Customer Reviews

A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood

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Some books excite you; some bore you; some interest you. This book embraces and engulfs you. It is impossible to imagine anyone reading it without both raging and exhulting. A wonderful, beautiful, searing book. The first paragraph (which I read to my students as an example of 'The Event That Most Changed My Life') will suck you in so far you'll read it with fury, passion, and an intensity that makes both most autobiography seem limp and most writing seem pale. Richard Rhodes is a fine writer, but this book is more than written. It is bled.

I did not read this myself, but heard it read on a local FM station by Dick Estell - the "RADIO READER". I could hardly wait for each day's half hour installment. As the heart-wrenching sorrow and confusion of abuse and abandonment of the author and his brother turned into rescue, trust and healing, this story kept me glued to the radio. Though out of print, it will be inspiring to anyone who loves to see the wonder of human helping human, and the spirit's ability to heal and overcome adversity.

I read Hole in the World while writing the story of my own dismal childhood. It made me realize that mine wasn't as bad as I had thought, even though it was pretty bad. This is a shocking book, one that causes tears to fall thinking about this boy suffering at the hands of a stepmother while his father did nothing, abandoning his responsibilities as a father. It is shocking that school officials and neighbors didn't intervene. Hurray for Stanley's courage in going to the police. Most shocking of all is to know, from volunteer work I do now as a retiree, that this kind of abuse continues and, if anything, society is even less able now to stop it or cope with the effects on its victims.

This is a moving memoire of Rhodes' abusive childhood and how he grew out of it but still carries much of it with him. He is such an exquisite writer that every page aches with anger and regret. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what some foster children go through. One of America's best writers.

This is a beautifully written memoir of childhood hardship, cruelty, and neglect. The author's candor and equanimity in examining a painful history is remarkable, as is the poignant outcome.

Mr Rhodes' writing is clear as a pristine lake, to the bottom of which one can see, with all stones, underwater plants, fish and monsters visible in sharp outline. I could not put the book down; it made me weep; following his story made me feel both tenderness and horror, and led me to both healing of brokenness, and deeper sorrow for brokenness that can never heal.

I devoured A Hole in the World on a long airplane ride, having been impressed by the author's classic "Making of the Atomic Bomb" many years ago. The book demonstrates how someone can channel a meager and then abusive childhood into becoming a writer of great sensitivity. At times the story reminded me of Angela's Ashes although the circumstances were different. You really feel and empathize with the children (Richard and Stanley) and wonder at the closed emotional state of their father to acquiesce to his second wife's treatment of his children, and then to (fortunately for them) lose them to state care. I found it significant that none of the adults who could infer the abuse of the boys by their behavior or appearance condition to the authorities. Congratulations to Richard Rhodes for the courage to tell this story; may it serve to remind parents of the paramount responsibility of nurturing the young lives put in their care by intent or accident, and to remind other adults of a communal responsibility towards vulnerable children.

A tough story and also a cautiously encouraging read. Richard Rhodes abruptly drops us into a searing moment - the suicide of his mother in his childhood. I hesitate to write this as for most that sentence alone will stop further interest in the book or even this note I can only advise the book does reward the reader - not with a Hollywood ending but at least with a hopeful one. He and his brother end up in state care and fortunately at a farm privately endowed for boys under supervision.

The book conveys the lack of reason or sense the world has for kids in these circumstance and the painful sense of going from certainty the world cares to one wrapped in confusion, times of immediate joys, moments of near perfect beauty and kindness all framed in harrowing questions of food, protection or lack of it, clothes, hunger. Then there is watching neighbors and classmates live in a parallel world that seem Disney like in comfort, heated rooms - alien assurance. These brothers can sometime visit and even find odd and unexpected times of shelter and good persons doing kind acts. The race is about a narrow line of how to survive and swing whatever odds when you are children toward light, safety and always food. It is also about giving up internally and then taking up another round at things through imagination, theft, self-destruction, reading, anger, trying to be kind. The brothers have different approaches to life and how to handle things. While they sometimes fail each other at crucial times each often is able to support the other.

I am impressed with how candid the author is about the question of forgiveness, belief and the uneven steps one make as an adult - imagine a tree unbending itself and growing in any case. Read knowing this author is writing from a better point in the world. May others children of these events cannot write, sort and are not with us.

Having lost a mother through sickness as a child and the tragic episode of watching our Dad drop into alcoholism when we were young, then foster care and also with fortunate interventions of good people this story rings - at times a bit close Richard confronts how twisted his own memories are as he tries to reconstruct his childhood - something the uneven pressure of the emotions and strange mix children have on reality almost certainly distort. The emotional beam that makes this work is knowing the author is writing as a an adult and he is writing - a measure of success right there. The good and sometimes funny moments are seemingly random but they are crucial to live this childhood - and to read it.

The afterward is welcome in the anniversary edition.

This is not a great book but it is a crucial one for anyone who has gone through foster or state care as a waypoint for sorting out their whole trajectory in life. It also reminds us to be thankful again for the kindness of strangers, relatives and this who take a careful second look and do what they can as people for children in these circumstances.

I first read this book many years ago after seeing Mr. Rhodes do a television interview. Although it was very sad, it was a great story, as told only by someone who had lived through it. I have several of Mr. Rhodes books. All of them worth the read!

This is a story that tells itself because the events are so riveting and the prose so clear, there is not need for embellishment. And although it's more or less a straightforward memoir/narrative, it culminates in a wonderful epiphany for any reader who is eager to learn how someone can turn personal tragedy and hardship into a life of contribution. Recommended for humanities, cultural studies, and social science teachers looking for a text that can actually teach the essence of what being human and its trials and adversities is all about. That it is 'unavailable' is truly a travesty.