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A review by thelizabeth
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
2.0
This is a 2.5 stars. Because it doesn't stink. But I really, really didn't like reading it. In fact I nearly re-shelved it after 100 pages, which I never, ever do. But it is no fun. It is so hard to gain any traction when there's not much structure. So boring, and it took me forever because there's so little story here.
I guess it is only reporting, which means very little narrative of any kind. At all. Facts, description, retrospective statements. But I think it thinks there's a readable story, and no. I saw a review that says it reads like a synopsis for a book rather than a book, and yes.
I finally felt somewhat interested halfway through, and once I understood that the book would last as long as the family members' prison terms (ha, ha... it... almost is a joke) there was a bit of a big picture that I did want to see complete. But it's difficult to like. I related to Coco in the beginning, but by the end her failures to act and utter lack of resources are tough to endure.
But: both Jessica and Cesar post-prison are pretty amazing, and it's nice to feel proud of good people. Their oldest kids are also kind of amazing. Actually, Mercedes is THE MOST AMAZING. Five stars for Mercedes. (Who is now doing pretty well, though it's strange there's so little follow-up information for these people on the internet.)
I couldn't anticipate the author's style: often, the pace of the details indicated that suspense was building, a scene carefully set because something important was about to be relayed, but it never worked that way. So while the level of detail was often excruciating -- do I want to know whether the elevator came, or where this pair of sunglasses came from? -- I wanted to know much more. There was opportunity for the author to ask for explanations of big questions in the words of the subjects, but it's not that kind of book.
But I would have loved to hear them talk about, for example, cultural gender divides (can you explain why having a son is important to you?), or why the families don't speak Spanish at home (how many generations are they from Puerto Rico, and how is that different from other Spanish-speaking communities in NYC?). Is it really useful to just repeat what we already know? Less, sometimes? We come closest in the chapter when Coco despairs over teenage girls -- her boyfriend is dating one, and her niece and daughter are becoming some. That was almost really good writing. Pretty close.
Is that just really great reporting I'm complaining about? I guess there's a difference between great reporting and great book-writing. I guess a really, really big one. I FEEL BAD, though. This is a bestseller; LeBlanc received a Genius Grant. And it is... fine. But it is no great read. And I just don't see it as a "Middlemarch of the underclass".
Um, and this is kind of stupid, but I hated the obsession with the phrase "to break the night", an idiom for staying up all night. I've never heard that before, and it was super annoying that people "broke night" three times a page. Just, gah.
I picked up my copy at the closing month sale at Skyline Books, on the New York City shelf. This is another I read off of a best NY books list. It's a thoughtful inclusion, but I didn't find it very exciting.
I guess it is only reporting, which means very little narrative of any kind. At all. Facts, description, retrospective statements. But I think it thinks there's a readable story, and no. I saw a review that says it reads like a synopsis for a book rather than a book, and yes.
I finally felt somewhat interested halfway through, and once I understood that the book would last as long as the family members' prison terms (ha, ha... it... almost is a joke) there was a bit of a big picture that I did want to see complete. But it's difficult to like. I related to Coco in the beginning, but by the end her failures to act and utter lack of resources are tough to endure.
But: both Jessica and Cesar post-prison are pretty amazing, and it's nice to feel proud of good people. Their oldest kids are also kind of amazing. Actually, Mercedes is THE MOST AMAZING. Five stars for Mercedes. (Who is now doing pretty well, though it's strange there's so little follow-up information for these people on the internet.)
I couldn't anticipate the author's style: often, the pace of the details indicated that suspense was building, a scene carefully set because something important was about to be relayed, but it never worked that way. So while the level of detail was often excruciating -- do I want to know whether the elevator came, or where this pair of sunglasses came from? -- I wanted to know much more. There was opportunity for the author to ask for explanations of big questions in the words of the subjects, but it's not that kind of book.
But I would have loved to hear them talk about, for example, cultural gender divides (can you explain why having a son is important to you?), or why the families don't speak Spanish at home (how many generations are they from Puerto Rico, and how is that different from other Spanish-speaking communities in NYC?). Is it really useful to just repeat what we already know? Less, sometimes? We come closest in the chapter when Coco despairs over teenage girls -- her boyfriend is dating one, and her niece and daughter are becoming some. That was almost really good writing. Pretty close.
Is that just really great reporting I'm complaining about? I guess there's a difference between great reporting and great book-writing. I guess a really, really big one. I FEEL BAD, though. This is a bestseller; LeBlanc received a Genius Grant. And it is... fine. But it is no great read. And I just don't see it as a "Middlemarch of the underclass".
Um, and this is kind of stupid, but I hated the obsession with the phrase "to break the night", an idiom for staying up all night. I've never heard that before, and it was super annoying that people "broke night" three times a page. Just, gah.
I picked up my copy at the closing month sale at Skyline Books, on the New York City shelf. This is another I read off of a best NY books list. It's a thoughtful inclusion, but I didn't find it very exciting.