And Coming of Age in the Bronx

With 127 people and unusual family connections, I found myself using the x Ray feature on my Kindle more than any other time. Page after page, chapter after chapter was basically a redo of the ones before. Same problems shared by all the characters. Not a good read. The end was a long time coming.

Didn't care for this. Every chapter was like the one before it. Just more drugs and dysfunctional family stuff. Finally gave up on it after hoping it would get better and it didn't. My sister recommended it because she really liked it but it wasn't for me.

I can't get through this repetitive saga.....it has way too many train wreck characters and is a downer so far. I realize it's a mirror into the lives of many who grow up in the cycle of poverty but this portrayal was very hard to follow.

This was a maddening, tough read. I couldn't wrap head around this family, as it was just insane-where all members do the same things expecting different results. Unfortunately this was a way of life, where no one was ever taught any better, were satisfied with nothing/ or next to nothing, who are content with lower expectations, and find appalling behavior (Mercedes acting sexy as a preschooler) as an attribute. A disappointing end to a terribly sad book

Excellent book. Made me understand a lil more about the Puerto Rican culture. Seeing things from their point of view. Why they quickly jump into new relationships. Why they act so grown at a young age in their way of dressing. How they view the welfare system and having so many children.

Parts of these book are fascinating, they give you a very good insight into the family, but it contains too many details, and it's very repetitive, in part because the people keep making the same mistakes.

This very long-winded story chronicles a couple generations of families caught up in the cycle of poverty, drug addiction, violence, and general criminality. Ultimately a sad story, but not one that will surprise anyone who ever lived in a city.

There was nothing in this book that was uplifting for me. Of course, it was realistic but I dont live in that world and I simply did not enjoy it. Could not even finist reading it. Too much profanity and worldly living. I know it exist but not for me!

The book was dreadful and too detailed. Some of the storied told here will make you uncomfortable and will open your eyes to a sad and crude reality.the authorauthor did a great job with her research and interviews, I can tell she worked hard to complete this book and relay a powerful story.

A little lightly used, as advertised, but actually in remarkably good condition for a used book. The book itself is also a very great read, hard to put down. Haven't read a book this good in a very long time.

This book sounded so interesting I couldn't wait to read it. what a disappointment! The writing was awful. There was almost no dialogue. No character development at all. It reads like "first so and so has a baby. Then she leaves it with this person. Than this other person has a kid too. than they both go out and party." absolutely terrible. There are so many characters you can't keep them straight. Since you don't really know anything about any of them you really don't care what happens. I hate to leave a book unfinished but I'm not sure if I can finish this one.

I've been procrastinating on this review because it's so hard to explain why a book is great or important. But when I come across one that is I have to share it with people.... so.

This is a work of narrative nonfiction, following an extended family and their friends for about 17 years. The subjects are impoverished Puerto Rican-Americans and the setting is the Bronx (and upstate New York) from the mid-1980s through the beginning of the 21st century. Despite claims to the contrary, it does not read like a novel--novels are constructed of scenes following narrative arcs, and Random Family is built of facts and details following the vagaries of real people's lives--but the story is as compelling as a work of fiction. It's hard to put down even though it's depressing.

I'll say that again: this book is really depressing. The author keeps political opinions out of it, but essentially it's a book about what it's like to be poor, and why people who are born to poverty find it difficult or impossible to escape. I'm a little ashamed to admit that by the end I didn't have much admiration for any of the principals--they make a lot of mistakes, to put it lightly; they're terrible at relationships; worst of all, they all damage their children in serious ways, even when trying their best--but I did feel that I understood them, as much as one can simply by reading a book whose subject matter is far removed from one's personal experience. Would I do any better if I'd grown up with everything people face in this book: neglectful, drug-addicted or simply incompetent parents, child molestation, drug dealers on every street corner, role models who were dealers themselves (if male) or single mothers in unstable and often abusive relationships (if female), overcrowded apartments with an endless parade of people crashing in the living room because they had nowhere else to go, and so on? I can't say with any confidence that I would. What this book does magnificently is dig deep into the characters' lives, allowing the details to build up to form a complete picture--there isn't one simple cause for anything. Lack of money is part of the problem but the damage done by broken families and terrible societal influences can't be ignored either, and it's all mixed up together.

