I first read A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind for my Sociology class. (The first thing that the teacher told us was that he wanted us to read the book from an education standpoint, not a race/ethnicity standpoint. I think it can be seen from both.) I am not sure yet if I like this book, I am a bit wishy-washy, so first let's get to what the book is about.

Cedric Jennings lived in the poor part of Washington D.C. with his mother Barbara. His father, Cedric Sr., was very uninvolved in his child's life because he was too busy selling drugs or doing jail time. In fact, Cedric's mother called him by his middle name, Lavar, because she associated his first name with his no-good father. Barbara worked to provide for her son, getting on and off of welfare, working long hours, and buying only the bare necessities (which she couldn't even always afford).

Cedric is a smart boy, but he struggles between learning a lot, and fitting in with the other kids (mostly drug dealers and otherwise shifty characters, so to speak). He ended up going to a really bad high school, Ballou, but he really wanted to go to an ivy league school. So he studied and pulled up his grades, and between that and a lot of luck, got into Brown University.

When he got to Brown, he had a very hard time. He didn't fit in with the other students, his roommate didn't get along with him, and he struggled in classes. (So much so that he asked for other assignments as alternatives to what the other students had.) But he ended up finally making friends and doing okay there.

So back to what I think about this book. While it is a story of triumph and hope for the future, something about it rubs me the wrong way. I think it bothered me how Cedric asked for special alternative assignments from his teachers- my belief is that to truly succeed, you can't have special circumstances, because then you are not doing the same as everyone else, and I don't think that is fair. I don't know. The book was interesting- it just left me with a feeling that Cedric wasn't as heroic as the book portrayed him to be (this book is a true story, by the way).

I tell you what- since I don't know what to think of the book, maybe you should go out and read it and decide for yourself. Happy reading!



Recommended: Yes