A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League [Paperback]

Ron Suskind (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0767901266 | ISBN-13: 978-0767901260 | Edition: First Edition

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.

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-Cedric Jennings is the illegitimate son of an off-and-on drug dealer/ex-con and a hardworking, badly paid mother; it is her single-minded vision to have the boy escape the mean ghetto streets unscathed. Cedric has listened to her and is, as the book opens, an A student at a run-down, dispirited Washington, DC, high school, where he treads a thin line between being tagged a nerd and being beaten by gang leaders. Suskind, a Wall Street Journal reporter, follows the African-American youth through his last two years of high school and freshman year at Brown University. Inspirational sermons at a Pentecostal church, guidance from his mother, a love of black music and singing, and a refuge in the logic of math combine with the young man's determination and faith in the future to keep him focused on his goal of a topflight college education. Despite many low moments and setbacks, Jennings's story is one of triumph within both cultures, black and white, which together and separately put tremendous obstacles in his path out of the inner city. It is a privilege and an inspiration for readers to accompany Cedric on part of his long, difficult journey to maturity. His journey continues at this moment, since he is now a senior at Brown this fall. YAs of any background will be introduced to new worlds here.
Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 373 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; First Edition edition (May 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767901266
• ISBN-13: 978-0767901260
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > History > Americas > United States > African Americans

More About the Author

Ron Suskind is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Way of the World, The One Percent Doctrine, The Price of Loyalty, and A Hope in the Unseen. From 1993 to 2000 he was the senior national affairs writer for the Wall Street Journal, where he won a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Experience, January 3, 2002

By 

Grant Finlayson (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League (Paperback)

A remarkable work of non-fiction by a journalist who followed an inner city kid in DC for his last 18 months of high school and his first year at Brown (the first graduate of his school to attend an Ivy League college). At a basic level, it is an illuminating and entertaining account of life in a part of our society that is largely inaccessible and incomprehensible to those who are not in it. But there is much more to it than that. The book provides compelling descriptions of the thoughts and feelings of a cast of real characters including:

(1) Cedric, the protagonist: a sincere and diligent - if sometimes a bit prickly - young black kid who wrestles with conflicts between desire to achieve vs. desire to fit in; his childhood faith vs. inner city culture of sex and drugs; his childhood faith vs. the more sophisticated culture of experimental skepticism at the University; loyalty and affection for his family vs. the aloof individualism characterizing most young Americans.
(2) Cedric's mother: flawed but heroic; a fierce advocate for her son; an unbending force for faith and morality in his life.
(3) Cedric's absentee father: a dynamic personality, but caught in the trap of drug use as he goes in and out of prison and relationships; alternatingly wracked by guilt and soothing himself with rationalization; struggling to hold on to his tenuous relationship with his son.
(4) the minister: a complex character who gives stirring sermons imploring his impoverished flock to shun the moral evils around them and show their devotion by contributing their last farthings - which he uses in part to purchase his Cadillac; his true commitment to his flock is put to the test at the end of the book when Cedric's mother is faced with the prospect of losing everything in a forced eviction, which the minister alone has the wherewithal to prevent.
(5) the advantaged black kids he meets at Brown: their prep school backgrounds and easy familiarity with white culture set them apart from Cedric, but he shares with them other cultural inclinations and references.
(6) his upper-middle class white roommate from Marblehead: a congenial kid who thinks he has life pretty well figured out and prides himself on being able to get along with anyone, but who becomes increasingly confused and hostile after a series of conflicts and miscommunications with Cedric.

For me, Suskind's use of an omniscient narrator to tell the story succeeds - enabling him to weave insights gleaned from multiple sources into a fully informed story. No memoir of an individual participant could achieve that breadth of perspective. It works because his research is so thorough, and the point of view of each character portrayed with sympathy and respect.

All in all, extremely compelling stuff. Nothing short of amazing for something this insightful and rich to come from the pen of a white Jewish guy from out of town. In the afterword, the author comments quite movingly on how meaningful his personal relationships with Cedric and his mother had become to him. They clearly opened their souls. The result is a remarkable portrait of a family that is at once flawed and heroic, endowed with modest resources (and even capabilities) but who nevertheless reach for uncommon achievement; a family uplifted by faith in the face of great and continuing hardship. Very inspiring.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bittersweet read...excellent nonetheless, October 16, 2000

By 

Amy T. Ruder - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League (Paperback)

I rated this book 4 stars for Suskind's writing style. The main character,Cedric Jennings, well, he should get 6 stars for tenacity alone (as should his mother, Barbara). This was an eye-opening book, especially for someone like myself who lives in a country setting far away from inner-city strife and hardship. Cedric endures the taunts and ostracism of his inner-city high school peers because he is bright, motivated, and interested in learning. (His mother's infleunce should not be underestimated here, nor should Cedric's faith and the support of his church.) He succeeds beyond all odds in getting accepted to Brown University, only to learn that it's very difficult to fit in and be understood there as well. Poor Cedric doesn't seem to fit in anywhere he goes and yet, he "stays the course" in spite of a mulitude of reasons why he should not. What a wonderful triumph and inspriration his story is. I'd highly recommend it- particularly to non-African American readers who most likely don't have clue what it takes to get out of the ghetto- really. This- "just go out and get a job" mentality we "majority" folks spout needs to be blown up. Read this story and you'll see what real inner-city people are up against. It may change the way you view things and may even inspire you to want to do something about the way things are.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The power of the story prevails, August 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League (Paperback)

As many other reviews have noted, the basic elements of the story underlying this book are immensely powerful. The journey of Cedric Jennings from dysfunctional inner city schools -- and the broader antagonistic sub-society in which they exist -- to they Ivy League should inspire all of us toward the level of discipline Cedric (and his mother!) have achieved. As told in this book, the story also highlights the many 'filters' on both sides of divide that obstruct the ability of poor black to communicate with affluent white. I recommed this book to anyone who feels indifference welling inside them, and needs to be stirred to action to help make the world a better place.

For me, the book was not without flaw, however. I am familiar with a few of the characters in the book from my own past experience. It seemed to me that Suskind was not as completely objective as he claims in the epilogue and acknowledgements at the end of the book. I noticed that Suskind treated some characters dismissively (e.g., Clarence Thomas, Leon Trilling), and it seemed that these were characters who weren't lock step with Suskind's symapthetic view of Cedric's journey. The use of such journalistic license isn't unique to Suskind, of course. It's precisely the use of such license -- to expand more on a character's inner feelings here, to provide less extensive explanations elsewhere, to speculate on motive here while exploring motive more fully elsewhere -- that can be so infruriating to those who are quoted in the newspaper, no matter the subject. Maybe it's for this reason that Suskind's epilogue, in which he expounds upon how his methods ensured objectivity, leaves a feeling that he doth protest too much.

In the end, is this a book I'd recommend? Absolutely. The power of the story prevails over it's flaws. It's inspirational and insightful.