A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League Review

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A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League ReviewA remarkable work of non-fiction by a journalist who followed an inner city kid in DC for his last 18 months of high school and his first year at Brown (the first graduate of his school to attend an Ivy League college). At a basic level, it is an illuminating and entertaining account of life in a part of our society that is largely inaccessible and incomprehensible to those who are not in it. But there is much more to it than that. The book provides compelling descriptions of the thoughts and feelings of a cast of real characters including:
(1) Cedric, the protagonist: a sincere and diligent - if sometimes a bit prickly - young black kid who wrestles with conflicts between desire to achieve vs. desire to fit in; his childhood faith vs. inner city culture of sex and drugs; his childhood faith vs. the more sophisticated culture of experimental skepticism at the University; loyalty and affection for his family vs. the aloof individualism characterizing most young Americans.
(2) Cedric's mother: flawed but heroic; a fierce advocate for her son; an unbending force for faith and morality in his life.
(3) Cedric's absentee father: a dynamic personality, but caught in the trap of drug use as he goes in and out of prison and relationships; alternatingly wracked by guilt and soothing himself with rationalization; struggling to hold on to his tenuous relationship with his son.
(4) the minister: a complex character who gives stirring sermons imploring his impoverished flock to shun the moral evils around them and show their devotion by contributing their last farthings - which he uses in part to purchase his Cadillac; his true commitment to his flock is put to the test at the end of the book when Cedric's mother is faced with the prospect of losing everything in a forced eviction, which the minister alone has the wherewithal to prevent.
(5) the advantaged black kids he meets at Brown: their prep school backgrounds and easy familiarity with white culture set them apart from Cedric, but he shares with them other cultural inclinations and references.
(6) his upper-middle class white roommate from Marblehead: a congenial kid who thinks he has life pretty well figured out and prides himself on being able to get along with anyone, but who becomes increasingly confused and hostile after a series of conflicts and miscommunications with Cedric.
For me, Suskind's use of an omniscient narrator to tell the story succeeds - enabling him to weave insights gleaned from multiple sources into a fully informed story. No memoir of an individual participant could achieve that breadth of perspective. It works because his research is so thorough, and the point of view of each character portrayed with sympathy and respect.
All in all, extremely compelling stuff. Nothing short of amazing for something this insightful and rich to come from the pen of a white Jewish guy from out of town. In the afterword, the author comments quite movingly on how meaningful his personal relationships with Cedric and his mother had become to him. They clearly opened their souls. The result is a remarkable portrait of a family that is at once flawed and heroic, endowed with modest resources (and even capabilities) but who nevertheless reach for uncommon achievement; a family uplifted by faith in the face of great and continuing hardship. Very inspiring.A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League Overview

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