It is my fervent belief that this book should be required reading in every high school in America. It’s that good, so good that I think if every high schooler read it, this country would be better, filled with more emotionally developed people, maybe filled with people who are more understanding…
THANK YOU! When I first read Random Family, I was stunned and amazed and I couldn’t figure out how to describe how important and moving I found this book. I think I posted a photo of it with a caption like “Please everyone read this now,” but I couldn’t do any better than that.
I work in the Bronx now, with families like the one in this book. So maybe I’ve always been drawn to people and stories like this, but if I hadn’t read this book I doubt I’d have accepted my current job so eagerly.
I also highly recommend this article about LeBlanc’s writing process:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-01-28/news/in-the-family-way/
“Surrounded by five children, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc lies on a mattress in a stifling, rat-infested apartment in a desolate stretch of the Bronx. She falls asleep as a couple in the adjacent room wear themselves down in a vicious shouting match and wakes with a start when two men try to break into the apartment, presumably to rape or rob the women inside. A friend chases off the intruders. LeBlanc, exhausted from several days of shuttling children to welfare appointments, barely reacts.”
She truly did immerse herself in these people’s lives to write this book.
