A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League,   ISBN:9780767901260

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A riveting tale of a yound man's struggle to overcome tremendous adversity and achieve his full potential. Very well written.

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The difficult journey from hopelessness to "hope in the unseen," to, that is, faith that a better life awaits, is an often told story. In America, we have the "Autobiography" of Benjamin Franklin; slave narratives, like Frederick Douglass's "Narrative"; poverty-to-riches fiction like Horatio Alger's; immigrant narratives, like David Eggers's "What is the What." There is more than one account of minority students and their path to the Ivy League. For a writer with this sort of "redemption" material, the difficult task is to shape a story whose ending we might guess at but whose details are so compelling that a reader can't put the book down. And this Ron Suskind has done. Because he tells Cedric Lavar Jennings's story in the voices not only of Cedric, but also of his mother, Barbara; his father, Cedric Gilliam; his classmates and teachers at Ballou High school and at Brown University; his pastor, Bishop Long; and many others, the book has a complexity that a similar story told in a single voice could not have. Suskind presents these people exactly as they are, with not only their strengths but their weaknesses in full view: Barbara's difficulties with money management; Cedric's standoffishness when his dorm mates attempt to befriend him; the father's struggle to stay off heroin.

It is difficult to call this book "inspirational," as some have done. As Suskind points out, he chose to profile Cedric Jennings precisely because "the basic appeal of Cedric's story was never rooted in his exceptionalism . . .he is, in his basic makeup, so very much like countless other young people . . .". And Suskind does not spare the institutions that fail students like Cedric every day: the bleak public school where learning is almost impossible, the "sink-or-swim approach for poorly prepared minority students at places like Brown. Throughout the book, Suskind explores both the positive and negative aspects of affirmative action, letting the details of Cedric's experience make a case for it. This book is one family's experience. It does not--it cannot--encompass the experience of every inner city child who hopes for the unseen. But it does offer powerful testimony not just for broad prescriptions or programs, but for the incremental powers of love and determination. Recently on NPR, I heard a review of "A Hope in the Unseen" as one of those books not to be missed. The reviewer was right.

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This book is inspiring, after you read it you will have gone through the emotions of anger, sadness, happiness, and hope. Suskind captured a photographic of this life that is vivid, and embedded seeds that are grown, shared and relished.... LOVE IT!

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Those of you who've taught in a decrepid inner-city school have stories to tell, most of them are probably negative. Getting an education is a struggle in Harlem, Washington DC, Compton, and other blighted areas. So if there are some kids who move on an prosper, what's the secret of their success?

HOPE IN THE UNSEEN shows how a fatherless boy gets an education and moves out of the "Ghetto." The secret is that his mother stays strong, stepping into the place of the father her son should've had. Cedric Lavar Jenkins had a father who was in jail. On their awkward visits, the elder Cedric was only interested in his star-athlete nephew, not his studious son. Imagine struggling to get good grades at personal risk (because good students are picked on) and be ignored by your parent? Well Cedric's mother makes sure her son is appreciated. But even that comes with a price. His mother is often depressed and gets evicted several times. In fact, eviction plays a big part in the story.

Whenever I began a new school year, I could always tell which kids were going to make it. They were the ones who could be told "no" without arguing. If a kid got really good marks, the parent would usually say "I never let him near the TV until his homework's done."

So the secret isn't surprising. When the parent sets high standards and sets the boundaries, the kid learns the boundaries. No kid in America can survive all by himself. In most single-parent families, the kids are barely surviving with the parent, so how will a kid survive on his own.

The key to success and prosperity is strong parenting, plain and simple.

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A Hope in the Unseen is a terrific book.

In 1995, Ron Suskind wrote Pulitzer Prize winning articles for the Wall Street Journal about two years in the life of an inner city Washington DC teenager, and this is the 1998 book he wrote, based on those articles.

The writing and story are fabulous. . . don't read the online reviews because they give too much away. . . The book reads like a thought provoking mystery novel.

I'm Caucasian, and I appreciated this opportunity to be a fly on the wall of an experience I could never (and wouldn't want to) have. The descriptions of SE Washington DC made me grateful for the comfortable middle class life I enjoy, but I wish I had the ability to achieve at the level of Cedric Jennings.

This book does an excellent job with many interwoven themes: coming of age, survival, ability to love, self awareness, self-discipline, public education, Brown University, integration, social skills, study skills, cultural literacy and family relationships.

I felt I learned a lot reading A Hope in the Unseen, but it was also a very enjoyable page turner. I think it should be required reading in high schools.