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Drugs are especially difficult ***** overcome, ***** it ***** difficult to kick the habit, and frankly, ********** people do not want to kick it, because then they would ***** to face the awful predicament of their lives, and ***** might not be able to stand it.
Poverty is another ***** issue, ***** most
Review---A Family in Trouble By Shayna Lym
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx (Scribner, 2003) is a compelling nonfiction book that delivers an incredibly honest and thought-provoking look into a dysfunctional family plagued with drugs, sexual abuse, crime and murder. This book is truly amazing. The book begins in the mid 1980s and focuses on Jessica, a very misguided girl in the South Bronx who continually makes the wrong life choices. Love and a man’s acceptance are first and foremost on her list of priorities. Her children and family are secondary, and her self-destructive actions lead her to prison. Low self-esteem and self-worth are the primary causes of her downfall. She was sexually abused as a child and continues to be the victim of abuse throughout her teens and into adulthood. Meanwhile her mother is slowly, …show more content…
The twists and turns of Jessica’s and her family’s lives are developed eloquently. This is definitely not the stereotypical “hood” story of boy gets girl pregnant, boy’s big dreams are shattered, boy is enticed by the drug business, and eventually boy gets thrown into jail. This story goes much deeper into people’s lives. Random Family is deliberate and well thought out. After developing Jessica and her family, LeBlanc introduces other characters only after providing their backgrounds. In this way, the author gives us a chance to understand these people and where they’re coming from prior to their relationships with Jessica and her family. This could have been tedious for the reader, but the way LeBlanc develops these characters makes their background seem essential. For instance, Jessica’s life changes when she meets Boy George, a major heroin dealer. When LeBlanc introduces Boy George and CoCo, Cesar’s girlfriend, their background information is so interesting that if we didn’t know it we would feel cheated. I also appreciated LeBlanc’s ability to get so much information and develop the story so well. She does a good job of keeping your
Poverty is another ***** issue, ***** most
Review---A Family in Trouble By Shayna Lym
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx (Scribner, 2003) is a compelling nonfiction book that delivers an incredibly honest and thought-provoking look into a dysfunctional family plagued with drugs, sexual abuse, crime and murder. This book is truly amazing. The book begins in the mid 1980s and focuses on Jessica, a very misguided girl in the South Bronx who continually makes the wrong life choices. Love and a man’s acceptance are first and foremost on her list of priorities. Her children and family are secondary, and her self-destructive actions lead her to prison. Low self-esteem and self-worth are the primary causes of her downfall. She was sexually abused as a child and continues to be the victim of abuse throughout her teens and into adulthood. Meanwhile her mother is slowly, …show more content…
The twists and turns of Jessica’s and her family’s lives are developed eloquently. This is definitely not the stereotypical “hood” story of boy gets girl pregnant, boy’s big dreams are shattered, boy is enticed by the drug business, and eventually boy gets thrown into jail. This story goes much deeper into people’s lives. Random Family is deliberate and well thought out. After developing Jessica and her family, LeBlanc introduces other characters only after providing their backgrounds. In this way, the author gives us a chance to understand these people and where they’re coming from prior to their relationships with Jessica and her family. This could have been tedious for the reader, but the way LeBlanc develops these characters makes their background seem essential. For instance, Jessica’s life changes when she meets Boy George, a major heroin dealer. When LeBlanc introduces Boy George and CoCo, Cesar’s girlfriend, their background information is so interesting that if we didn’t know it we would feel cheated. I also appreciated LeBlanc’s ability to get so much information and develop the story so well. She does a good job of keeping your