Rating: 
Summary: Poverty is devastating
Review: No one should ever be born into the circumstances of the characters of this book. Poverty, undiagnosed mental illness (probably aggravated by chaotic environments) poor health resulting from poor diets - these people face all but insurmountable obstacles from birth. Not one of the people involved has a single positive role model, besides perhaps only the author. And I'm sure that she seemed to them not part of their actual existence. I think that the author wrote an excellent book, though I can't imagine being exposed to such sad stories for ten years. For those who criticized her for not leading her Jessica or Coco onto better paths, I can only tell them that the Jessicas and Cocos of this world would not trust such advice. They would be angry and defensive at any supposed criticism, and besides, people live and learn what they see. They trust those they love, not strangers. I hope that after reading this book, those who have the power to help people in these circumstances will do all that they can to make sure that children from birth are provided with the basics in food, counseling and medical attention that any child needs to thrive, and not grow up to become another person with no clue about how to live and survive in an unfair economic system.
Rating:
Summary: Reporting Real Life
Review: I found this book to be an excellent example of reporting without shadings of opinion and recommendations. We don't need LeBlanc to tell us that lack of education, job opportunities, and decent housing play a large role in shaping the lives of people in poverty. And I'm sure she doesn't have The Magic Solutions either! The most sorrowful part of this fascinating book - so like that car accident you can't refrain from looking at - was the absolute lack of positive role models in any of the characters' formative years. Coco's daughter Mercedes had one teacher who valued her spunkiness, and enjoyed a very happy experience at a Fresh Air Fund-type camp, but that was about it and it was probably too little too late. Even Jessica having her cause taken up by law students to obtain her early release from prison seemed to have had only a minor impact on her. Imagine what a difference having a mentor, a caring and wise older person, would have made for Jessica and Coco and their parents. The problem is how to accomplish this without appearing as Lady and Lord Bountifuls condescending to shower the huddled masses with irrelevant middle class values. Having read "The Noonday Demons: An Atlas of Depression" and its stunning chapter on depression in indigent people, I am all the more convinced that treating depression in this population is just as important as any other anti-poverty programs we have. I hope to someday learn about how LeBlanc met her subjects and about what has happened to them, and if anyone ever gets out of there not only alive but well.
Rating:
Summary: in another world
Review: I've just finished this book today and i'm still turning it over in my mind. though i did wonder exactly what kind of relationship Adrian formed with the characters i praise her for letting them live thier lives. it must have been so hard for her to see them slip farther and farther into the murky world of poverty.
it made me so terribly sad to read about the struggles that Coco, jessica and all of them went through. being 22 and having no children of my own i can only wonder how on earth these women manage thier lives. The reality that being molested is norm through out childhood horrified me as to what they have gone through. i hope one day they are stable and happy. i would like to find out what happened to them because thier stories are so moving but in the same breath i'd like to hope for them in my mind and not see the truth if it were to be negative.
this book is an exceptional read and should not be read like a novel because it is NOT one but as non-fictional account of a single (extended) family trying to make it with children, estrangement, drugs and poverty. i thank Adrian leBlanc for sharing this story with us.
as for it showing both sides of liberalism and conservatism, i think it does show that America's welfare system is fraught with troubles along with our society that lets so many people slip through the cracks into the oblivion of ignorance and under-education.
Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: The story of an interrelated group of South Bronx welfare mothers, addicts and criminals, studied over a ten year period. It's well written and of particular interest to those of us who come into contact with such characters, either through our work or just from living in the New York area. A certain monotony does creep in as pregnancy succeeds pregnancy and lover succeeds lover and the number of characters gets confusing. Looked at purely for entertainment value, if you're a farmer in Iowa, it's got limitations. In some ways it reads like an anthropological treatise. I was reminded of Oscar Lewis's "Children of Sanchez."
Does this book help us to understand why these people behave as they do? The theories conflict. Is it the result of welfare payments or of poverty? Is it the result of the presence of drugs, or the laws against drugs? LeBlance refrains from giving us answers. She makes us understand how difficult it is to get out of this life once born into it. It would have been interesting if she had told us more about the first delinquent generation. Why did Lourdes and Foxy come to the mainland United States? How did Lourdes's family in Florida keep her off drugs? I kept thinking of the elderly Puerto Rican lady who once told me how free of crime her island used to be, and that doors were never locked. I asked her what happened to change things and she said "Then the Americans came."
Rating: 
Summary: Enlightenment for the delusional...
