A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Suskind
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  119 reviews
Sales Rank: 20688
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0767901266
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.8092
EAN: 9780767901260
ASIN: 0767901266
Publication Date: May 4, 1999
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Condition: Cover wear and may contain some marks or writing. Keen Northwest ships in 2 business days or less. Refunds for any reason if item returned within 30 days of shipment.
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Amazon.com Review
Ron Suskind won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1995 for his stories on Cedric Jennings, a talented black teenager struggling to succeed in one of the worst public high schools in Washington, D.C. Suskind has expanded those features into a full-length nonfiction narrative, following Jennings beyond his high-school graduation to Brown University, and in the tradition of Leon Dash's Rosa Lee and Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here, delivers a compelling story on the struggles of inner-city life in modern America. While it appears to have a happy ending (with Jennings earning a B average in his sophomore year), A Hope in the Unseen is not without a few caveats (at times, Jennings feels profoundly alienated from his white peers). Trite as it may sound to say, this book teaches a lesson about the virtue of perseverance, and it's definitely worth reading. --John J. Miller
Product Description
It is 1993, and Cedric Jennings is a bright and ferociously determined honor student at Ballou, a high school in one of Washington D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods, where the dropout rate is well into double digits and just 80 students out of more than 1,350 boast an average of B or better. At Ballou, Cedric has almost no friends. He eats lunch in a classroom most days, plowing through the extra work he has asked for, knowing that he’s really competing with kids from other, harder schools. Cedric Jennings’s driving ambition–which is fully supported by his forceful mother–is to attend a top-flight college.
In September 1995, after years of near superhuman dedication, he realizes that ambition when he begins as a freshman at Brown University. In this updated edition, A Hope in the Unseen chronicles Cedric’s odyssey during his last two years of high school, follows him through his difficult first year at Brown, and now tells the story of his subsequent successes in college and the world of work.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 114 more reviews...
 Ghetto Story August 21, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is another ghetto story that has a lot of rhetoric regarding "inner city" life that is packaged to appeal to those who have no idea that this is pure bulls**t. In the book the high school is described as a place where learning is discouraged and success is frowned upon. I was raised in Detroit (the real Detroit, not the suburbs) and I attended Detroit Public Schools. Furthermore I taught for Detroit Public Schools for six years and currently teach for Columbus Ohio City Schools. With about two decades of "inner city" school involvement as a teacher and a student, I have RARELY seen someone picked on because they got good grades. There are some serious issues with inner city education but it is not how they portrayed it. I have seen many students like Cedric and some of them were harassed. It was not because they were smart or had good grades; it was because they were socially clumsy and immature. Students who are socially immature are harassed in many schools, not just in the "inner city". Additionally, the book never mentions what happens to his classmates. The tone implies that they are stuck Southeast Washington. I understand that this book attempts to expose the trials and tribulations of a "inner city" student but it does so by portraying negative and untrue images. If someone wants to read the book to understand the life of an "inner city" student, don't read this book, go to an "inner city" school and see for yourself.
 Amazing hope August 11, 2008
Written with amazing detail and sensitivity, "A Hope In the Unseen" manages to avoid making trite observations about race or poverty, which is uncommon
 In U, U dare to hope June 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The protagonist makes no excuses for himself. I love that. I think he realised early on (after the book was written) that he wanted to be most of all "real." It wasn't to be about how he overcame, living in the ghetto etc but more importantly, the emotions and finding himself.
At certain points, I am like this kid is not a very pleasant person but even with that I could understand where he was coming from. This made him real.
He also along the way learnt he was in charge of his and only his destiny. He couldn't pull his siblings up. or his mom and I think for the longest time that must have irked him a lot.
He had to also learn to let go of this incessant rage murking in his soul. He had to face these demons so he could finally interact in the real world in a full capacity. This was not easy for him to do and he had so many missteps.
This is a tale not fairy tale perfect but gritty and still on-going, right now as we speak.
Cheers,
Walk a mile in the shoes of an inner city ghetto kid November 23, 2007
Great book. It details the last year in high school, and the first year in college of Cedric, a determined, intelligent inner city black kid who fights to make it out of the ghetto and to the promised land -- an ivy league college where he won't be taunted, beaten and despised for being smart.
I lost my first copy, and went out and bought a second. I loan it out to anyone I can. Cedric's story is very compelling and inspirational. I love to give it to people whose idea of a rough upbringing is that the family only owned one car . . .
 Overrated. August 26, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A Hope in the Unseen was an engaging read and I absolutely fell in the love with the beginning. Cedric's life was put into a perspective that I could connect to and it was as if I could see everything through is eyes. It is a story that is uplifting and can be appreciated by people of any gender or color.
However, I did find a few things to frown upon. One part of the book that bothered me was the constant racial labeling. Understandably it is one of the main themes throughout the story and it is what makes this book so appealing to many. You get to see a struggling young black man make it out of a situation where many others would have gotten swallowed up. Yet, to me it became annoying because when I would finally reach a moment when I could connect to the characters as people the writer, and sometimes Cedric, would draw the whole focus back to who was what race and where they come from. It is great to be proud of who you are and what your background is but it doesn't have to define you.
During one of the later chapters we encounter Cedric and Zayd eating lunch. Zayd's friend, Josh, wanders over and immediately Cedric makes a remark about he should not be seen with two white guys. Whether he meant it jokingly or not it hurt Josh's feelings and created an awkward situation. Maybe it's because I just don't understand it but I think it was a little insensitive of Cedric. This was the only flaw that I had problems ignoring. It just seemed as if Cedric felt that he was entitled to be at Brown simply because he was a minority. Even if he wasn't in the minority, I sense a certain attitude that develops from attending an ivy league institution. It is almost as if by having your name on their roster that it makes you superior to everyone else.
This is definitely not the case and if people to hold on to such a mentality is disturbing.
Another problem I had with the novel was that after finishing such an uplifting story you start wondering what is next and if the system has ever changed. Sure, Cedric made it out and became successful but what about everyone else who was left behind? What about the students who were not as academically inclined or those who were not fortunate enough to have people supporting and pushing them like Cedric did? This book gives people an insight into a world that many are oblivious to. This could have been a great opportunity to open people's eyes about social injustice and to spark their interest in finding a way for more students to become like Cedric. I believe the author could have steered this book into becoming a link between the readers and social activism. Plenty of people have either had similar experiences or are now more aware of such situations and would be more than happy to support and contribute to any programs that are trying to turn this around. I believe more could have been done with A Hope in the Unseen in this regard.
All in all, this story was fairly interesting and inspiring. It was definitely helpful to read about the transitions from high school to college and to see how one person dealt with the common worries of university life. However, I do not see myself recommending this to many people and I believe that it is highly overrated. I do not believe it is "formula shattering" as one reviewer described it. In fact I think it follows the basic guidelines to any underdog story. I felt as if I could have been reading any number of stories, except with a different setting and character. A Hope in the Unseen is good for classroom reading assignments or book clubs because it has many discussion points and may lead readers to be more aware of the various issues it touches on. Other than that, I must truthfully say that I would not have read this given the chance to choose it for myself.
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