bookishthoughtsandspots 's review for:

The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner

4.0

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I am always interested in "underdog" stories, and because this was a page-turner for me and I genuinely enjoyed it, I rated it highly! However, if I were to rate Chris Gardner as a person... the results would not be as favourable. I watched the movie years ago and have always loved it and wanted to read what inspired the film, thinking it was similar. The book I find to be completely different. The book was mostly about Chris' upbringing, not necessarily his dream of working in stocks. Will Smith's character is also nothing like Chris... As much as I appreciate Chris' fight and success and his ultimate struggles, I feel torn. The book is filled with instances of him cheating on women and it just makes him seem like a dog. He has a client that he has a long and fruitful relationship with and when the client dies, his feelings aren't of sadness after having a pretty personal relationship; his concern is that his biggest client is gone and won't be making him any more money. After fighting to keep his son throughout a year in poverty and homelessness, Chris finds success and decides to move to New York and leave his son with his ex-wife instead. And while he justifies this by saying he wouldn't be able to be with his son as much and would need to work longer hours, why did he have to move far away from his child when he was previously so insistent on keeping him before, when they were literally sleeping on the street? He says the move was "inevitable" because New York is a beacon in the stock market and financial industry. But in my mind, he could have done just as well in San Francisco without leaving his son. He put his own wants above his son. It's fine if your reason for keeping him when you were literally homeless is because you needed him to know who his father was and you wanted to take care of him. But don't change your entire thoughts and strategy once you find success. You're still on deck. You wanted the responsibility when you had hardly anything to offer and then when you do you just up and leave? Maybe it's not as simple, but to an outside observer looking in, that's what it looks like. It also seems throughout the book that he was hustling people for money (prostitutes, lying to hotel workers about putting money into a vending machine that doesn't work and then losing money) when he didn't necessarily need to. He explains on numerous occasions that he has money but needs to save it so he and his son can get an apartment but continues to hustle and he and his son live on the street... Couldn't you rent a room somewhere? even in student housing if you have that much money? Yes, I get it, you're trying to get out of poverty and it might take you longer, but at least then you wouldn't be living on the street. But, the rating isn't based on my thoughts on Chris and his choices. They are based on the story.