Customer Reviews

Hole in My Life

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a children's librarian who read this book and could hardly put it down. I read my (non children's librarian) husband a couple of paragraphs, and he grabbed it the second I was done. He inhaled it and gave it to his best friend, who does not read children's books. The best friend loved it and cannot understand why it is called a young adult novel. He thinks it is great reading for everyone!
A wonderful read by an intriguing, and obviously stubborn and incredibly gifted human being.

I first need to confess that I know Jack Gantos and have been a fan of his writing for more than 20 years. This made it particularly difficult to read a book about a painful period in his life. However, this is Jack's best writing and is a story that many teenagers (who believe themselves to be invincible) need to read. It is also first and foremost a compelling story that will be hard for anyone to stop reading. Even knowing that all ends well (Jack is an award-winning, highly successful writer), the suspense remains high. It is a harsh tale, and the descriptions of prison life are brutal (as they should be) but ultimately it is a story of a life redeemed. Highly recommended!

Popular children's book author and National Book Award finalist, Jack Gantos, now offers a compelling story taken from his own life. It is appropriate that we should hear this in his voice.

Some thirty years ago Gantos dreamed of becoming a writer - a dream that seemed far-fetched as he was cash poor and a drone in a job that was going nowhere.

Quite foolishly the young man made a grab for ten thousand dollars by helping to sail a hashish bearing ship from the Virgin Islands to New York City. Once there, he and his pals sold the drug until they were caught. End result? The young Gantos was sentenced to up to six years in jail.

Yet from what was probably the lowest point in his life the author was able to more than salvage himself; he was almost reborn. Once confined in a cell he made his dream of becoming a writer a reality as he toiled with paper and pen.

There's much for young people to learn from Gantos's story, and accolades are deserved for his candid telling.

- Gail Cooke

All writers have pasts, before they write the books for which they become known & respected. Before Jack Gantos wrote his children's books (which, by the way, are brilliant, energetic & absorbing reads!) he had to get some experience in living.

Not many of us would have chosen the fork in the road which Jack Gantos took, faced with a desperate need for cash for college where he hoped to become "a writer." As a naive smuggler, his career didn't last long. It is, however, out of that struggle & ultimate confinement in prison, that the writer I so enjoy, grew, with his unique, taut & restless language.

A super memoir of a youth well spent on ill-gotten gains. Of the chances he got to take other forks in the road on his way to redemption. He paid his dues, did his work, & then got on with his life as a writer.

I just finished Hole in My Life and found it so compelling I devoured it! I am a 7th grade English teacher who tries to keep up on the latest juvenile literaure , but I am also the parent of a teengage boy who spent time in a juvenile facility for drugs. I love memoirs, but especially stories of redemption...stories with hope for the future... that give me hope as a parent...and this book was all that and more. Although teenagers will find this scary and harrowing story fascinating, adults will also appreciate his writing and the honesty with which he tells his story.I can't commend Jack Gantos enough for this book!

This book is so wonderfully written. As others have said, it is an unflinching self-examination. Gantos freely acknowledges his own shortcomings. Better still, he does not self-aggrandize his transition from drifting slacker to convict to living the life he imagined for himself. And he does another rare thing: he communicates the real joy he has found in life without romanticizing or going over the top.

Gantos also doesn't flinch from the reality of his prison life. Again without sensationalizing, Gantos includes the topics of prison homosexuality, rape, and violence. These topics occupy a very small percentage of the account, but make your reading/buying choice accordingly if you have a zero tolerance approach, can't skip a few paragraphs, etc.

I haven't read any of Gantos' fiction, but this made me want to.

