Nicole RubelKirja-arvosteluja

I came across this book in my son’s school library...mind you, he’s in 5th grade. I started reading it to see if it was appropriate for him to read (it was definitely not) and ended up enjoying it myself. It was a good story I just felt it ended very abruptly. I’m not sure how quickly he wrote this after leaving prison but I expected a little more about his life after prison and it just wasn’t there. Glad I read it tho, and I’m REALLY glad my 10 year old did not

When I knew I needed to read a biography (not my normal choice for reading) book for my class, I turned to a friend/librarian for some suggestions. She had but one: Hole in My Life IS the book you WILL read for this. I did what anyone who knows Geri would have done, I shut up and checked out the book!

At first I wondered why she wanted me to read this odd yellow covered book written way back in 2002 about a man I have never heard of. Now I know. Hole in My life is compelling and interesting. I felt as though I was with Newberry Award Winner Jack Gantos on his search for self. I crewed the ship from Florida to NY with him, and ran from the law. I felt the emotions: happiness, pain, sorrow, fear and so many more as he felt them.

This boy who always wanted to be a writer but felt as though he had nothing to write about, this smart kid with no self-esteem, this boy seeking to be a man but not understanding how; all of these things, these feelings, I understood. Here was a kid trying to find his place in the world. He didn't know what to do with the jumble of feelings, so he sought respite in drugs and alcohol. I found myself screaming at the book “don’t you SEE what you are doing to yourself???”

I found the description of his time in prison (15 months in the federal pen for smuggling hash) fascinating. So many things conspired to keep him safe and out of relative harm during his stay. His sentence could have gone so much worse.

I have visited Jack Gantos’ website (http://www.jackgantos.com/) and read numerous articles about him. He speaks with amazing candor about his youth and the problems he created/encountered. One of my favorite things I read was an interview with him on NPR. I have included the link below because I think it gives a sense of Jack Gantos’ personality and humor.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/28/145998769/newbery-medal-winner-jack-gantos-plays-n...

So far, my enjoyment of Hole in My Life has been bumpy. When I'm flowing along with the story, I'm suddenly hit with the most obscure reference that throws me off my reading groove. The sailing terms and the literary references have me flipping through the dictionary (and going to Wikipedia) a little more often than is comfortable. I hope the second half will be little more straightfoward.

7/23/08: I just got to the part where he was sentenced and sent to prison. What a straightforward and unflinching account. It's riveting and disturbing. A good read and a cautionary tale.

teen/adult nonfiction; biography of a children's author/convicted felon. Drugs (or at least illegal drug trafficking) will ruin your life, and staying in school will help you get back out of jail... or something like that.

This reads YA, but good YA. My son read a good deal of Gantos' work when he was a small child, and I always approved of those books. (I really did not limit my son's reading, but admittedly some was age-inappropriate and there is no question I liked some more than others. Gantos' children's books are really good.) Gantos' story is instructive and he does not miss an opportunity to really drive home his message. He does not pander, but he also does not depend on subtext. Side note: I kept wishing he would realize his father was a narcissistic asshole, but no luck. I think his life would have been better if he knew that.

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The author is a Newberry winner, but this is a completely different book than his others. It is a memoir about a string of bad decisions that led to drugs and eventually jail. Gantos is very candid about his experiences. There is some content that might make some uncomfortable (drugs, encounter while in jail, etc...). He tells about choices he made without really meaning to do anything bad. He really just wanted to be a writer, but go involved with drugs. He tells about the horrors of being in jail. He tells about some good luck that helped him get through, get out, and get on with his life. He doesn't sugar coat that it was hard. It was an interesting look into his life experience as a teen and young adult.

I liked this book overall, but felt that it got off to a slow, meandering start. The entire first half served as basically a chronicle of teenage existential angst. Thanks, but we've all been there and that's not what makes your story worth reading. Sure, it was good for context at to why Gantos took the actions he did, but it could have easily been cut in half. The boat journey could have easily been a book unto itself and, given the book's cover, more time could have been devoted to prison. That surely caused the sort of existential angst very few of us have actually experienced.

