Product Details
Scribner, February 2004
Trade Paperback, 432 pages
ISBN-10: 0743254430
ISBN-13: 9780743254434
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
Description
In her extraordinary bestseller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances—Jessica’s dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and Coco’s first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar—Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty.
Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations—as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation—LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story.
Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations—as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation—LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story.
Read more:
Chapter 1Alex Kotlowitz author of There Are No Children Here A remarkable piece of reportage about a tucked-away corner of America... It's one compelling read.
Vogue A magnificent tour de force...An insider's narrative that grips from the start.
Janet Maslin The New York Times Mesmerizing...The artistry of this frank, enthralling book lies in the utter simplicity -- and careful, subtle selectivity
-- with which LeBlanc plainly describes the determining events in what will now be unforgettable lives.
Newsweek Keenly observed, pitch-perfect...A dense, rich narrative that reads like a novel.
Los Angeles Times A nonfiction Middlemarch of the underclass...A new benchmark in the field of immersion journalism.
Carol GilliganAdrian Nicole LeBlanc brings to life a world often resisted. Writing in the tradition of James Agee and Walker Evans, she invites us to see in a new way people whose lives are often despised or dismissed. Random Family reads like a novel. This is a brilliant, original book.