Which isn't to say that people don't try to improve themselves--we see that here. And to some extent they succeed. But it isn't easy. What really struck me is how the decisions people make as teenagers have such terrible long-term consequences: even the "good" girls are getting pregnant in their mid-teens, while the boys are building up a criminal record and often landing themselves with long prison sentences to boot. In the middle-class world teenagers make bad decisions too, but parents or society tend to shield them from the worst of the consequences. The kids in this book don't have that safety net, nor anyone who can credibly demand that they do better.

I don't mean to say the book is all doom and gloom, because there are happy events too, but what stands out the most is just how much people who start with nothing have to struggle for the things many of us take for granted. This book puts you inside their world and makes sense of it. And it does a great job of bringing their personalities to life and of telling a fluid story, though not one with a neat beginning or end. The writing flows smoothly and the descriptions bring people and places to life in a few words. It's all told in a neutral, non-judgmental tone, the author clearly working to present her subjects to us on their own terms, without value judgments. And she succeeds at it.

The author's complete absence from the book is weird, especially since she states in the acknowledgements that she was present for most of the scenes recorded--surely, for her to be included in these events and convince people to open up to her to the extent that they did, she must have become an important person in their lives? But while it may not be entirely honest, I understand the purpose of erasing herself from the narrative: the point is not to filter her subjects through privileged eyes or distract us with her opinions but to present the stories that matter here as directly as possible.

So, this an important book, one you should certainly read if you work with impoverished people (I know I've met women like Coco), or, you know, vote, or have opinions about social programs. Or if you just live in the U.S. Almost everybody who didn't grow up in this kind of situation would likely benefit from such an intimate, detailed look into the lives of people who weren't born with the privileges we take for granted. I certainly did.

Wow. This book is so gripping and powerful that at times I had to put it down to give myself some mental breathing room and other times (like when I just read for two straight hours to finish) it was impossible to turn away from. Over and over I had to remind myself that this epic family drama was real. I kept wondering how the author possibly got the details and gained these people's confidences. In the afterward and through the writing itself it is clear that she spent over ten years as a friend, confidant, and observer and had intense respect and empathy for the men, women, and children whose lives she painted with beauty and pain in Random Family's pages. It's an engaging, exhausting, and eye-opening read. I kept rooting for Coco, Jessica, Mercedes, Serena, Milagros, and the men in their lives and now that the book is over for me, I miss them. I optimistically hope they're well, but as Random Family shows, there are so many obstacles that can make the smallest triumphs extraordinary but fleeting.

This is an amazing and all-consuming story. LeBlanc transports the reader into an extended family in the Bronx. She recounts the relationships, the fights, the betrayals, the drugs, the crime, the unintentional preganancies, the jail time, and much more for her intertwined cast of characters. Everything is presented as is--the only reflection on the characters' motivation is their own. LeBlanc does not try to extrapolate from their experiences or impart her own beliefs on the reader. The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions from the interactions they read about.

It's easy enough to say women in the ghetto need to start using contraceptions and get off their butts and get jobs. I learned through the people in this book that life is much more complicated than that. Children aren't afforded learning opportunities because their parents are using drugs and having unsavory characters around. No one wakes the teenaged girls up to tell them about pregnancy. The girls have no sense of self worth and want to have children to force the fathers of their kids to love them. Every woman in here was once sexually abused, so responsible mothers can't their there children with friends or family members who have random people traipsing through the house, and that prevents them from getting jobs and getting out of the house.

This book comes full-circle with the story of one Bronx family. It opens with Jessica, pregnant at age 16. It ends 16 years later with Jessica's daughter Serena ready to get in as much trouble as her mother did at that age, despite the major strides Jessica has made at becoming a functioning member of society.

