Half the Way Home

by Adam Hochschild

Book Overview

"An extraordinarily moving portrait of the complexities and confusions of familial love". -- The New York Times"His story is fascinating, and the portrait of lost childhood offered here evokes one of the archetypal dreams of the American mind". -- E. L. Doctorow

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140096108
• ISBN13: 9780140096101
• Release Date: June 1987
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 20 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Small book with a big story!

A memoir of the author's relationship with his father, Harold, whom he did not appreciate or understand as a child. He grew up in a privileged environment, as his father was a wealthy businessman, but received a lot of harsh criticism from his father. However, after marriage and two sons, he developed an understanding of his father's background and an unexpected peace finally was made between them. A well-written, hard-to-put-down book--deeply moving.

5 Stars +, Extraordinary and Powerful

Hochschild has written a gentle and elegant portrait of his family. I chose this book by pure luck (and Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost). I have been rewarded handsomely. It is one of my absolute favorite memoirs that I have ever read. It disturbed me, it moved me and set me on the way to examining and recalling my own memories, especially of the beauty of lost summers of yesteryear. Yet the book is able to deal with the complexities of extraordinarily difficult relationships, class and race consciousness and the very nature of power in society in a though provoking and beautiful way. Most importantly, Hochschild teaches that the past and all whom we know and love will live on within us.

A must read if your parents kept their distance emotionally

I read this book in 1988 for an autobiography class, and reread it about once a year. It is the only book that has ever brought me to tears. Anyone with a parent who kept their relationships with their children strictly formal will identify with this book.