Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

In her extraordinary bestseller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty.

Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations - as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation - LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Memoir, Biography, Book Club, New York, Journalism

409 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2003

About the author

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is an American journalist whose works focus on the marginalized members of society: adolescents living in poverty, prostitutes, and women in prison. She grew up in a working-class family in Leominster, Massachusetts. She studied at Smith College, Oxford, and Yale University. She worked for Seventeen Magazine as an editor after earning her Master's degree in Modern Literature at Oxford. She is best known for her 2003 non-fiction book Random Family. She was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship -- popularly known as the "Genius Grant" -- in 2006.

Reviews

[Book Jester]

Fiktion kaltaisesti kirjoitettu teos oli täyttä faktaa, mikä teki siitä melkein ylivoimaisen brutaalin. New Yorkin lähiön noidankehänä toistuvat tragediat koskettelivat paikkoja, joita harvoin uskaltaa päästää kosketusetäisyydelle, eikä teos tosiaan ollut tarkoitettu herkille empaatikoille. Silti se oli tarina, joihin kaikkien soisi tutustuvan, koska mieltään voi laajentaa muillakin, kuin hippien yrteillä.

Koko arvostelu: https://bookjester.blogspot.com/2026/...

[Noora]

Erittäin mielenkiintoinen, raaka ja rajukin kuvaus siitä, mitä elämä pahimmillaan voi olla. Jo alussa lapsia säälii ja tunne vahvistuu mitä pidemmälle kirja etenee. Parhainta kirjassa on se, ettei kirjoittaja moralisoi tai tuomitse, vaan kertoo kaiken niin objektiivisesti kuin mahdollista. Vaikka elämä monesti runteleekin, on siinä aina myös valoisat puolensa.