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rakishabpl's review against another edition
3.0
So far, my enjoyment of Hole in My Life has been bumpy. When I'm flowing along with the story, I'm suddenly hit with the most obscure reference that throws me off my reading groove. The sailing terms and the literary references have me flipping through the dictionary (and going to Wikipedia) a little more often than is comfortable. I hope the second half will be little more straightfoward.
7/23/08: I just got to the part where he was sentenced and sent to prison. What a straightforward and unflinching account. It's riveting and disturbing. A good read and a cautionary tale.
7/23/08: I just got to the part where he was sentenced and sent to prison. What a straightforward and unflinching account. It's riveting and disturbing. A good read and a cautionary tale.
lmattes's review against another edition
2.0
For some reason this book just didn't do much for me. It was an easy read which I liked but I didn't find the story particularly exciting or tugging at my emotions at all. It all seemed kind of flat.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
Semi-scared straight account of Gantos' life as a "criminal" (doing time for selling hash) and a writer. I'm not sure which students will relate to his story, but it seems that wannabe writers are the likely candidates.
meredithw20's review against another edition
4.0
A tidy little memoir rich in imagery and straightforward in narrative. Ends a little abruptly (and, oddly, sweetly), but otherwise thoroughly enjoyable.
sherming's review against another edition
4.0
Gantos is telling us about a difficult but also developmental period in his life, from his last couple years in high school to his early twenties. With an oddly skewed sense of humor and a bit of irony he recalls how his final high school was literally a refurbished prison, how he had few goals or interests other than reading and writing, and how he wound up in prison as a result of trying to make money in smuggling and selling drugs. It's not really the stuff of which humorous memoirs are made, but Gantos manages to find some humor in this bad period of his life.
There's not much arc or inserted plot devices to create suspense, but perhaps that's appropriate for a book about a "hole" in Gantos' life. It's not supposed to be a thriller or suspenseful. There's not a whole lot in the book about the horrors of prison life - his 15 months take up only about 1/3 of the work, and I think I'm glad about that.
Let's call it a short, informative, sometimes humorous cautionary tale and leave it at that.
There's not much arc or inserted plot devices to create suspense, but perhaps that's appropriate for a book about a "hole" in Gantos' life. It's not supposed to be a thriller or suspenseful. There's not a whole lot in the book about the horrors of prison life - his 15 months take up only about 1/3 of the work, and I think I'm glad about that.
Let's call it a short, informative, sometimes humorous cautionary tale and leave it at that.
jenlikesbigbooks_'s review against another edition
4.0
REQUIRED READING
Hole in My Life is a nonfiction novel about Jack Gantos' life. He writes about his urge to be a writer but not feeling that he had anything to write about. His parents are not too involved in his life and n=move out of the country when he is in high school. He does not do well there and moves back to the United States, by himself, to finish school. While he is there, he is accustomed to a certain life style where he s his own boss. He tries to write but still doesn't feel it. Through a series of unfortunate and unwise events, he fall into drugs and becomes a drug smuggler. With that comes him running from the cops and eventually turning himself in, hoping for a small punishment, but end up in jail for a long time. While in jail, he witnesses a lot of gruesome things that really effected how he would act outside of jail, but not in the way you would think. Surprisingly, the drug usage is not what would keep me from recommending this to kids, it's that eve thought he goes to jail for drug smuggling, he never feels remorse or regret for what he did. He almost makes it seem as if these type of things just happen and we deal with it instead of learning from it.
Hole in My Life is a nonfiction novel about Jack Gantos' life. He writes about his urge to be a writer but not feeling that he had anything to write about. His parents are not too involved in his life and n=move out of the country when he is in high school. He does not do well there and moves back to the United States, by himself, to finish school. While he is there, he is accustomed to a certain life style where he s his own boss. He tries to write but still doesn't feel it. Through a series of unfortunate and unwise events, he fall into drugs and becomes a drug smuggler. With that comes him running from the cops and eventually turning himself in, hoping for a small punishment, but end up in jail for a long time. While in jail, he witnesses a lot of gruesome things that really effected how he would act outside of jail, but not in the way you would think. Surprisingly, the drug usage is not what would keep me from recommending this to kids, it's that eve thought he goes to jail for drug smuggling, he never feels remorse or regret for what he did. He almost makes it seem as if these type of things just happen and we deal with it instead of learning from it.
kcadd44's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this one!!! I can imagine it being a great book for discussion at the high school level!