Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
by Adrian Nicole LeBlancpublished
January 19th 2004
by Scribner
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binding
Paperback, 432 pages
literary awards
2003 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
isbn
0743254430
(isbn13: 9780743254434)
description
In her extraordinary bestseller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind ...more
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Read in January, 2004
WARNING TO MY BOOK CLUB: DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW!!!! IT’S ONE OF THE BOOKS WE PICKED TO READ SOON.
IT’S ALSO POSSIBLE THAT MY VIEWS WILL CHANGE AFTER A SECOND READ.
SO DON’T READ THIS REVIEW YET.
DON’T READ THIS REVIEW
DON’T READ THIS REVIEW
This book was pretty good... about a family in the Bronx that she followed for ten years.
It relates to poverty/race a bit- it's interesting to see how they survive- unfortunately jail shows up too often.
I know "in...more
IT’S ALSO POSSIBLE THAT MY VIEWS WILL CHANGE AFTER A SECOND READ.
SO DON’T READ THIS REVIEW YET.
DON’T READ THIS REVIEW
DON’T READ THIS REVIEW
This book was pretty good... about a family in the Bronx that she followed for ten years.
It relates to poverty/race a bit- it's interesting to see how they survive- unfortunately jail shows up too often.
I know "in...more
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Read in January, 2006
It's hard to truly understand poverty unless a) you experience it first-hand, or b) you read a work like Random Family. But this isn't just some study about poverty; it's about people.
Although LeBlanc zooms in on several family members, she focuses on the lives of Coco and Jessica, two Latina women who at the beginning of the book are mid-teens--a vulnerable stage where they're trying to build their identities, impress others, and be experimental. This is where they start to make detrimenta...more
Although LeBlanc zooms in on several family members, she focuses on the lives of Coco and Jessica, two Latina women who at the beginning of the book are mid-teens--a vulnerable stage where they're trying to build their identities, impress others, and be experimental. This is where they start to make detrimenta...more
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recommended to Maureen by:
My daughter
recommends it for: Everyone
recommends it for: Everyone
I cherish this book. My daughter read it for a journalism class at NYU, and insisted that I read it. The author, Adrian Nicole Leblanc, spent ten years observing four young people and their extended families. She has written a masterwork in about living life on the streets in the Bronx. It is quite possibly the most thought-provoking book I have ever read. Even though we read it two years ago, Erin and I are still talking about it. Here is a small sample, from page 69:
"Back ...more
"Back ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in March, 2008
Brilliant at the research and craft of storytelling in the non-fiction categorie, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc blew me away with her first book. I found this on the side of the road, along with a collection of (some of it crap) true crime. Random Family was my second read after a terrible, but quick, story about murder with horrid prose.
LeBlanc's writing was anything but. She tells the story of primarily two women, Jessica, who starts as a 14-year-old sexpot in Tremont, a rougher Bronx neighborhoo...more
LeBlanc's writing was anything but. She tells the story of primarily two women, Jessica, who starts as a 14-year-old sexpot in Tremont, a rougher Bronx neighborhoo...more
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I initially picked up this book to read as I lived in the Bronx for four years and figured I would be familiar with many of the locations. It is a tough read, but well worth it, as many awful things happen to the women and there doesn't seem to be a silver-lining in sight for anyone involved. I think that it highlights how much of what happens to these women in the Bronx is cyclical and how, sadly, many of them never really have a shot at achieving much besides a repeat of decisions and si...more
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Read in August, 2007
I think the LA Times blurb for Random Family, which called the book a 'non-fiction Middlemarch of the underclass,' is absolutely spot-on. While it is principally a brilliant work of journalism, the book also feels at times like a massive 19th century English novel. You know, one whose four dozen-odd 'characters' occupy a wide range of positions within their class, and it feels as if the story could go on, and should go on, forever. Most of the characters flit in and out of the narr...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of the Wire; everybody
Since I began this book a week ago, I've had about 4 or 5 dreams about its characters--real people whose lives are brutal, unfair, fascinating, and frustrating. At first I was struck by the "then this happened, then this happened," summarized nature of the narrative, LeBlanc's absence somewhat troubling, ghost-like, but as the story continued the telling of it slowed, became more dramatic, and occasionally LeBlanc added interpretations of these people's predicaments. She is both objec...more
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6 comments
Read in December, 2007
I think about the people in this book all the time. Following an "extended" family in the Bronx, stuggling to survive in a cramped and nearly hopeless world, the author does not sugar coat either their behavior or the possible causes and influences. I was both angry and touched at what happens. No triumphs and no happy endings, but there is growth and painstakingly won survival. Cesar's comment near the end, after hearing how a social worker dismissed his daughter's plea for help i...more
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Read in November, 2007
First off, I've had this book for many years, have met the author (in fact she's a friend of my soon to be brother in law) but I never read it, never read it, never read it. Then something happened in my personal life that kept me from pursuing my goals in my professional life (basically I couldn't work) so I had time. And with that time, I chose to finally read RANDOM FAMILY.
