Family sagas are popular and here is the twist with this one--it is a family saga and it is real. Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc was written after 10 years of studying a Bronx family. It centers on two young women, Jessica and Coco and follows them as they fall in love, get pregnant and start families. Jessica falls in love with a drug dealer and spends years in prison and to get away from the neighborhood and start fresh, Coco takes her family to Troy, NY.
LeBlanc does not preach or use statistics to make her case--she simply presents these lives as they happen. The women assume their own dignity but for many readers their lives will seem more like fiction than most novels because the women's experiences are so different from the lives of many readers and yet, they started off with many of the same dreams.
While there is much sadness in this book, LeBlanc's depiction of the family and their lives is engrossing, touching and well done. I started out wondering how she researched it but quickly fell into the story of their lives.
Who would like it: People who like family sagas, but more realistic ones. People who are interested in sociology and city life.
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