad was mentally ill."
It was her father, the brilliant but alcoholic Rex Walls, who promised that he'd someday build the family of six a "glass castle." The day she realized that castle was a pipe dream was the day she grew up, Walls says.
Now, she's looking forward to sharing her story of redemption and resilience in Boca.
"I love giving these talks," she says. "I believe people need to hear the message. I spent so much time punishing myself for being in that situation; but I believe that what we don't like about ourselves may be where we get our strength."
It certainly took strength for Walls and her three siblings to escape their dysfunctional family. By her early 20s, she had moved to New York City, graduated from Barnard College and jumped into journalism. She ended up interviewing celebrities for MSNBC, but that didn't make her happy.
"I felt like a fraud," she admits. "It felt weird and wrong."
Then, her second husband, the writer John Taylor, said he thought she'd be much happier if she wrote the story of her upbringing.
Walls didn't expect the book to take off - much less be made into a 2017 movie starring Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson. But the experience changed her life. It led her to quit her day job, hire an agent, move to a rural part of Virginia and begin writing a novel. Yet, she still devotes time to speaking about mental illness.
"Nothing makes me happier than knowing my story helps people get out of their difficult circumstances," she says. O