Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars: A Memoir (Paperback)

by Lauralee Summer (Author) "AFTER FIFTEEN MONTHS of being homeless my mother moved into a new apartment..." (more)
Key Phrases: joy from dogs, dogs without collars, wrestling room, New York, Harvard Yard, Salvation Army (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
When Summer entered Harvard in 1994, she stood out: she wore eight earrings, wrestled competitively and had spent much of her life homeless, living with relatives, in foster care and in shelters with her mother. In this affecting but uneven memoir, Summer, now 26, recounts her first 22 years, from being a hungry, helpless child in Oregon and California to graduating from an Ivy League school. It's a comprehensive, chronological account, and it sometimes seems to include every memory of Summer's early life, from seeing her first movie to shoplifting with a friend from her homeless shelter. Conversely, she glosses over some key issues. She doesn't explain why her intelligent, articulate mother, Elizabeth, cannot support herself and Summer. Elizabeth has had hard times and bad luck; she's eccentric and doesn't bow to authority. But except for a cursory mention of her mother's depression, Summer skirts the topic. Similarly, Summer mentions she's a lesbian, but doesn't address her sexuality in this coming-of-age story. Despite these gaps, Summer presents herself as a smart, resourceful optimist who doesn't allow circumstances or self-pity to deter her. She eloquently describes her passion for wrestling and, toward the end of the book, reaches out to her biological father, whom she's never met; the two forge a satisfying relationship. She also shares lively stories about Harvard (though during that time she omits almost any reference to her mother, who lives nearby, in a Boston homeless shelter). Summer's tale is memorable as she writes frankly about poverty, shame and class distinctions.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Summer, 25, is a Harvard grad who grew up sometimes homeless and often on welfare. Her single mother seems to have been a free spirit with the best of intentions but with a propensity to be tossed about by fate or the consequences of her own failings. Needing a "vacation" from her four children, she dropped them off with her ex-husband with a note saying she'd be back in a week. Upon her return, she was stunned to learn she had lost custody, and that only the youngest child wanted to stay with her. By then, she was pregnant with Summer, by a man whom the author wouldn't meet until she was 19. This is a story of hope, however. Summer's experiences in shelters, of feeling utter panic and anxiety, were counterbalanced by the real love she shared with her mother, by her relationship with an excellent teacher, and by having joined the wrestling team. (She was the only female on her high school and Harvard teams.) Summer informs readers about class diversity; she gives a face and dignity to the homeless person others often shun or ignore. She makes a brief reference to being a lesbian, but does not discuss any effects her sexual orientation had on her maturation. This talented young woman tells her story by moving back and forth across time (and the country) and easily sustains readers' interest.
Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 2003 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: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743257928
• ISBN-13: 978-0743257923
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #586,797 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average Harvard grad, July 23, 2003

By	Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars : A Memoir (Hardcover)

Yep, this girl stood out at Harvard. She stood out on the East Coast. She'd have stood out anywhere, except perhaps for the gritty streets in Oregon and California where she was raised, essentially homeless. Lauralee Summer is protective of her mother in this memoir, and one quickly understands why. Certainly hampered by despair, depression, perhaps mental illness, and the stigma of welfare mom and Bag Lady, Lauralee's intelligent mother nevertheless home schooled her daughter, protected her, stayed with her, and loved her.
Somehow Lauralee won a scholarship to Harvard - in wrestling.!?! Graduated now, surviving even the Parents' Weekend when Mom arrived from the shelter, she has written a memoir without self-pity, full of the shame, rage, and heartbreak of her growing up years on the streets and in shelters.
It's not a perfect book, but it deserves 5 stars for talent, guts, storytelling, and a great forecast for the future.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Homeless finds a home, August 1, 2003

By	shoutgrace "savedbyhisgrace" (Charleston, WV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars : A Memoir (Hardcover)

Seeing is believing, or in this case---reading, as the adage goes that relates to the remarkable story of one such lady who in my opinion beats Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes.' Don't get me wrong about McCourt's memoir of the Irish poor, but Lauralee Summer's oddly titled 'Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars' has an extraordinary flair all it's own. When Lauralee Summer was at the age to enter college she never knew her life would make the newpapers and make radio airwaves nationwide. The headlines would read "Homeless to Harvard" and she even got interviews with the Boston Globe and other prestigious newspapers. When she was asked to make a network TV appearance, during the interview she was pressed for time, the host gave her only less than a minute to reply to the question: What was it like to be homeless? The short-moment media experience of her life in a nutshell prompted her to write the memoir.

Summer's reveals in her memoir of a fatherless, nomadic-type life who lived with her mother who was known very little of being employed, eccentric---but loving and protective of her daughter. Summer and her mom were always on the move to one state or another. Life was far from easy of living in dreary, and even dangerous homeless shelters and delapidated welfare houses. They didn't own a car or a bank account and what little money they had wasn't enough for food or clothing. The sort of schooling Summer had she obtained here and there. And her joy came from learning to read and her love of books when she was a small child. It wasn't until she reached high school when she found the mentors she needed and a love for wrestling where she was accepted on the competitive all-male team! This was the time in life, Summer was able to move into her own acceptance. This would later build her foundation into the priviledged walls of Harvard. It was when Summer won a wrestling scholarship to Harvard, she was in the limelight of the press media of her unique story. Summer had come a long way from poverty and neglect, but everything paid off in the end. For everyone it always does in some way. Summer found her place in the world and made her own home. By constructing her life from the life of the streets and her Harvard education she is a mentor who paints a window of the dark, isolated and discriminating world of women and children in poverty. The house that Summer built was the one of a honest, courageous and compassionate heart who has found joy from dogs without collars.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immensely moving, December 8, 2003

By	Martha B. Spencer "Bookish woman" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars : A Memoir (Hardcover)

Lauralee Summer's memoir moved me beyond words. It is so uplifting to read stories like hers that show the resilience of the human spirit.

Despite her very unconventional childhood, Lauralee's mother was very loving and supportive within her capacity to provide for her brilliant daughter.

An earlier reviewer mentioned her father. This chapter moved me more than almost any other. If there was ever a person who regretted his earlier behavior and genuinely tried to make it up, then her father would get my vote.

Inspiring, moving, beautifully written in the same vein as ANGELA'S ASHES and FINDING FISH