LeBlanc's dedication to her task--combing through trial records, wiretaps, police reports, child welfare reports, and conducting years of interviews--has really paid off in this compelling narrative.

Ms LeBlanc spent over ten years living among several families who started out in the Bronx. Some later moved upstate; several wound up in prison. She presents a detailed and unflinching account of their lives over those ten years, sometimes reaching even further back. She focuses on two young women, Jessica and Coco, and the family and friends who ebb and flow around them. We truly come to care about these people and root for them, although the bright spots in their lives seem rare and temporary.

The reader really gets a sense of what it is like to be poor and to have poverty all around you, keeping you from seeing the possibilities, driving you to make decisions that to others might seem insane. "Get a job," some might say. Well, sure, and what about transportation to and from the job? What about day care? How to care for the sick mother or uncle or whomever? Many parts of the book reminded me of a role-playing exercise I participated in. It was just a role-play, but I was in tears from frustration, having been "fired" from my job because I had to take my child to the doctor, using the bus, of course.

Ms LeBlanc's writing style is very thorough. She seemed at times to be inside the heads of her subjects. Her level of detail seemed almost unnatural (describing peach-colored curtains, what people were wearing...). This detail, I later learned in the author's note at the end, was gleaned from her having spent so much time with the families. If I'd known that at the beginning, I wouldn't have had to spend so much energy wondering how she knew all that. I'd have put the author's note first.

All that detail tended to overwhelm at times. It almost seemed she was showing off her access, for I'm not sure it always added to her story. Also, sometimes her narrative took on an exasperated tone, as though she couldn't believe these people were still making the misguided decisions they were making, after having seen where those decisions got them in the past. Still, it was an honest and thorough account that we should all read. We should be appalled that a country as rich as ours allows such abject and almost inescapable poverty to exist. I have some ideas of what I will do to help. What will you do?

This story resembles a Richard Price novel, but it is true. It is a nonfiction treatment of the themes of drugs and family connections amidst grating poverty. Spanish drug dealers and their friends jockey to survive the harsh conditions of the street.

Everyone depends upon fluid kinship relationships. Good parenting is premised on keeping children out of the hands of the authorities. For some people incarceration gives them the ability to shape their lives. The telling descriptions of some of the participants makes this both a work of anthropology and a dream of a work for the guidance of policy-makers.

Unfortunately, if an inadequate number of good legal jobs exist, people will resort to suberfuge to maintain self and family. The neighborhood in the Bronx portrayed in the work is an alien world to many of us, one of livery cabs and arranged marriages to overcome immigration hurdles. Girls, even young ones, are called fly.

One of the mothers is caught up in the welfare to work policy. There are disadvantages to trying to support four children on a minimum wage job. Another mother has to learn about motherhood in prison. The readers learn why a young mother would move from the Bronx to Troy seeking housing assistance for her family.

Mental health services alleviate some of the distress of the actors in this book. Even perpetrators of atrociously violent acts emerge in it as likeable. We are indebted to the author for her painstaking reporting.

This book covers the story of Boy George Rivera, the Bronx Puerto Rican drug baron legend, through the eyes of one of his many girlfriends and her family and group of friends. The highlights of the book are the quotes from Boy George and LeBlanc crafts an exciting tale that weaves in and around the drug world that Boy George thrived in before his eventual incarceration. The book shows the devastation he left in his path while carving out his drug empire through the girlfriends he had and even the story is about him it is about so much more, including his whole community, family and friends. He is just the focal point and the lightening rod over which everything revolves. This book would make a great moving and it is one of the only books that covers Boy George's story beside Seth Ferranti's Street Legends Vol 1 which is written from the inside criminal perspective and has photos of Boy George from inside the belly of the beast.
Street Legends

Review of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Scribner. New York, 2003. non-fiction.

