I liked this book, however it is very different than the movie. This was a suggested book for my book club. The book covers Chris Gardner's life from birth to his early fifties. He had an extremely rough childhood being constantly afraid for his mother who was beaten, sometimes nearly to death, by his stepfather. Still, his mother was a very strong woman and a great role model for him and made it known to him that he could be anything he wanted.
It was interesting reading about his life. He really did overcome a lot in his life. Though I think the movie makes him out to be a better man than he is. Not that he is a terrible person, but he made a lot of mistakes in his life that helped him become homeless. Just like anybody would have. The impressive thing is that when he did get his chance for anything he took it and worked as hard as he could to make it work at least in his career, he made some mistakes in his personal life until his son was born and then everything he did was for him. Also, he has amazing determination which rose him in the ranks of one of the most renowned brokerage firms.
The only thing that this book didn't need was intimate details of his sex life which he was very forthcoming, though it did show he was easily distracted by it, and there was a lot of swearing. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it but it was an interesting read.
4 comments:
I really enjoyed the movie but I think I will skip the book. It does sound like he had even more to overcome than the movie portrayed including his own poor choices. Interesting to read your "Believing Christ" review right after this one.
I think the movie will probably satisfy me, too.
I thought you might be interested in the New Notions 5 reading challenge
Well I much prefer reading about sex then violence but thats just me.
I want to read his book after I heard that he did not show to the premiere. He had promised to speak at a fundraiser and he told the press that it was just more important. Hats off.
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