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Title: Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc ISBN: 0-684-86387-1 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (91 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Heartbreaking and infuriating
Comment: I read this book with a mixture of fascination and extreme frustration. Once I got thru the first 100 pages and the introduction of the various "characters", I had trouble putting it down.
Unfortunately, I have known girls/women like Coco and Jessica and their extended family and friends. Part of my frustration with the two was the repeated missteps handed down from generation to generation...often from mother to daughter. Bad decisions abound with high school drop outs, teenage pregnancy and lack of focus. Coco, despite her good heart, continues to align herself with men who are bad for her and usually ends up pregnant as a result. Jessica's stint in jail apparently doesn't bring her the common sense wisdom she so blatantly lacks. Both women suffer from lack of self-respect and self-responsibility. By the end of the book, it appears that their daughters are following the same path.
The apparent lack of reflection of how each of the characters ultimately arrived in their current situation was also disturbing. Cesar is the only person who appeared to realize how his mistakes ruined his young adulthood and his offspring's childhood. Despite Cesar's emotional mistreatment of Coco, he and his wife Giselle are ultimately the most appealing of all the people LeBlanc profiled.
As for those who complain about LeBlanc lack of action, she was there strictly as a journalist and observer. An attempt to intervene in the characters behavior would have negated the purpose of the book.
This is not a cheery book by any means. Anyone expecting to find answers and a happy ending by the end will be disappointed. But it may provide you with some insight about the lives of underclass.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very Interesting
Comment: I highly recommend this book it is very well written and will keep you thinking for a long time. This book gives you a look at what it's like to be poor in an extremely dangerous neighborhood and how it's so easy to make stupid choices that will have a great impact on your life simply because you were never taught any better therefore, you don't know any better. This story just goes to show that there are a lot of families out there that struggle and pay extremely high prices for their actions. It's very sad that some of these characters keep on making the same mistakes over and over again due to the fact that they've never had any positive role models in their lives. This book is by far one of the best books I've read. Adrian LeBlanc did an excellent job with this book, I truely hope she gives us an update on the characters sometime soon. I am very interested in knowing what is going on in their lives and what has happened to them since this book was written.
Rating: 4
Summary: Exceptional Reading
Comment: Many have remarked about the abrupt ending- but for me that was the whole point of the book- the title gave away the ending- Random- there is no ending- how can an ending be written for a story such as this- for me the ending was perfect because it exemplified the point of the book- this story has no neat begining and no tidy ending- it ends essentially as it begins and that is the irony and the point of the work- we have a glimpse into a world most of do not understand but that is it a glimpse and it continues on with or without us- worth every second you put into reading
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Title: Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters by Wally Lamb ISBN: 006053429X Publisher: ReganBooks Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem ISBN: 0385500696 Publisher: Doubleday Books Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle ISBN: 0670031720 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 24 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey ISBN: 0385507755 Publisher: Nan A. Talese Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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