This book is a detailed account of the urban life as experienced by minorities in a poor socio-economic class. Within this description of ceaseless struggle is the real life characters' search for love. The author combines her skills as a journalist with the style of a novelist to create a compelling and smooth story. The author spent over a decade researching the plight of the people in poverty; the result is a plot with characters that can be applied to any urban setting.

The main characters of the book are Jessica and Coco, two girls looking for love on the streets of the Bronx. "It was the mid-eighties, and the drug trade was brisk. On corners, boys stood draped in gold bracelets and chains. Young mothers leaned on strollers they'd parked so they could concentrate on flirting, their irresistible babies providing excellent introductions." Jessica was known for her beauty and borrowed fashion, yet she was self-destructive. Perhaps this was because she had been sexually abused. Or perhaps this was due to the activities of her mother, Lourdes, who was a drug and child abuser. "One night, Jessica went missing and Lourdes found out that she had been with an off-duty cop in a parked car; when Lourdes kicked Jessica in the head so hard that her ear bled, it was Cesar who ran to the hospital for help." Cesar was Jessica's little brother, whose ambition was to be like Boy George, a drug dealer who was considered legendary for his entrepreneurial acumen and lavish lifestyle. Boy George wooed Jessica with furs, jewelry, and limousines, yet beat and isolated her in his drug domain. Jessica inadvertently led agents to Boy George in a telephone call that was tapped by "the feds." Jessica was implicated as well, and they were both incarcerated, leaving their children to be raised by friends. Coco fell in love with Cesar. Coco said, "I am in love." Her girlfriend retorts: "But all he ever done for you is got you pregnant." Getting pregnant was a competition; whoever had a guy's first-born son claimed the father as her husband. Cesar ended up in prison for murder. Coco chose homelessness at five months pregnant rather than living with her mother, named Foxy, who lived with a drug dealer. The city shelter seemed like the best alternative for the teenaged mother.

Coco tried to raise children under the constant threat of sexual abuse and domestic violence, with lazy and laid-off boyfriends. She received $125.00 from welfare every two weeks, and she was always in debt. "It wasn't unusual for Coco to have $5.00 left, which she had to stretch for the next two weeks."

LeBlanc wrote a book with political and sociological concerns. The reader learns about the chronic lack of skill brought about by generations of poverty: What student can study when she/he has spent the night working? What adolescent girl can achieve an education while raising her babies? What family can afford birth control? Family planning is really only possible for the rich and/or insured. LeBlanc wrote, "A fog of despair so pervaded the ghetto" leaving the reader feeling as hopeless and helpless as the characters.
review by Lynn C. Tolson

This NONFICTION bestseller has gathered by now so many good reviews that it is probably unnecessary to write another. Nevertheless... "Never read a book through merely because you have begun it" said John Witherspoon (1723-1794). How true. Forty-three chapters and 400 pages of minutiae to describe the deeds and misdeeds of fifty or sixty persons of one extended random family over ten years. Poverty and a short period of wealth, crime and punishment, drugs and honest living, joy and suffering, romance and betrayal. True, many stories appear redundant; you can skip a page or two or even more if you feel like it. But by any means do not miss this book. The pearls it contains make its reading practically compulsive (as many intelligent readers have noticed). It is a masterly written ethnography by a journalist, of a very particular Puertorican clan in the Bronx, probably unknown and strangers to 999 out of a thousand Americans. It should have an enormous socio-political impact (as the author hopes) and at the same time it is great "fiction". A few readers have criticized the failure of the author to pass judgment on the persons involved... That is only one of the major admirable characteristics of the book. Read it and enjoy it.

P.S. Thanks to the "Economist" for recommending it.

As a middle class white suburbanite, Random Family plunged me into to a world I do not know; a world I am fortunate not to inhabit; a world that at once adheres to one's most frightful stereotypes of the inner city and yet, as we learn, also defies those very stereotypes. The people in the book are those we would probably cross the street to avoid and would "see" (if we saw them at all) in only the most narrow, negative terms - unable, and perhaps unwilling, to see the humanity and vulnerability that lies beneath the surface. This book takes us beneath the surface. The veneer of each character, particularly Coco, slips away as Ms. LeBlanc simply, but eloquently, describes the rituals, challenges, hopes and disappointments of living each day in the impoverished world of the Bronx and Troy, New York. It is a stunning and powerful achievement.

