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Hope's Boy
by Andrew Bridge
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9781401303228 |
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Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In his memoir, Andrew Bridge reflects with acute perception and openness on a devestating young life. At 7-years-old, Andrew was forced into foster care after authorities declared his mother Hope unfit to raise him.& nbsp; Barely an adult herself and with little money, Hope??'s mental instability made for an unsound and unpredictable home environment???yet regardless of her illness, the deep and impenetrable love she shared with her son was the one thing they both clinged to. & nbsp; Andrew had to literally be pulled from his mother??'s arms???a nightmare so painful, as there was nothing they both wanted more than to just be with each other.& nbsp; Though he had not desired or sought escape from the home he had known, the reprieve that foster care was intended to be for Andrew was no such thing???it was a cruel and loveless environment, and without his mother, he felt more lost and alone than ever.& nbsp; Andrew endured 11 years in foster care???an unfortunate irony, as he wasn???t provided with any care at all. The abuse he suffered at the hands of the very adults designated to offer him a better life tried and tested his faith and confidence day after day.With all odds working against him, Andrew discovered that success in academia would bring him the escape he needed from the constant hell of his foster home, and he resisted any urges to run away or give up.& nbsp; The HOPE he never let go of and his relentless hard work through his teenage years ultimately earned him a scholarship to Wesleyan, followed by a law degree from Harvard.& nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp;
Review:
"In this memoir of a decade spent in foster care, Bridge illuminates the horrors of a system that, in its clumsy attempts to save children, he argues, all too frequently condemns them to physical and emotional abuse. The child of a teenage mother who divorced her abusive husband soon after Bridge was born, he watched helplessly as his mother disintegrated under the impact of isolation and poverty. At the age of seven, Bridge was dragged away from his mother, literally, by police and warehoused in an enormous California juvenile facility patrolled by armed guards. The state eventually transferred him to a foster family dominated by an obese, bullying Estonian woman who had survived imprisonment in Dachau as a child. At 17, as he prepared to leave foster care for college and freedom, Bridge finally had a reunion with the mother he never stopped missing. In his narration of this unending nightmare, Bridge shows particular skill in portraying his isolation and the defenses he constructed to survive it. He also has a talent for grotesques, particularly that of the monstrous foster mother who revisited the misery of her upbringing on her foster children. Bridge's obsessive focus on his loneliness and his two 'mothers' is so intense that a more balanced picture of his life fails to emerge and his attachment to another foster child remains unexplained. Yet Bridge, a Harvard Law School graduate who has devoted his career to children's rights, has provided remarkable insights into a dark corner of American society." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
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bwittmore, January 4, 2008 (view all comments by bwittmore)
A wonderful, wonderful memoir, beautifully written, and about an important topic that we should all know more about. Hope's Boy is a must!
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davidnaseln, December 22, 2007 (view all comments by davidnaseln)
Bridge has written a devastating memoir of the collapse of a fragile life with his uneducated, struggling mother and removal from her care -- literally pulled from her arms on the street. With precision and care, he details the brutal realities of his childhood in state care and his extraordinary fortune in overcoming it. The writing is restrained yet quickly draws reader into the nature and impact of the most profound losses imaginable. An American story of what happens to thousands of our children.
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beckyseyworth, December 22, 2007 (view all comments by beckyseyworth)
An absolutely beautiful memoir of the tragedies of young boy who loses his mother to schizophrenia, then spends the remainder of his childhood in foster care. Bridge describes the support and care he found from teachers, then academic successes that led him to college and Harvard Law School. A tragic story that is ultimately triumphant and hopeful. A engrossing and important read.
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781401303228
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Hyperion
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Childhood Memoir
- Subject:
- General Biography
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Subject:
- Foster home care
- Subject:
- Foster parents
- Publication Date:
- February 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 306
- Dimensions:
- 9.62x6.32x1.05 in. 1.24 lbs.
- Age Level:
- from Al to l0