The writing was excellent and detailed. An unnerved Gantos awaiting his trial would surely strike a chord with any reader.

Everyone's got a story. They may not realize it at the time, but there is always a story to be told. In Jack Gantos' Hole in My Life, he describes an event, or rather, a series of related events, that helped him to realize that he was actually able to pull from his own life experiences to become something he always dreamed of being: a writer. The story sort of begins at the end. The reader is immediately made aware that Gantos went to prison and about the first half of the book paints the picture, sometimes vivid, sometimes a little more lacking, of the series of unfortunate events that led him to that "hole in his life."
We never really learn too much about his family, except for the facts that they moved around quite a bit (even internationally at times) and his father basically had to get drunk to find the nerve to visit Gantos in prison. Gantos describes himself as a bit of a bad apple as a teenager, but he seems to imply, more often than not, that he just tended to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.
And then we learn of the culprit off all this mess: marijuana. Gantos gave into the tiny desire to experience the drug one time, and then it became the thing that defined his life. He gets wrapped into some unbelievable situations with even more unbelievable characters, which ultimately lead to his advisement by a lawyer to turn himself in for drug smuggling.
His depictions of events that took place inside the prison walls are detailed enough to make even the strongest people cringe. Much of what we hear about life in prison is exactly like (and in some cases, even worse) than we've all imagined. Gantos' storytelling meanders enough during the course of the book that the reader cannot help but want, and even need, to keep reading. There must have been at least 3 or 4 times throughout his storytelling when I though, "Oh, this is it! This is when he's going to get arrested!" And then he didn't. Gantos really has a way with inviting the reader to predict the rest of his tale and then guessing it wrong. I suppose you could say I enjoyed being wrong quite a bit so I could be surprised when I saw how the story really turned out.
While I would not call Gantos the best story-teller in the world, he's still pretty good. This is not a book that I would have chosen to read on my own, but I'm certainly glad that it was brought to my attention. As a high school English teacher, I can think of at least 80% of my male students who could really benefit from reading this book. Even though some of the shenanigans Gantos got into may not be the best ideas to put into the heads of teenage boys, let's face it: most of these ideas are probably already there. Interesting story told in an interesting way by a pretty interesting guy.

Rare is the time that I become so engrossed in a book that I read literally every word. In any advanced field of practice and in pursuing any advanced degree, one must learn to skim, that is float over the the pages gleaning the main ideas in order to get through the sheer volume of reading that is prescribed. Not so in this case. I literally went to turn the page and found myself at the back cover.
This narrative is perhaps compelling to me because it reflects, in a large way, my own procrastination in getting started with writing and teaching. I have gone through many ups and downs, twists and turns and adventures to wind up pursuing a Masters in order to teach which enables me to write.
In reviewing systematically as a non fiction piece let me first identify it. It is a biographical narrative that documents the author's late teens and early twenties including the years leading up to his incarceration in a federal prison for smuggling a controlled substance, and his release and turning around of his life through writing.
Mr. Gantos has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emerson college in Creative Writing and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing also from Emerson College. This would explain the polished and honed style and voice that he brings to his narrative which, is what makes it so very compelling.
As far as content, I believe Mr. Gantos seeks to illustrate how his life turned around from being a drifting youth with no compass or heading but with lots of wind in his sails, to being a determined and driven writer with a renewed sense of purpose. In this mission, Mr. Gantos succeeds brilliantly.
This is owed to his style which due to the exceptional clarity of thought, appropriate language level and tone sounds like a candid and honest conversation with a wise old mentor looking to tell the tale of potholes in the road of life and how sometimes they can lead one to get off the WRONG road and onto the RIGHT one.
The book is well organized into parts with sub organizations into chapters that detail major events in the book.
This is a memoir and as such, there are no real references to speak of other than the author's referring to interesting comparisons between his life and movies or novels that he has read or viewed.
Overall, this is a compelling, genuine, and candid narrative that lays bare the author's innermost doubts, struggles, and fundamental truths of the author's being. This makes him brave, vulnerable and overwhelmingly ...KIND to the reader. It is a story of lemons to lemonade and then some. I give it my highest recommendation.