Make no mistake, Random Family, is unrelentingly depressing. While Coco and Jessica and Mercedes, among other unforgettable people we meet, are able to occasionally summon hope and optimism in the midst of despair, the odds are stacked high against them. They live in an incredibly destructive environment - one that relentlessly chips away at hope, ambition, self respect, dignity. The fact that some of them are able to occasionally rise above it, is almost miraculous. This is particularly true for Coco, who tries so hard to be a good mother to her five children and who never becomes as hardened as the hard world in which she lives - a world that is incredibly chaotic; one in which happiness is always fleeting. There is no sense of permanence - people are continually uprooted, moving from one inhospitable, unwelcoming and rundown place to another. Adults and children live with "Random Families" that are continually changing. New people move in and move out, many unsavory and almost always unreliable, particularly men (or teenage boys mimicking men) who invariably leave pain (both physical and emotional) and sadness in their wake. Betrayal is to be expected and yet, somehow the woman and girls have renewed hope that each man and that each promise will be different. It never is. That each new baby will make it better, create a new start and a permanent family. It never does. Sadly, self destructive behavior undermines each person's chances to rise above the environment in which they live. Of course, it is almost inevitable. There are no positive role models for them to emulate. One character wisely observes that Mercedes, a vulnerable ten year old seeking the love and acceptance that everyone in the book is looking for but never seems to find, "only does what she sees." And what she sees are adults (or almost adults) continually being abusive of one another, shirking responsibility, lashing out, being indulgent, using one another, dropping out of school, selling and/or using drugs, molesting children... One sees the wonder and innocence, the hope and faith in a bright future without limits, slowly being stripped from Mercedes until she is beginning to look and sound and act like those around her. She is becoming what she sees, seeming to follow the same path and the same pattern of her mother and grandmother before her - even though they each hoped and tried to make it turn out differently. It is incredibly sad and dispiriting because we know that what she is becoming is not who she really is and certainly not what she can be.

If you ever question the life choices of those entrenched in poverty, this book gives you an opportunity to understand to some degree what it would mean to "walk in their moccasins." For ten years author LeBlanc hung out with Jessica and Coco and their "family" of various relatives, lovers, and children. Their story reads like a novel. It is difficult to imagine how LeBlanc managed this documentary without being a fly on the wall. Fascinating, tragic, it should be required reading for those making decisions about welfare and education.

My friend recommended this book to me and I asked her what type of book it was. When she told me that it was non-fiction, I informed her that I wanted to read a "story". She told be to just READ this book, and I am so glad that I did. Few fiction books manage to tell a tale as beautifully as LeBlanc's Random Family. After reading the stories of Jessica, Coco, Caesar, and others, you are left with an overwhelming yearning to find out how their lives turned out after this story was written. You will most likely gain a new thankfulness for your position in life even if you are "poor", because these people are beyond that word. It is amazing how LeBlanc puts a human face to those who may be that janitor's in your building, the homeless person at a shelter, or the 20 year old girl on the bus with 5 kids. This is one of the most moving books that I have ever read. A+++++.........

