Media flocks to Scribner's 'Glass Castle'.(Breakout Memoir)

A Prominent New York journalist takes a taxi to a swanky downtown party and spots her elderly mother rooting through a dumpster. Afraid to be recognized by her homeless mother and to have her secret exposed should another party guest see the reunion, the journalist retreats to the comfort of her Park Avenue home. Later, propelled by guilt, she contacts her mother and admits her cowardice. "You're way too easily embarrassed," says the mother. "Your father and I are who we are."

It may sound like fiction, but it is the opening scene of The Glass Castle, a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, whose journalistic resume includes New York magazine, Esquire, GQ and, currently, …