Review: Reading the excerpt in the New York Times was all I needed to run out and purchase this book, which I managed to finish in just 24 hours. While some people may think that the writing is quick, and jumbled, to me it read as so many thoughts in your head, fighting for your attention. Let no one think that the Bronx is the only place that things like this happen.... I was raised in Miami FL, and the streets down here are almost identical. The vicious cycle of poverty sucks you in, and rarely are you able to escape what you came from. I don't have a friend that I went to elementary school with that made it to the age of 16 without becoming pregnant, and now at 25 I can only name one person out of that circle that has a normal, happy home life and a college education. My only wish for this book is that we somehow receive an update, maybe a website. I wanted to see at least one character 'make it', but even in the end, the author dropped the line that 'Serena would be pregnant in six months'. How terribly disapointing to be a witness to all of this strife, but to never witness any significant accomplishments.
Rating:
Summary: Startling insight into an unknown world
Review: Other reviewers have complained that the writer lacks "judgement" and only observes "behaviour" (the spelling of these two words betraying that at least one of these reviewers is English, and therefore has no firsthand knowledge of the Bronx world); yet I think the opposite is true. This book's judgment is exercised in its refusal to impose foreign ethical, moral, and behavioral patterns on the lives of these characters, and instead depicts them in their own world, in their own circumstances, and from their own points of view. For that reason it is a deeply human book, and a nescssary one: those who have found this book boring in its refusal to extract sociological truisms from the events here have missed the point. Once we have walked in the shoes of another human being, empathy becomes possible; and it is only through empathy that justice comes about. If you are looking for anthropological, economic, or political analysis, look elsewhere. If you are looking for an urgent and compelling portrait of day-to-day life in a world that we usually see only in crime-headlines, please read LeBlanc's minutely detailed and compassionate book.
Rating:
Summary: Both random and familiar: applying faces to actions
Review: My interest in Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's new book was sparked by the excerpt from it that I read in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago. Her simple writing style and unsentimental look at the hard lives that "Lolli" and "Toney" have led since the mid-1980s appealed to me, and I decided that I had to buy Random Family when it came out. Having bought it today, I can testify that this book is no disappointment. Poignant and emotional, it succeeds in offering a glimpse into the lives of individuals growing up in a poverty stricken and dangerous Bronx while still emphasizing the importance of family life and the dependance on community that is so prevelent there. LeBlanc also paints a striking picture of family life in the ghetto and how it is affected by crime and the consequences that accompany it. If you are interested in learning more about the struggles and sacrifices of families whose stories are not often heard, this book is for you. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking and infuriating
Review: I read this book with a mixture of fascination and extreme frustration. Once I got thru the first 100 pages and the introduction of the various "characters", I had trouble putting it down. Unfortunately, I have known girls/women like Coco and Jessica and their extended family and friends. Part of my frustration with the two was the repeated missteps handed down from generation to generation...often from mother to daughter. Bad decisions abound with high school drop outs, teenage pregnancy and lack of focus. Coco, despite her good heart, continues to align herself with men who are bad for her and usually ends up pregnant as a result. Jessica's stint in jail apparently doesn't bring her the common sense wisdom she so blatantly lacks. Both women suffer from lack of self-respect and self-responsibility. By the end of the book, it appears that their daughters are following the same path. The apparent lack of reflection of how each of the characters ultimately arrived in their current situation was also disturbing. Cesar is the only person who appeared to realize how his mistakes ruined his young adulthood and his offspring's childhood. Despite Cesar's emotional mistreatment of Coco, he and his wife Giselle are ultimately the most appealing of all the people LeBlanc profiled. As for those who complain about LeBlanc lack of action, she was there strictly as a journalist and observer. An attempt to intervene in the characters behavior would have negated the purpose of the book. This is not a cheery book by any means. Anyone expecting to find answers and a happy ending by the end will be disappointed. But it may provide you with some insight about the lives of underclass.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Learning Experience
Review: This book was one that I could not put down. It was depressing and intriguing at the same time. It reminded me of a soap opera almost due to all the different characters and their entanglment with each other. Adrian Nicole Leblanc did a great job. Read this book if you'd like a taste of what growing up in the Bronx is like.
Rating:
Summary: An Education For All Readers
Review: This book has the kind of characters that HAUNT you. We've all read about "welfare queeens", we've heard politicians -- as well as our families at the dinner table -- rant about the state of social services in the United States. But nothing else puts a "face" to these issues like LeBlanc's book does.
Over a period of about ten years, LeBlanc followed the lives of a group of people who were connected in various ways -- by blood, by friendship, by love. We get to watch the paths their lives take -- paths that are influenced by their own actions and the actions of others, the "systems" of jails, judges, and social services, and completely random incidents.
We see birth, death, the blossoming and downfall of relationships, the true tragedy of those incarcerated AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM, the slippery, difficult, frustrating navigation of the buearacratic welfare system, and the lives of children caught in the crossfire of all of it.
It is truly a privlege to be allowed into this part of society which is too often sterotyped -- and too little actually understood.
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