This was an excellent piece of journalism. This book covered many different real topics. Women and men in prison,poverty mixed with drug addiction,teenage pregnancy,child molestation and the list goes on. The fact that I grew up in the projects in NYC and then myself migrated to the city of Troy made this book even more riveting. I could definitely relate to many aspects of this book. But because I have always met someone who would give me a chance my life turned out nothing like that of Jessica's or Coco's or Serena's. I would like to also take time out to thank women like "Milagros" who has never given birth but who has taken in six children who were not her own and worked to raise these children. My hat is off to you. This family with all their extended offspring reflects many that are in every city. But unlike Coco who I am not knocking every time life throws me lemons I make lemonade. Why?????? Because I have long ago realized that life is to complex to ask Why????? And still I rise and after I have risen more lemons are rolled and sometimes thrown my way and guess what I still rise. I realize it is not easy for everyone to do this so what I am imploring is that all social service and governmental agencies read this book to understand every Random family and how one day when they are sitting in front of you how you can help them and not downgrade them. You could even be the lady in the bakery store ( Bella Napoli) smile at the little kid who only has twenty five cents for a cookie that costs one dollar and then find a sample cookie that they can afford. Because I am quite sure when that snooty lady comes in and wants a sample cookie she receives it. I also felt Rick Mason could have helped Coco to become a better mother instead of making her feel alienated in a place that was supposed to be her own home. They have a community center at corliss park utilize this for parenting and budgeting classes. Their are plenty of at home moms that are willing to volunteer their services to teach these young mothers how to become better women. You see KNOWLEDGE is the key to all of these problems without that no matter how hard any random family tries they will not succeed. Mercedes sat in that probation office begging for help their is no reason why she should slip between the cracks especially not in the city of troy where there are plenty of services that are unknown to destitute people. TO YOU Ms.LeBlanc A job well done. This family was very well researched and your portrayal of certain areas in this book were wonderfully written. You managed to keep your opinion out and just report. TEN STARS!!!!!!!! The best nonfiction that I have ever read. Thank you. Topazzz

LeBlanc's chronicle describes a separate, largely alien subculture ignored by the the rest of New York society which surrounds it. What is the most fascinating about this study is how this separate society, which subsists on social welfare programs and crime, is not only essentially invisible to the rest of the New York metropolitan area (and in some descriptions to low income upstate Troy) but how its denizens themselves remain isolated from the rest of the massive city that surrounds them. While parallel populations exist in each of the city's 5 boroughs alone, they remain largely unfamiliar with each other, and the neighborhoods' residents are truly parochial.
This work depicts a culture whose rules and social mores are completely different from that of the predominant culture. Marriage is uncommon, men having multiple female partners -- often simultaneously, and beginning in their mid teens women bearing children from a number of men. Despite this deviance from the morality of the rest of society, abortion is rare and distinctly frowned upon. What is described is a nomatic culture with single parent families led by women continually moving from apartment to apartment, and from city to city, in pursuit of habitable housing, more favorable cost of living conditions on fixed welfare incomes, and proximity to the favored incarcerated fathers of some of their children.
LeBlanc is a sensitive yet objective observer. While the people she depicts are sad, they are largely kind, very much human, and clearly the victims of society. Our lack of familiarity with this cohort of our fellow citizens speaks volumes about the character of our society. This is an eye opening and important study.

This book was recommended by a colleague in the New York City Public Education system and it gave me tremendous insight into how many of my students are living in NYC whether in Brooklyn or the Bronx. We often wonder why there is a lack of achievement in low income areas and this book illuminated that for me. It made me aware of the trials and tribulations of life that many students deal with every day and how these obstacles permit the cycle of poverty, violence, and low achievement to succeed and allow education to take a back seat. Dealing with kids who place more significance on a pair of boots over a passing grade, showed me that we educators are dealing with folks who have a far different paradigm for what is important in life. "Random Family" showed me that my students have little or no support at home, there is no literacy or learning going on at home, and it is rare or unlikely that they will break the trend. However, it made me become less judging and more compassionate as well as taught me that I can provide support in school and hopefully shed some light on a far bigger world filled with opportunities. I've often met kids who were naturally bright but given so little opportunity to grow in the right direction.

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."

After reading this book, if you have any human feelings you will need a few days to recover from the onslaught of emotions that will come to the surface. I grew up about 2 or 3 blocks from where this book takes place and our lives couldn't be more different. LeBlanc does a fantastic job of simply letting the subjects tell their own story in their own words without judgement. I saw a comment from someone stating that LeBlanc should have intervened. Maybe, but utimately it was up to the subjects to change their lives. LeBlanc does an excellent job in creating a visual of what real poverty is. I thought I knew what being poor was but this book blew that notion away. LeBlanc also puts a magnifying glass on the relationships between men and women within the Latin culture. It was amazing to see how far these women would go just to appease the men in their lives, who just on the basis of being born male are exempted from any responsibility. I would recommend this book to anyone who lives in denial as to what poverty can do to the lives of women and children in this country.

