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Title: Hope's Boy: A Memoir
ISBN: 1401303226
Author:
Andrew Bridge
Publicate Date: 2008-02-05
Publish: 2008-02-05
List Price: $22.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $11.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $10.59
Amazon Merchant Price: $15.61
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Interesting book but also raises some questions abouth author
This book was very interesting, and it was fascinating to learn more about foster care and the perspective of the foster child. What disturbed me, however, was the author's absolute lack of appreciation and/or affection for the foster parents who provided him a home for 11 years. They may have been eccentric, and may not have been ideal, but he doesn't suggest that they were abusive. They could have been more loving and more interested, but there was still good about these people that he never acknowledges. Ms. Leonard was a Holocaust survivor, and he talks about how she buries her pain with food. He also discusses how ill treated she is when she leaves the house. Yet Ms. Leonard still does so to attend his 6th grade graduation, where she is subsequently made fun of. Why is it that he can forgive all of Hope's many transgressions, including using her 5 yr. old to commit a robbery, but have no empathy for Ms. Leonard? The Leonards provided him a stable home with his basic needs met for over a decade- that was admirable and generous on their part. Someone should give them credit for it.
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2: perfect selection and service
HOPE'S BOY arrived in a timely manner and was in perfect condition when it arrived. I recommend this book and mine!
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3: A voice of quiet perseverance against all odds
Altogether, Andy only had two short years of his childhood with his beloved mother. As Hope had married and divorced at a very young age, Andy spent his early childhood in Chicago with his grandmother Kate. She relinquished him reluctantly to his mother's care in California -- a move that proved disastrous.
Not only did Hope struggle with poverty and single-parenthood, she also began showing clear signs of mental illness. By the time Andy was seven, he found himself torn from both mother and grandmother, and stuck within the foster system.
Unlike many other children, Andy at least was fortunate enough to stay with the same family for the next decade. Many other foster children came and went, yet Andy was never sent away, much to his confusion. His foster mother, especially, was a bully, who threatened and emotionally abused all the children in the household -- including her biological ones -- and made Andy's day to day survival a nightmare.
Yet somehow, the boy managed to hold on until he turned 18. An excellent student, Andy won a scholarship to college and is now involved with legal issues for foster children.
Bridge's life is quietly motivating, clear proof of what a person can do and what he can overcome if only he is persistent and optimistic. He is an inspiration to us all.
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4: Keeping Hope alive
Hope is our emotional gray area between love and hate -- neither a malignant nor a benign force, sometimes acting to stay our hand from action and other times the only thing waking us up in the morning, hope is something we struggle to maintain throughout our lives. This struggle could scarcely be captured better than in writer Andrew Bridge's debut work Hope's Boy: A Memoir.
Exploring Andrew's childhood in the Los Angeles foster care system, the book paints a cruel picture of an institution that very literally robs children of parents and safety with the flimsiest of reasoning and the most heartless of machinations. Andrew holds tightly to the not-even-two-years he is able to spend with his mother, Hope, before the system snatches him up.
With no support from his ever-changing array of social workers, he is bandied between a care facility that has long forgotten human dignity and a foster family whose matriarch, I shudder to think, might be exactly as frightening and monstrous as she is portrayed to be.
This is a story of survival, and at times you feel that, truly, all hope is lost, that Andrew is doomed to a cycle of pain and misfortune that you feel sure would break you. But he learns and adapts, he keeps on going, never releasing the few good memories he is able to carry with him.
Part of what makes this structure work is Andrew's narration, which has no desire to supply easy answers, bleeding heart sentiment or even personal forgiveness for the author's actions. He comes by his words honestly, but often they are cold in the way he is able to analyze people down to their composite features and actions. For each of Andrew's faults, he is able to blame himself profoundly and logically, and while it's a clich?? to call a memoir "honest," that's exactly how it reads -- an unabashed personal account.
This logical eye of his will have mixed results with people though -- at times Andrew, while clinging to his hope, sounds very much downtrodden and beaten by the world, and does little to deny it. This makes sense in a narrative, but it's a pain carried perhaps too well in the story, to the point that scenes with emotional highs or lows can feel pulled into a much grayer area. Though I enjoy the style, it may conflict with some who will see a boy about to be torn apart by a ravenous dog and find themselves somewhat numb.
That aside, I was mesmerized, having not read a memoir this good almost ever. I found myself needing to look at the page numbers to remember that this wasn't happening to me.
Hope's Boy makes me want to hold on, with even half the determination that Andrew shows, to everything good in my life.
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5: Hope's Boy - could have been half as long
I was looking forward to this book more because I have a step-son who was transferred from his mother's care to his father's (and my) care when he was three. Not exactly the same situation, but I wanted to read about the love for a mother, even a disturbed mother.
What I got, is that a boy loves his mother no matter what. And no matter what, another adult must never point out even the obvious faults in her, he simply will never see them. He will always love and cherish her forever and hate anyone who dares to discuss the truth. The truth doesn't matter nearly as much as the love.
The details, DETAILS, ENDLESS DETAILS we so distracting. I found myself skipping entire paragraphs of meaningless details. I did not need to know what exact expression someone made, who was completely free of value to the story. Especially in the end, it seemed there were words describing places, things, faces, clothes, food, ANYTHING, just to add more width to the book. It would have been such an easier read.
Also, while the story was worth reading, it was not nearly as insightful as expected.
In the end, I applaud him for moving on with his life and helping other foster kids.
I wish him well to stay in remission, and am glad that he shared his story.
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