There's always room for second chances. As a teenager, Jack Gantos got caught up in a life of uncertainty, alcohol, drugs, and daydreaming. He had a dream of some day becoming an author, but his anxiety and insecurities, from growing up in instability and poverty, often kept him from making positive moves towards his future. Right out of high school he came across an unlikely duo in St. Croix USVI, who asked him to participate in a voyage across the ocean to New York. They easily persuaded him into smuggling a large amount of hash on a boat and he would be paid $10,000. Without being overly concerned of the consequences, he agreed to the deal, and it landed him in federal prison where he spent 15 months. This book conveys his journey leading up to getting caught and his time in the penitentiary. In the end, he is offered a second chance at life and finally can professionally explore his true passion, writing. It was an interesting read and really brought you right there with him during his experiences. His writing is clear and concise, while also distinctly expressing the emotions and details behind his various exploits. The book is an easy read, which kept my interest throughout; it is organized well, separated into 3 parts, each containing chapters with headings specific to the information contained in them. This is a good read for teens and young adults to warn about the dangers that drugs and peer pressure can bring.

The now successful and famous author, Jack Gantos, chose to write a memoir about the events leading up to and eventually the greatest mistake of his life. The book is written in three parts, each with numbered titled chapters dividing the sections. Before delving into the three main sections, Gantos sets the scene of the book, explaining the front cover and title page with his photo from prison. There year is 1972, Gantos is in a medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky. After the introduction, in the first portion of the book Gantos discusses his teenage years. Gantos did not have a glamorous upbringing, his family struggled with money. Eventually, Gantos would spend his senior year without his family in a cheap hotel under the care of the hotel's manager. Here he witnesses what was considered unique at the time, a variety of cultures and people living peacefully together. Following his love for writing, he became inspired by the many books he had read, in-particular, "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. A friend appeared with a scheme to make money selling weed, and almost as if to warn Gantos of his future, his friend scammed his out of $200. After graduation, Gantos moved to St. Croix where his family was living to help his dad with the meager construction jobs available. Here, people were not living in harmony, and race riots were on the rise. In an attempted journalistic approach, he spoke with the members of the Black Revolutionary Party to better grasp the situation, only to realize he was in over his head. On the island, Gantos meets a young man Rik, who offers Gantos $10,000 to smuggle hash to New York with his friend Hamilton. Gantos willingly accepts.

Gantos does an excellent job building the story to give the audience an understanding of how someone could so easily accept an offer to smuggle drugs. The poverty and growing danger on the island was enough for Gantos to see this as a golden opportunity to pay for college and a better life for himself. This type of situation is one many people face today, and often their options can lead to a life of crime. Gantos discusses how in his youth and lack of life experience, he had not considered the possible outcomes to his decisions. The story continues as he sails to America, in an adventurous, comedic manner. As readers, we know the results are imminent, but it doesn't keep you from rooting for him to find a way out. Once caught, Gantos is served with 60 days to six years, and the reality is harrowing. The descriptions of his time in prison are likely inappropriate for a younger audience, however not for young adults. It is important for teenagers to read how they can be tried and treated as adults for decisions they made as teenagers. In prison Gantos found his voice as a writer and looked forward to the day he could write about life outside of prison. This is not an average prison story, Gantos truly evolved from this experience and positively changed his life.

In the back of the book, there is an "about the author" section, followed by a list of detailed discussion questions. The discussion questions are an excellent introduction to how this book can be used in a high school classroom setting. After the questions there is an interview with Matt de la Pena and Jack Gantos. Gantos discusses why he wrote the book, and why he took so long to write the book after he had been publishing children's books for years prior. I appreciate his honesty, he discusses how teenagers need to know the truth, which is why he wrote this book for them. This book received The Robert F. Sibert award as well as The Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. I would highly recommend adding this book to your high school classroom collections, suggesting for literature circles, or to read as a whole class.½