Whole In My Life
By Jack Gantos
In Jack Gantos's memoir, Whole In My Life, he describes how he is an average student and an avid reader and wants to become a writer. Caught up in trying to earn money for college, Gantos makes huge mistakes by taking drugs and alcohol and smuggling drugs. I chose this book because it looked like an interesting story. The most important parts of the book are Gantos wanting to become a writer by reading as much as he could, smuggling drugs, and how he turns himself around in prison. As a result of these events, Gantos learns from his mistakes and becomes a better person and a better writer.
One of the most important themes in this memoir is that Gantos is very fond of reading books and wants to become a writer, but can't because of his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Gantos always has a stack of books next to him wherever he goes. Gantos also has dreams of becoming a writer and always keeps a daily journal but can't quite organize it into a story. "I could write stuff down all day, but I could never seem to organize it into anything worth reading (pg.21)." This is an important event because Gantos' inability to organize his thoughts prevents him from becoming a real writer. He realizes when he is in prison that his drug and alcohol abuse is the reason he can't organize his thoughts and become a writer.
One of the biggest mistakes in Gantos's life was smuggling drugs. I think that Gantos made a poor decision just based on the money that was in it for him. "All I heard was the number-ten thousand dollars, cash. This was the jackpot. The answer I was looking for. My exit from St. Croix and my entrance into whatever good school would have me (pg.69.)." I think that Gantos was so caught up in the money that he didn't assess any of the risks that were involved in smuggling the drugs from St. Croix to New York. As a result of his drug smuggling, Gantos ends up in prison and his dreams of becoming a writer are temporarily dashed.
While in prison Gantos realizes that he has to somehow turn his life around. When Gantos is in prison he is not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Gantos is also writing a lot more than usual. From that point on Gantos writes about
his drug smuggling and what he observes in prison. "While in prison, it occurred to me that when I lived at Davy's I could never write about something as unsettling as what I had seen in the hole because when I felt something so intense I jumped up and ran to a bar where I had one drink after another poured into me until I was so numb that I couldn't pour anything back onto paper (pg.185)." This is so important to the author because he realizes that not being under the influence really helps him become a writer.
During this memoir Jack Gantos learns a lot about himself. Gantos learns that he is a good writer but was held back by his weaknesses. He used drugs and alcohol as a crutch when he wasn't feeling good about himself and tried to take the easy way out by getting "quick money" for smuggling drugs. In the end, Gantos realizes that there is no easy way out and that he must work honestly and hard to achieve his dreams.

First off, I would like to say that I thought this book was excellent. I enjoyed reading it very much. Just to give you some background info on myself, I am 16 and do not read often. I only read when we are assigned a book in class, and I usually end up reading only part of it. Books are generally dull to me, but this one was different. When we were assigned this book in class, I figured I would read for a little bit and then put it down, but when I started reading I couldn't stop flipping page after page of the book. That night I was immediately dragged into the story. The next day I was very ahead of the class because I was so captivated in the book.

This intelligently written and witty book is a story about a boy who becomes a man through a crazy adventure. You feel immersed in his journey as he smuggles 2000 pounds of hash from St. Croix, a small island in the Virgin Islands, to New Jersey with a man who is always naked and has a gun. So he is pretty much crazy, and Jack is stuck on a boat with him in the middle of the ocean. This is just one of the many happenings in the book that puts you on the edge of your seat and makes you want to keep reading.

Jack Gantos' "Hole in My Life" is a great memoir that tells of his life, the amazing story of his criminal activity, and how he has changed. The story begins when Gantos was nineteen, and in high school. At this time in his life, he never would have imagined that he would ever even see inside of a locked prison door. Much less spend years behind one. He then moves to St. Croix Island, the place where he gains a criminal record and his exciting adventure begins. On the island he meets his unexpected business partners and sets sail for New York, with no sailing experience and his ten-thousand dollar payment on his mind. Not to mention the two-thousand pound load of hashish on board.

"Hole in My Life" is a surprisingly inspiring book. At first glance, it seems unlikely for such a story to inspire the reader to do anything but smuggle drugs. However, it truly tells of the author's positive views of the situation and the way in which he plans to live his life without crime. Gantos is a great author; he is a very straightforward writer and a phenomenal story teller. The book is full of adventures, and it becomes difficult for the reader to put down. It seems that this book would be more enjoyable for young-adults because Gantos was telling the story from his point of view as young-adult in the majority of the book. However, it could be very enjoyable for virtually all readers.

I try to read all of my daughter's assigned YA books, but this is the only one that I just couldn't put down. It's ironic that the literature Jack loved (e.g., The Red Badge of Courage, The Bell Jar, On the Road, Treasure Island, Catcher in the Rye, etc.) is rarely, if ever, required reading in most public schools today. The works he cites belong on everyone's reading list (yes...even Naked Lunch!).