Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son [Paperback]

Adam Hochschild (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2005

From the author of the best-selling King Leopold's Ghost, this haunting and deeply honest memoir tells of Adam Hochschild's conflicted relationship with his father, the head of a multinational mining corporation. The author lyrically evokes his privileged childhood on an Adirondack estate, a colorful uncle who was a pioneer aviator and fighter ace, and his first explorations of the larger world he encountered as he came of age in the tumultuous 1960s. But above all this is a story of a father and his only son and of the unexpected peace finally made between them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this gem of a book, the founder-editor of Mother Jones recalls growing up in New York City and on an idyllic Adirondack estate, the only child of wealthy parents who married late, and his painful relationship with his powerful, respected father. Despite his benevolent intentions, Harold Hochschildthe politically liberal chairman of a multinational firm that made its money by polluting, strip-mining and desecrating land that its inhabitants regarded as sacredintimidated his son; and as the son grew older, he did all he could to separate himself from his father's way of life. They fought "not like wrestlers but like diplomats"; their arguments were always polite and controlled, as if they were disagreeing over something trivial instead of over the course of young Hochschild's life. In this sensitive memoir, the so-very-correct German-Jewish-American parent is contrasted with his genial brother-in-law, a retired, decorated Czarist air-force pilot, who used his wife's ample funds to lavish money on more attractive women. Yet, as Hochschild senior mellowed in his 80s, his son grew to tolerate, appreciate and finally love the man he had feared all his life.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"One of the most interesting books of the year," said LJ's reviewer of this 1985 title. In it, Hochschild, cofounder of the magazine Mother Jones, reveals the relationship between himself and his rich father, who gave him everything money could buy-except love. As both aged, they eventually grew to understand and appreciate each other. This "honest, sensitive, and fascinating portrait of a father-son relationship" is recommended for biography and men's collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 061843920X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618439201
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adam Hochschild was born in New York City in 1942. His first book, "Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son," was published in 1986. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called it "an extraordinarily moving portrait of the complexities and confusions of familial love . . . firmly grounded in the specifics of a particular time and place, conjuring them up with Proustian detail and affection." It was followed by "The Mirror at Midnight: A South African Journey," and "The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin." His 1997 collection, "Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels," won the PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for the Art of the Essay. "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa" was a finalist for the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award. It also won a J. Anthony Lukas award in the United States, and the Duff Cooper Prize in England. His books have been translated into fourteen languages and four of them have been named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. His "Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves" was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award in Nonfiction and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History.

"To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918," Hochschild's latest book, was published in May, 2011 and was on The New York Times bestseller list.

Hochschild has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and many other newspapers and magazines. His articles have won prizes from the Overseas Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and elsewhere. He was a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine and has been a commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." Hochschild teaches narrative writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. He and his wife, sociologist and author Arlie Russell Hochschild, have two sons and two granddaughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars +, Extraordinary and Powerful, January 28, 2005

By 

Jeffrey Demers - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son (Paperback)

Hochschild has written a gentle and elegant portrait of his family. I chose this book by pure luck (and Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost). I have been rewarded handsomely. It is one of my absolute favorite memoirs that I have ever read. It disturbed me, it moved me and set me on the way to examining and recalling my own memories, especially of the beauty of lost summers of yesteryear. Yet the book is able to deal with the complexities of extraordinarily difficult relationships, class and race consciousness and the very nature of power in society in a though provoking and beautiful way. Most importantly, Hochschild teaches that the past and all whom we know and love will live on within us.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read if your parents kept their distance emotionally, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son (Syracuse Univ PR) (New York Classics) (Paperback)

I read this book in 1988 for an autobiography class, and reread it about once a year. It is the only book that has ever brought me to tears. Anyone with a parent who kept their relationships with their children strictly formal will identify with this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small book with a big story!, February 19, 2007

By 

CALBRIGHT "Lost in Books" (VA , United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son (Paperback)

A memoir of the author's relationship with his father, Harold, whom he did not appreciate or understand as a child. He grew up in a privileged environment, as his father was a wealthy businessman, but received a lot of harsh criticism from his father. However, after marriage and two sons, he developed an understanding of his father's background and an unexpected peace finally was made between them. A well-written, hard-to-put-down book--deeply moving.