While this book was well written, I personally did not enjoy the topic. It took a few chapters for me to get into the book. I am still trying to figure out how any parent would leave their teenage son behind to finish school with no adult supervision. I think this is where he messed up in the first place. As a parent I could never leave my child behind for any reason. My teenage son especially needs my constant reminders to stay on the right track. I can see that this would make a great book for study with a group of "on the edge" teenagers. I liked the overall organization of the book with chapter titles that really let you know what the chapter was all about. I really liked the use of the number picture at the beginning of each section that was from his prisoner photo number. I also liked how he started each section with the first line in a handwritten font that transitioned into typed font. I did not like that the text was missing a table of contents. I did like the cover with the "O" in Hole in a red font and the rest of the title in black with the photo of author's face behind bars. It really let you know what to expect from the story. This was continued with the title page on the right and a full page on the left with the author's prisoner photo and number. I liked the interview with the author by Matt de la Pena at the end of the text. Overall an interesting book. I would have liked to have read "The Trouble in Me" prior to this text as it is described as the story of the trouble that came before "Hole in My Life".

Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos is an autobiographical account of a two year period in the author’s early twenties when he decided to take a job smuggling drugs and ended up in prison for fifteen months after getting caught. Like all of Gantos’ writing, there is a fair bit of humor, mostly in the form of wry observations on events and people from his past. Remarkably, despite sailing up the coast of the United States with a less than competent captain and no boating experience, and despite spending over a year in jail and prison as a young, vulnerable boy, Gantos comes out the other end unscathed save for his criminal record. There are no harrowing escapes from death while at sea, there are no merciless beatings or rapes while in prison, and it all ends up with Gantos getting released early and diving straight into college and an apartment and a job. This is one lucky kid, which leaves me to wonder what the value of this book is. Don’t get me wrong, It is a fantastic read. The writing is brisk, entertaining, and approachable for anyone from 5th-12th grade, the pacing is perfect, and there is a decent amount of suspense. But, not to sound too much like a callous parole board member, Gantos neutral presentation of the events is by no means a cautionary tale. Its not quite an endorsement, but it sure did make me want to go on an adventure. While I would not agree, I can imagine some parents being alarmed by their students reading this book. Yes, he does get caught, but his time in prison, by pure luck, is far from the nightmare it could have been. I have no problem with this, but I could see issues coming up with parents. Does this book have enough to offer to make it a necessary text? I am not sure. His hardship was from his own doing, and so his redemption is more of a return to status quo than redemption. As an example of writing, it is a great text an would be useful in that context. The book could also be useful in a discussion of race and privilege. Would Gantos have received such a relatively light sentence if he had been black? Would he even have been allowed to turn himself in? Would they have chased his accomplice or shot him in the back? Good questions in today's grim world.

Jack Gantos’ Hole in My Life is a mostly sobering, somewhat pathetic account of a young man beleaguered by aimlessness and finding himself floundering in this wide blue yonder of a country. Only after he finds himself in the biggest possible mess of a drug deal and works his way out of a rather vaguely defined prison sentence does he discover his purpose his life – a purpose he'd already defined but to which he could not commit.

Gantos is the product of a working class family whose patriarch just wants his son to keep his nose clean and make it out the hole and on to better things. But like so many restless youth who don’t quite find, or trust, their footing upon emerging from high school, Gantos couldn’t articulate the mark at which to aim his ambition.

Feeling like he wanted to be a writer, but having no role models nearby, he set out on that most familiar, all-too-vanilla and oft misleading fantasy of following Jack Kerouac’s vision and voice onto the open roads of America, or more specifically, Florida. Having had a hard time finishing high school due to family circumstances, once he makes it through, his restlessness gets the best of him, and he stupidly joins forces with a drug smuggler-dealer unit that eventually learns it has been under the watchful eye of the FBI. Gantos is eventually sentenced and jailed in a federal prison, but after his first night, finds an acquaintance crumpled up in a toilet stall – his “buddy” had been brutally raped. Luckily, for Gantos, who’d already been approached with a standard offer to become someone’s French female dog, his transfer to another minimum security setting came through right away; if having lice is a good omen, Gantos' lucky streak hit a serendipitous jackpot as an admitting medical assistant noticed Gantos’ was in need of delousing. He is then sent to a private cell, apart from general population; upon being examined about a week later by another medical assistant, Gantos pipes up, with all the aplomb of a man quick to keep himself in good stead, and asks about helping in the medical wing of the prison; wouldn’t you know it, they need an x-ray tech - snake eyes averted once again. He does his time, learns his lesson, gets rejected by the parole board, realizes the prison psych knows he's a fraud, sizes up his situation and straightens up, applies to college via his caseworker, and voila! - he is granted that second chance; and well, okay... good for him.