Random Family is a pretty good book. It slowly draws your attention, depending your vangage point. I suspect that if your life is far removed from urban woes, you'll be immediately fascinated with the characters' lives. On the other hand, if the book closely relates to someone you know, it may take awhile to capture your interest.

The book is so deeply accurate, you will have to remind yourself that is is actually NON-FICTION. It is also deeply revealing about a life of moral and sexual dysfunction. You begin to feel sorry, then angry, then sorry again. It will take a moment to get acclimated to the setting. Although it is an easy read, as the story illustrates itself in your mind. There are a myriad of people, places and names that move in and out of the book which makes it difficult to keep track of everyone, even though they possess some relevance to the story. This is probably due to the lack of real boundaries within the families.

For me, I strangely understood why Coco was destined to live the cycle of her life or why Jessica would probably end up like Lordes: they are part of a never-ending trauma which is reinforced by those around them and the family they are raised to trust. They don't seek outside help, therefore the people who are closest to them, are their biggest detriment. The seek advice and counsel among those who are equally as powerless as they are. Coco, Jessica and Ceasar are part of an entrenched family that lives a life of mistakes first, lessons second. The book emphasizes the community at every angle, describing the run-down, poverty stricken setting as an equivalent physical theme in their lives which is closely related to their inner worth.

It has an abrupt ending that leaves you cold and wondering what happened. Still, the story will pull you into its grasp and bring alot of issues to the forefront of your mind.

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.

Phew. What can I say? Reading this book reminded me of people living in poverty that I observed growing up in the Bronx. The author, LeBlanc, takes the reader into the intimate lives of the main characters. We read about the countless bad choices they continue to make, never learning from previous mistakes of friends and family. I was left shaking my head at things that were said, done and NOT done. Common sense never seemed to exist to these folks. Children are born one after another for no reason other than bragging rights for the babies fathers. We see that ghetto status means having nice leather trench-coats, fat gold chains, eating shrimp on City Island, while still collecting the welfare check and living in dirty dangerous tenaments.
We learn that these girls have no other aspirations and towards the end of the book when one character seems to have a glimmer of opportunity to be led down a different path, that hope is abruptly snatched away as she too, follows the same path as those before her.
The first chapter, with it's dizzying array of characters, seems confusing at first, but each character serves a purpose later in the book.
I could only tackle this book a couple of chapters at a time.
It is a long book and there are so many characters that I found myself emotionally exhausted after each read.
The saddest thing about this is that it was real, and IS still very real.

The title says it all; love, drugs, trouble, and coming of age in the Bronx is what this compelling book is all about. At the heart of the book is the story of two women, Jessica and Coco, whom LeBlanc follows from their teen-age years into their thirties. The reader becomes familiar with their complex, extended families and in time, their men and their children. LeBlanc, a journalist with a background in law and sociology, leaves no stone unturned in portraying inner-city life. The amount of detail may seem overwhelming, but in time it all fits into place and serves to enrich the story. Jessica's long-term relationship with Boy George, a successful heroin dealer who ends up in jail, and Coco's with Cesar, Jessica's younger brother, who also is incarcerated, are the keystones on which the narrative rests. LeBlanc never oversimplifies or talks down to the reader, nor does she resort to platitudes about poverty, welfare, and the failings of the underclass. The reader gets to know these women intimately, and to feel both frustration at their failures and admiration for their temporary victories over themselves and their circumstances. As I read, I wanted them desperately to succeed, and yet when they didn't, I understood.
In the end, then, this is a heartbreaking book because there seem no easy solutions in sight, only victims. It's pretty obvious that Coco and Jessica's many children are only going to suffer the same fate as their mothers, that they too will struggle endlessly against their lot in life.