Not to sound shitty but reading this book, while going through a really really rough few months helped me keep persp...more
Not to sound shitty but reading this book, while going through a really really rough few months helped me keep persp...more
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Read in February, 2008
I learned so much from this book...The truth is that most people have no idea what goes on in the ghetto. More "happens" in their lives in 6 months than in a regular person's entire lifetime. The back of the book sells it as some sort of ghetto-glam soap opera, but in reality that's only a fleeting moment in their lives. Somehow, this book demonstrates how it is completely possible and even logical for someone responsible and with the best of intentions to end up with 5 children with...more
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Read in July, 2008
I can't say I "liked" this book, but I couldn't put it down either. To say it consumed me would be an understatement. The author isn't an amazing writer, but she presents the characters in a factual way and does not try to make you "feel" or try to conjure sympathy or emotion or even anger about social systems or a character's decision. The characters and stories are presented as everyday as they are. The characters are ... illuminating and frustrating. Admirable and appalli...more
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One of the most astonishing journalistic endeavors, "Random Family" provides the proverbial window into the part of America we hate to acknowledge. LeBlanc has created a masterpiece of urban depiction. Her bland, almost lifeless prose and reporting lull readers into thinking that their living in the overly crowded apartment down the hallway, close enough to eavesdrop on the vicissitudes experienced by our lead characters Jessica and Cesar. Simply put, the tale is haunting, the beha...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Emily by:
David Sedaris
I went to a David Sedaris reading back in 2005 and he raved about this book. He said it was completely engrossing, and it was. The author follows two women raised in the Bronx for more than a decade, and as a result paints an amazingly complex picture of urban poverty. She sticks to insightful descriptions rather than venturing down the route of dreaming up solutions. The result is that this book makes you feel the underlying subtext of poverty. Her descriptions made me feel like I was there eve...more
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Read in January, 2004
A journalist closely follows the real life stories of several Puerto Rican-American family members in New York City, in an environment in which girls consciously choose whether to have sex and start families or whether to live more conservatively and finish high school. One of the main characters in the book was a very successful young drug dealer who comes off as quite admirable--a sober entrepreneur working hard in a profession that seemed natural and available. He and his girlfriend, and the ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone - especially social workers
For the first few hundred pages of this, I was disturbed by the lack of an author's voice - it seemed kind of like an excel spreadsheet of misery, with very brief mediating sentences popping up very rarely. But in the last half of the book, LeBlanc starts to give herself more artistic license - and the book takes off to become the masterpiece that everyone agrees it is.
I can't BELIEVE what she went through to write this - and I found myself picturing her in all of these situations - I wish ...more
I can't BELIEVE what she went through to write this - and I found myself picturing her in all of these situations - I wish ...more
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Read in October, 2006
Heartbreaking and reaffirming. It allows entrance into a world I only knew about through movies and songs. I wanted to hug the main character that the book focuses on, Jessica, and tell her she could do so much better though I doubt it would have meant much to her. I still wonder what became of her.
This book shows the importance of family, extended or not. It really shows how much of a struggle life can be within that drug-pusher universe. Far more effective than watching something like &...more
This book shows the importance of family, extended or not. It really shows how much of a struggle life can be within that drug-pusher universe. Far more effective than watching something like &...more
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If this book was a novel, readers would probably dismiss it as too chaotic and not believable. But it is in fact a true story, the never ending cycle of living on the edge, the ghetto (largely the Bronx), where the girls get pregnant and the guys sell drugs and go to jail (some of the girls do too). Somehow, LeBlanc, the author, has gotten inside several families, and the result is you live with them, with all their turmoil, rage, love and loyalties. I'm not sure I've ever read a more honest acc...more
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Read in July, 2007
This book represents an amazing achievement on the part of its author, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. The idea that she followed around some teenagers in the Bronx for 11 years continues to floor me! But more than just persistence and perseverance, this book beautifully displays her remarkable even-handedness. She never condemns her subjects for the choices they make but neither does she set out here to valorize them. Instead she simply presents them with fairness and intimacy. And while the subjects of...more
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Read in February, 2008
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc explores the hopes, fears, mistakes, heroic and mundane moments of women and men living in the ghetto. Reading this reminded me of being younger and more naive. I could see that stability and having "enough" money simply aren't everything even to young men and women who (unlike me) have far from enough. In one part of the book, a central female character is given shelter, education for herself and her children, etc. in exchange for following a strict set of rules ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
you, yes you
People, I know this is the only book I ever talk about, but there's a reason! It's amazing. I'm re-reading it for my book club this month (guess who insisted we had to read it?) and am marveling all over again at how insightful, shocking, moving, and thought-provoking it is.
The riveting details of the drug trade and urban poverty, the unlikely opportunities and reasons for hope, the remarkable talents and resources people draw upon to survive crises, and most of all, the lives of the wom...more
The riveting details of the drug trade and urban poverty, the unlikely opportunities and reasons for hope, the remarkable talents and resources people draw upon to survive crises, and most of all, the lives of the wom...more
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