Hole in My Life is a light, easy, often comically pathetic - and not in a funny way - account of one dude’s trip through the judicial system; it is not gut-wrenching, and most of the poignant reflection moments along the way didn’t really stir much sympathy in this reader – this dude made what some might call a dumb, middle-class, first-world mistake, and thank goodness for him he wasn’t black or too ethnic. I went to college with dudes like Gantos - my college roommate in Vermont was doing four years probation for being part of a successful robbery crew in his suburban Connecticut, Stepford-like community. The only they got caught: hubris. Sadly for him, I was his roommate and told him had they bothered to read any Greek tragedies, their own might have been averted -- luckily, he was reader and he got the joke. Luck - Gantos sure has a lot of it after he's sentenced; but maybe it's not dumb luck, just destiny.

Sure, maybe the most chilling moment in this cautionary tale is the scene where he finds Lucas post-prison rape in a bathroom stall on the day his wife is supposed to visit him, but hey, it’s prison – this stuff happens…
Knowing that there are far too many low-level, minor offenders thrown in prison who are sentenced with ridiculously lengthy terms disproportionate to the crimes committed who have surely endured far worse for far longer, all because they were born with the wrong complexion, it’s kinda difficult to work up too much sympathy for Gantos.

It’s a good cautionary tale to share with kids/students who find themselves in the midst of a quandary, at a pivotal moment in life, and hopefully, reading something like this can get them to reconsider a life of crime or making a stupidly rash, uninformed choice like hooking up with a wiley coyote type a la Rik, the genius-snitch behind the operation.

Then again, some kids/students might be unimpressed by Gantos’ tale if they themselves are already too jaded or too streetwise to have made such a flawed decision. Then, it’s time to teach them the meaning of the word, hubris, and hope and pray they can read the tea leaves and get it right.

Parts of a phenomenal book:

1. Main character has relatable character flaws
2. Actions and conflicts are justifiable (not contrived)
3. Just when you think it can't get any worse...
4. Resolution, victory, and closure
Bonus: an actual real life story

I was supposed to be cooking dinner and doing homework with my kids. I should have been packing lunchboxes or folding clothes. But I could not put down this book! Ironically I had just finished re-reading the Red Badge of Courage and a biography of Stephen Crane so I was committed from the beginning to riding co-pilot while Gantos traveled across Florida and the Keys to sit at a few authors' residents. Thats how I became a drug-smuggler, arrested, and put into prison (at least it felt like I was). Living vicariously through an author's voice is the magic of reading. An adventure story that is unbelievable yet completely true is a treasure. For teenagers it has to be eye-opening. Decisions that seem harmless, even well thought out, can lead to devastating consequences. It's also a testament to following your dreams and staying focused on your goals. For adults, it's a reminder of how difficult it is to be a teenager and how easy it is to make unfortunate mistakes. Classifying it as an inspirational book is minimizing the effects. This book will stay with me for a long time.

Mr. Gantos' memoir of his late teenage years in the early 1970's is a poignant story of redemption. His story roams from Florida across the Caribbean to St. Croix and up to New York City before ending at a federal prison in Kentucky. Along the way, enveloped in a haze of hashish, he imitates Kerouac without the car and stopovers. His teenage angst and ennui ultimately drive him to make stupid choices. He is arrested and spends time in prison, where he is forced to reflect on his life and his future. His memoir honestly depicts his experiences; his boat journey with Hamilton could come from a Cheech and Chong movie; his experience in prison reflects constant terror and occasional depression. Guiding him throughout are the authors he reads and dreams of imitating, an endless list of literati, philosophers, and poets. Ultimately, it tells the story of a young man's redemption and his return to society, ready and willing to become a productive and law-abiding citizen.
The topics covered in the book, particularly drug use and prison culture, could be disturbing to some. This book contains parts that are not appropriate to younger readers, and like any book that explains adult themes to near-adults successfully, it uses frank and sometimes explicit language to describe the real world and real world situations.
As far as prison memoirs, it is not exactly Dostoyevsky or Solzhenitsyn, but that is not Mr. Gantos' purpose in writing. It is a good story, and an enjoyable read, though, and it offers a positive moral lesson.½