Before the first chapter ends, LeBlanc has the reader feeling as if they are looking through a one-way mirror watching the lives of a sampling of personalities from the Bronx. The majority of Americans do not know the details of urban, poverty stricken areas. The flippant attitudes exploited throughout this book towards bearing multiple children from various fathers, involvement with drugs (using and selling,) and money are no surprise to social workers or those from similar backgrounds; however, the middle-class family will gain valuable insight into the force that is "life below the poverty line." LeBlanc brilliantly displays why the cycle of dismissing education and life plans is near impossible to break without drastic intervention--and intervention plans for these at-risk children just don't exist. The title of her book perfectly captures the voyage the reader is about to experience.

Jessica is her example of a beautiful girl who's priorities of being popular and well-dressed lead her to the being a mistress of the infamous drug dealer Boy George. Through him she finds an identity for herself, abuse, and prison time for drug-selling crimes. Boy George is a small time drug dealer that makes it big. One finds him almost too drug-movie-like to be nonfiction.

CoCo is the story that keeps the reader waiting for the happy ending that never arrives. She has a big heart, no backbone, and a dozen kids. While fighting just to keep her own kids alive, she bears the brunt of helping her family and friends.

The final product will make any reader appreciate the inordinate amount of time, research, and thought spent by LeBlanc in creating this from the streets to the press novel-like read about the life cycle of innercity areas. Readers will hope that CoCo and her family were compensated in some way by the author as it is CoCo's life that seems to be this author's most important muse.

This book should be required reading for high school students during their social studies. No text book could accurately convey street life like LeBlanc does in Random Family.

This collection of stories is leading me to research existing non-profits and government programs that address the problems laid out by LeBlanc. I feel the motivation for writing the book was more than curiosity. It would have been appropriate for the author to make a statement at the end of the book stating her motivation, inspiration, and any passion or support for specific non-profit or goverment programs she may have after completing this work.

What keeps this book from reaching more than 3 stars is the big question left unanswered by the end "How can we, as a society, even begin to stop this cycle of drugs, hunger, and abuse?"

Random Family is wrenching written documentary of inner-city life in the Bronx. The author follows a select group of individuals for over a decade and writes to incredible detail their experiences, challenges, triumphs, and perspectives. It is at times horribly sad and frustrating. There are a few sprinkled moments of joy or accomplishment, but they are quickly diminished by some return to poor judgment or lack of opportunity.

The author does an excellent job of simply reporting the facts. At no point did I feel there was bias in her writing or judgment. It was simply a, sometimes overly, detailed writing of the lives she followed. Unfortunately, there are too many books out there that highlight the struggles and challenges of poor persons of color. It is easy for these books to portray stories that all-too-often are generalized and presented as accurate accounts for ALL persons (i.e: wow...this must be what ALL poor people from the Bronx are like). Writers and journalists are all-too ready to write about poor people of color, to use their struggles as fodder - without incorporating into their book a broader critique of the societal contexts that lead to those struggles. I think LeBlanc could have done a better job at presenting the full context leading to the challenges her subjects faced. Without the full context and a trained eye that details the multiple ingredients leading to and perpetuating the cycle of poverty, it is all too easy to stereotype.

Not a must-read by any means, but not a book to avoid either.

This was an amazing story of real lives. Most of it is discouraging to read, but it demonstrates how difficult it is for someone to pull themselves out of poverty. It truly takes a person of extra-ordinary intellect, drive, or patience to work their way out. How many of us can say we have that?

The start of the book was somewhat rough at first, I think because the author was trying to give us incidents that happened before she became involved with the family. So, she didn't have a lot of descriptions to give and instead it felt like a litany of bad news. It does get better though, and soon the people become characters that we can relate to as the author is better able to flesh them out. I was glad I read this with a bookclub, because you definitely feel the need to talk about the people in the book and their lives and decisions.