Jeannette Walls, successful social figure and journalist, is on her way to a fancy New York City party. Looking out the window of a taxi, she watches a homeless woman dig through trash cans. She realizes sadly that It's her mother. Jeannette realizes this could be her and she tells us the story of how she got to where she is, sitting in a luxury car, while her mother Rose Mary is literally in the gutter. Jeannette's memoir begins at three years old. She is cooking hot dogs on the stove, with no parental supervision. Jeannette sets herself on fire and is rushed to the hospital, where she undergoes several skin grafts. To get around paying the hospital, Rex breaks her out of the recovery ward in the quiet of the night, and the family moves …show more content…
Jeannette falls out of the family's car while travelling through the desert. Brian comes too close for comfort to falling out the back of a U-Haul. Maureen wakes up with a rat sleeping in her bed. The Walls move around often because Rex can't keep a job and Rose Mary thinks of herself as modern-day Picasso, although she can't sell a painting. When the Walls are up against a figurative wall with no money and nowhere to go, they decide to move in with Rex's mother, Erma, in Welch West Virginia. She holds the children prisoner in the basement, abuses them physically and verbally, doesn’t even let them laugh, and molests Jeannette's brother, Brian. Rose Mary and Rex let it happen, Rex even tells Brian that he can handle it because he's a man. The walls don't want to go against Erma and risk getting kicked out as there would be nowhere else to …show more content…
Rose Mary finally gets a job, but Rex drinks away the paycheck. Jeannette makes a budget and tries to protect the money, but Rex always spends it. At one point he even takes Jeannette to a bar and lets a man force himself on her, because it allows him to scam the man while playing pool. She pushes him away, and her faith in her father has finally broken. Realizing that her whole life is filled with garbage, Lori decides to move to New York City. Jeannette, while working at her high-school newspaper, also gets a job to save up some cash to move her sister to the Big Apple. Rex steals the money, wanting to keep his kids at home, but Jeannette and Lori succeed in scrounging up bus fare, and Lori ships herself off to the West Village. Jeannette soon joins Lori, they save up enough to bring over Brian and Maureen. They're enjoying a very happy big city lifestyle, but it doesn't last long. Before they know it, their parents have hauled their sorry butts to New York. They take advantage of their children, staying with them while not paying any rent and mooching money for booze, cigarettes and art supplies, until the kids decide to kick out their parents. Rex and Rose Mary are now