The book titled ‘Random Family,’ written by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc gives an account of the lives of four youngsters for a period of ten years, from 1993 to 2003. The author spent time with four people in the city of Bronx, including their families, trials, friendships, love affairs, joyful moments, struggles and despair . The book falls in the genre of nonfiction and impresses the readers who have a special interest in the prison life of the American fabric. The four youngsters namely, Jessica, a beautiful teenager, Boy George, a drug dealer, Cesar, Jessica’s younger brother and Coco, Cesar’s lover, who belong to distinct family backgrounds . LeBlanc mentions about various social issues happening in the country, such as prison systems, administration, public housing, teen pregnancy and drug addiction, which dictate the circumstances witnessed by her.
Jessica falls in love with George, a successful drug dealer of heroin at a very young age. Due to her relationship, she gets convicted and sentenced for a ten-year term, which George gets sentenced to life. Jessica bears three children at an early age and her life of sex, excitement and distraction keeps her away from her children and family support . Even in the prison, Jessica involves with the guard and bears children. Finally, she sues the prison for sexual abuse and unites with her teenage daughter. The other two persons, Cesar and Coco also experience various difficulties in life. Coco is a mother of two children, who still loves Cesar, in spite of his none years in prison. She finds it difficult to preserve her optimism due to various apartment moves, poverty the responsibility of protecting five children born to four fathers absent from their roles. During his stay at the prison, Cesar puts his efforts in improving his education and visits from the family, thereby developing wisdom and understanding the circumstances experienced by his family.
The book is not only a good thriller, but also a valuable treatise, which contains several dominant themes. One of the significant aspects of the book is the way the author explains about the ubiquitous nature of sexual abuse in the young girls’ lives. Virtually every character in the book had to face sexual abuse in which a majority of them were victims and acquaintances of the family, walking through the unstable households . Due to the sexual freedom they availed, the men in the book had to seek a somber and problematic life in the prison. The book describes all the women becoming mothers in their teen years. Since children are a source of anguish, it becomes impossible for the mothers to fulfill their needs due to immense poverty. The author portrays the children as a ray of hope for the parents spending their lives behind the bars of the prison. He also presents the children as remembrances of former love. Due to their incapability of counting of men in the prison, the women in the book had to undertake huge responsibilities at a younger age with lack of experience .
The book presents the family relationships as fascinating in the beginning, but then gives an account of the broken lives that alternate between friendship, love, hatred and tolerance. The family units presented by the author are fragile and convey a message to the readers about the circumstances one has to face due to making wrong decisions in life. The author dedicates a major portion of the book to the role of drugs, as sellers and users, which permeates everyone’s lives . The book presents incarceration as a destiny of characters and they spend a great deal of time in the prison for the crimes they committed. Visits and expensive phone calls to prisons add to the burden of teenage mothers and their huge family of children. The struggles faced by men within the prison reflect the struggles faced by the family, including their economic challenges, rivalries and the price of lost trust and generosity they had to pay.
One of the significant things mentioned in the book is that it does not exclude the realities of the outside world. The author has worked had enough to describe the framework of self-agency, which criticizes the characters for their fate and destiny. She describes the complexity of content mentioned in the book in terms of female sexuality and its role in the lives of the characters . The book best explains how gender inequality and the disgrace of sexual agency constrict the road of the development for women. The author makes the readers realize the truth of career paths chosen by criminals, as well as their opportunities in terms of financial development. It gives an account of the conscious choices made by women circumscribed by gender, race, class and culture. The book is a must read for everyone in spite of their interests in political beliefs and prison systems.
Works Cited
Altman, Anna and Katia Bachko. "Random Family, Ten Years On: An Interview with Adrian Nicole LeBlanc." 26 July 2013. The New Yorker. 23 July 2015 <http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/random-family-ten-years-on-an-interview-with-adrian-nicole-leblanc>.
LeBlanc, Adrian Nicole. Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004.
Wypijewski, JoAnn. "No Way Out." 13 December 2003. The Guardian. 23 July 2015 <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/dec/13/featuresreviews.guardianreview24>.
