The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
Arrived from Amazon today.
A fitting memorial for a remarkable short life.
The title gives away the ending, of course. Throughout this story of a brilliant young man from Newark I kept wondering: when will it happen? How will it happen? This same thing happened to others in my book club who read it. I do think it kept us pressing on, although the writing was good and the story interesting.
Robert Peace was the son of a hard-working mother and a drug-dealing father. His mother Jackie did not want to marry "Skeet" because she believed that marriage itself ultimately destroyed the union. She'd seen it too often. So while Skeet did want to marry she refused and she lived alone with her son Rob, working hard for years, her eyes on the prize.
Jackie had grown up in Newark and accepted that she would die there. She wanted more for her son. Thus she worked extra jobs and saved money whatever way she could so that she could get him out of the public school system and into private. She had seen how the teachers in the public schools had given up. They did not have much to offer her remarkably intelligent son. And thus she did finally get him into a Catholic school, St. Benedict's, where he made friends and excelled at school work as well as water polo. He didn't forget his friends from public school, however.
Incredibly driven himself, Robert made the most of what his mother obtained for him. When he started at St. Benedict's he could not swim. But he put up with the humiliation of learning and eventually became a star player on the water polo team. His memory and ability to absorb information was phenomenal. His father had an especially good memory too, but less of an interest in using it to educate himself.
Robert did so well that he actually had his choice of ivy league schools as he approached graduation from high school. He ultimately landed in Yale, although his first choice had been Johns Hopkins.
What happened to Robert might well be a life lesson for others. When one grows up with few privileges and is suddenly thrown into a world where privilege is an accepted norm, adjustment can be difficult or impossible. Robert was friendly, easily liked, but ultimately during his time at Yale he was "fronting". He hated when others acted like they were something other than what they were, yet he hid his real self as needed.
Robert made real friends at Yale, as he did wherever he went. It was one of his roommates who wrote this book.
It appears that it was Robert's determination to provide for others - and be seen as someone who does provide - that proved his ultimate downfall. He wanted to give his mother a pleasant retirement. He wanted to get his dad out of prison. He wanted to help others. He didn't have many needs himself, even continued to drive an old beater no matter his income.
You can take the boy out of Newark but can you take Newark out of the boy? The draw of his home town was too great, and the way of the streets too compelling, the boyhood friendships too strong. Even after he spent time in Rio, living there and loving it, knowing there is another world if he wants it, he couldn't escape.
The title gives away the ending, of course. Throughout this story of a brilliant young man from Newark I kept wondering: when will it happen? How will it happen? This same thing happened to others in my book club who read it. I do think it kept us pressing on, although the writing was good and the story interesting.
Robert Peace was the son of a hard-working mother and a drug-dealing father. His mother Jackie did not want to marry "Skeet" because she believed that marriage itself ultimately destroyed the union. She'd seen it too often. So while Skeet did want to marry she refused and she lived alone with her son Rob, working hard for years, her eyes on the prize.
Jackie had grown up in Newark and accepted that she would die there. She wanted more for her son. Thus she worked extra jobs and saved money whatever way she could so that she could get him out of the public school system and into private. She had seen how the teachers in the public schools had given up. They did not have much to offer her remarkably intelligent son. And thus she did finally get him into a Catholic school, St. Benedict's, where he made friends and excelled at school work as well as water polo. He didn't forget his friends from public school, however.
Incredibly driven himself, Robert made the most of what his mother obtained for him. When he started at St. Benedict's he could not swim. But he put up with the humiliation of learning and eventually became a star player on the water polo team. His memory and ability to absorb information was phenomenal. His father had an especially good memory too, but less of an interest in using it to educate himself.
Robert did so well that he actually had his choice of ivy league schools as he approached graduation from high school. He ultimately landed in Yale, although his first choice had been Johns Hopkins.
What happened to Robert might well be a life lesson for others. When one grows up with few privileges and is suddenly thrown into a world where privilege is an accepted norm, adjustment can be difficult or impossible. Robert was friendly, easily liked, but ultimately during his time at Yale he was "fronting". He hated when others acted like they were something other than what they were, yet he hid his real self as needed.
Robert made real friends at Yale, as he did wherever he went. It was one of his roommates who wrote this book.
It appears that it was Robert's determination to provide for others - and be seen as someone who does provide - that proved his ultimate downfall. He wanted to give his mother a pleasant retirement. He wanted to get his dad out of prison. He wanted to help others. He didn't have many needs himself, even continued to drive an old beater no matter his income.
You can take the boy out of Newark but can you take Newark out of the boy? The draw of his home town was too great, and the way of the streets too compelling, the boyhood friendships too strong. Even after he spent time in Rio, living there and loving it, knowing there is another world if he wants it, he couldn't escape.
Sent to a paperbackswap member.
