A Hope in the Unseen

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: When I picked up this book, I didn't know what I'd think of it. It's not the normal kind of book I read, but as this month's book club selection, I gave it a chance. And I was quite impressed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Cedric. Coming from middle-class white suburbia, but not far from Detroit, I was familiar of the struggle for inner-city kids to strive, but not with their perceptions of it. This book opened up my eyes to some realities and feelings, I never had thought about before. For instance, how it's not only very difficult to get a good education or good grades in the inner city, but how you're ostracized by your peers for trying.

This is a story of how Cedric ignored the taunting of fellow students, how he earned a chance at the Ivy league and then we learn the struggle doesn't stop there. For a boy who was salutatorian at his high school, his education level is still far below most of those in the Ivy leagues. The story is about his efforts to make the grade, fit in at school and become comfortable in his own skin. Just reading about his obstacles made me tired for him!

I enjoyed the book, especially how we did get to see the world by more than just Cedric's eyes, but also by his mothers, his fathers and friends. I think this gave the story a pick-me-up when otherwise it would have gotten boring. To anyone who is interested in this topic, I'd recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Crossing the line of diversity
Review: A Hope in the Unseen tells the story of Cedric Jennings, a lower income black student who is stuck in a terrible neighborhood in Washington DC. Cedric strives to work hard in high school in hopes that he will find some way out of the "ghetto" lifestyle that has suffacated some many of his friends and family. Cedric's dream comes true when he is accepted into Brown University, but it comes with a cost. At Brown, Cedric has to deal with classes that he feels unprepared for, and feels alienated from the mostly white, upperclass student body at Brown. But Cedric is surely not a quiter. It is uplifting to see Cedric's personal story of success unfold page after page. At the end of the book, it seems that Cedric has come to terms with Brown Unversity, his religious beliefs, and most importantly, himself.

A few other reviewers have mentioned that Cedric's story is not particulary exceptional. This belief arises from the still quite controversial issue of affirmative action-like practices that effect acceptance to several colleges and universities around the country. Cedric has stellar high school grades and extra-curricular activies, but this would normally not be enough to grant acceptance into an Ivy League school for a white student with the same qualifications. The main issue addressed is that Cedric's SAT score of only about 960 would immediately disqualify him from Brown if he were white.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this issue. Truthfully, this topic disturbed me when I applied to college. I knew several students that had worse GPAs and SAT/ACT scores than I, but still got into better schools. Most people didn't mention it much, but most people believed that the only reason why they got accepted was because they were black. Cedric's story turned me around on the issue a little though. When I read about what Cedric had to go through just to get a decent education out of high school, I truely believe that he deserved to go to Brown. However, this is not the case with every school. For instance, my high school was a very good school, so anyone who went there really had an equal oppertunity to do well if they wanted to. Plus, many of the African American students that I went to school with came from similar economic backgrounds as I did. So I guess I still have mixed feelings about this issue.

Finally, although this was quite an uplifting book, I did have just a few problems with it. The first is that Cedric felt that he had to go to an Ivy League school or all his struggles were worthless. Not the case. Many students don't get into there top choice schools, but a good student can succeed anywhere. College is a whole different ballpark than high school. Personally, I think that Ivy League schools are just money grubbing institutions anyway. Its more about what you learn in college than where you go to school.

Secondly, why did Cedric take almost all of his classes pass/fail? That really won't look too good on a transcript. It also seems that some of the insights directed toward Cedric by his teachers make it seem that he is further behind than the other students just because he is black. The whole race issue in the book is never really resolved because at the book's end, it is mentioned that Cedric later mostly hung out with other black students. Not the most diversifying ending.

Overall, A Hope in the Unseen is quite a good book though. Cedric's rise from poverty to the Ivy League is heroing and can be appreciated by people of any color. This book is a good pick for a college reader.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read Of Great Importance
Review: This book is the antidote to the drive-by, dishonest reporting of a Jason Blair, Janet Cooke, or Mike Barnicle that has so discredited the journalist as social observer. Ron Susskind has written an exhaustively researched and lyrically powerful book of great breadth and subtle profundity. After four years of at least intermittent research, he has captured the internal essence and the external behavior of a cast of at least twelve different characters, the most important of whom is our hero, Cedrick Jennings, but which also includes his mother, his preacher, his father, and some of his friends and acquaintances at Ballou High School and then at Brown. Just the description of Jennings' afternoon with Justice Clarence Thomas or his interactions with the sixties radical Bernadine Dohrn and her son Zayd are worth the price of the book! More important, though, is Susskind's graphic description of the devastating chasm which separates the black ghetto kid and his world from that of the privileged Ivy League, a chasm which affirmative action only belatedly and inadequately begins to address.

Rating:
Summary: Civics book review
Review: This book is well deserving of its Pulitzer Prize. The story is compelling, having you on the edge of your seat rooting for Cedric to 'make-it' in the world.
Having been fortunate to have met the author at a conference, I can attest to his honesty, his insightful eye, and his passion. He truely has a gift for telling a story. The opening gym scene, and the dramatic graduation scene are unforgettable.
Yet, even though it is a wonderful book (that you should purchase TODAY), it misses the bigger picture of what is going on in Cedric's school: That thousands of Cedric's fellow students are given no opportunity to 'make it'. It tells the story of the ONE who makes it, and ignores the THOUSANDS of others who are forced to go to school in a horrible environment, with low-paid over-worked teachers and a school district that fails. It practically ignores the many, many students who are talented, but find no arena (except maybe in dealing) in which to use their talents.
Bottom line: Great story that misses the point that people need to hear.