Firemaker Z. reviewed on 1/6/2006 + 2 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

This book is a biographical account of Cedric, a SE Washington DC high school student who was raised by a single mother and dealt with a litany of problems unframiliar to most middle or upper income people. His father is a professional drug addict/dealer/conman/womanizer who spends his time in prision or ignoring Cedric. His mother is single, has little formal education, and only a passing framiliarity gleaned from TV and books with how the world beyond SE DC functions. Cedric himself is in the unenviable posistion of high-wire acting himself through life with one foot pointed towards the hazy be-something future and the other shoe lace tied firmly to the world he currently has to live in. He has to distance himself from everyone and everthing he has ever known in order to attempt admission to a world he's not sure will accept him. He eventually gets into Brown University, but this isn't some feel-good look-how-well-the-American-Dream-works-if-you-just-try story. Rather, and this is why I enjoyed this book, it shows the very real problems a poor kid faces in trying to enter the middle-class arena and even begin to fight for the 'American Dream.' Cedric, (and the reader,) are forced to consider the differences between being Black and being Black and poor, between being a high achiever and being highly accomplished, and between what can be done with differing resources. It's an underdog story without the bull-crud, one of the very few books that actually tells the story of a poor person and not just a 'poor peopel' story.

highly recommended

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