Equal parts bildungsroman, seafaring adventure, cautionary tale, and redemption story, Hole in My Life is the most mercurial book I've read in a long time. In this truly offbeat memoir, Jack Gantos, now a successful author of children's books, recounts a teenage vision quest gone horribly awry. Moving from place to place with his financially unstable family, struggling to finish high school, and aching for adventure, 19-year-old Gantos discovers the joys of hallucinogens. Hoping to make a quick buck, he foolishly agrees to smuggle a ton of hash from the Virgin Islands to New York. It does not go well.

From the start, we know that young Gantos winds up in prison, and this gives his story an unexpected poignance. Shrugging off the moral questions posed by his task and heedless of the consequences, Gantos sees the $10,000 payday as his ticket to college and a life of literary renown. We see a young man of intense yearning who models himself on Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, who craves self-defining experiences NOW, and who sees every choice, every desire, and every encounter as an analogue to some groundbreaking novel that recently blew his mind—and fodder for the book he plans to, but can't quite, start writing.

It's an exhilarating ride. Gantos' distinctive voice blends two very different people: the freewheeling post-adolescent he was then and the more circumspect middle-aged man he's become. The tension between the two, and the paternal instinct the older Gantos feels for his younger counterpart, give the reader an intimate sense of "their" unique sensibilities and thought processes. There are certainly lessons to be learned from Gantos' story—such as how adversity gave him the focus to start writing in earnest—as well as horrific details like the brutal gang rape of his bunkmate in a New York detention house. But the intensity and momentum of the telling give it a no-regrets kind of sheen, and for this reason, I'm not sure what place it has in a high school classroom. I'd like to believe that students could see how very lucky Gantos was, but I worry some of the devil-may-care elements of the story will hold too much appeal for some high schoolers, who may see Gantos' romantic, amoral heedlessness as aspirational. I hope I'm wrong.

This story talks about what its like to be a twin. It goes into detail about what it means to be a twin. Even though there are a lot of negatives to having a twin but really it is having a best friend forever.

age: 5-7
source: Pierce County Library

I loved how this story became one mistake after another, yet arose to nothing but personal success for Jack. How someone can decide to import hash for money is beyond me personally, but it was clear that early on Jack had no motivation and no determination for himself anyway. It was the act of going to jail and rediscovering himself that make Jack an actual writer, and now we celebrate Jack's writing with personal novels of stories where kids surprise themselves in mundane situations. I personally loved Deadend at Norvelt as one of Jack's stories of just a surprise.

penelope pig tries and trick her parents into thinking that she is very sick. so she misses school and because she is so "sick" her parents make her miss all the fun things in the afternoon.
great story for young children
1 book

Children's author Jack Gantos writes the events leading up to his year-long stay in federal prison for sailing a ton of hash from Morocco to New York. While the last third does talk about his life in prison (he worked in the infirmary), the events leading up to his arrest are at times very humorous. Always a reader and a writer, Gantos explains his love for learning, journaling process and his love of authors. His realization in writing Hole in My Life is that he was always comparing himself to famous writers, waiting for an exciting story to write about, when the stories were right in front of him. He has a number of young adult books in addition to his picture, early and middle readers. My next read is going to be The Trouble in Me--memoir from his early high school years.

A delightful take on the classic love story of Cyrano and Roxanne, this time taking place among critters who live in the Wild West. Funny and endearing, with an ending that makes perfect sense even to cynics. I chose it from the library because I was looking for more of the kind of art that Nicole Rubel did for Gantos' Rotten Ralph - this wasn't like that at all but I'm still glad I found it!