Finding Fish: A Memoir
by Antwone Q. Fisher, Mim E. Rivas
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Book Summary Information
Author: Antwone Q. Fisher, Mim E. RivasEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-12-18
ISBN: 0060007788
Number of pages: 339
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
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Book Reviews of Finding Fish: A Memoir
Book Review: Fish: The Boy Who Overcame the Odds
Summary: 5 Stars
Finding Fish, by Antwone Quenton Fisher is a memoir of Antwone's journey through life thus far. Antwone was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Eva-Mae Fisher who was in jail at the time. His father, Eddie Elkins, was shot and killed before he was even born. When he was born he was given to Child Services (Foster Care) by Eva-Mae. Emerging from Antwone's life is one major theme: you should never give up hope in life because even through the darkest of times, light will eventually find a way through. Antwone is living proof of this theme, having learned it early on in his life. He uses rain as his example of how sometimes you can't control all of the bad things in life and you should look to what the future holds. Antwone wrote, "There were going to be days, I knew, when it would pour without warning, days when I'd find myself without an umbrella. But my understanding would act as my all-purpose slicker and rubber boots. It was preparing me for stormy weather, arming me with the knowledge that no matter how hard it seemed, it couldn't rain forever. At some point, I knew, it would end." The story of Antwone's life is both riveting and suspenseful. The situations he has had to endure throughout his life seem so shocking and unreal, it is unimaginable that he was able to deal with them. It is a very enjoyable book and never boring at any point.
The book starts out in the 1950's in a working class town in Cleveland, Ohio. Antwone Fisher lives with the Picketts, who have taken in many foster children. But don't let their hospitality fool you, it doesn't mean they are nice, they only do it for the money. Mr. Pickett is also a Reverend at the church, which also gives you the impression that they are nice, caring people, but this impression is crushed quite quickly after witnessing their abuse of the children. Antwone grew up with Dwight and Flo, both of whom were foster children, and Mercy and Lizzie, twins and not foster children. Mercy was the nicer of the twins and always treated Antwone kindly. Antwone's childhood was very deprived and torturous. For example, he was beaten often by Mizz Picket, he never had a proper Christmas, and he didn't get to eat his own Halloween candy. His surroundings changed frequently through his childhood and he didn't have any real friends until middle school, who were then left behind when he went to a different high school than they did. Antwone had to even go through homelessness for a period of his life, after he got into a fight with Mizz Pickett and she sent him back to Child Services. His first sign of hope that his life would change for the better is after he joins the navy. Antwone lived his life in need of guidance and didn't get any from Mizz Pickett. Antwone's dreams "...became a lighthouse, distant yet visible, in the tempest of my [his] youth, guidance I [he] would surely need in the greater storms to come." Without getting help from the people around him, Antwone used his own imagination and dreams as guidance to try and keep his life on track. The main plot of the book is that Antwone has to try to survive and grow up in a dysfunctional household without any real parent figures there to help him along.
This book is very enjoyable. Even though Antwone wrote this book many years after this all happened, he was able to have a unique writing style and voice to fit in with each part of his life. His voice got progressively "older" as he grew up which really helped the book flow. I would highly recommend this book to young adults and adults because it is a very inspirational story of one man's journey through life. It shows how you can make good things happen out of even the most dismal of situations.
Summary of Finding Fish: A Memoir
Baby Boy Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. He ultimately came to live with a foster family, where he endured near-constant verbal and physical abuse. In his mid-teens he escaped and enlisted in the navy, where he became a man of the world, raised by the family he created for himself.
Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born -- first as the child who painted the feelings his words dared not speak, then as a poet and storyteller who would eventually become one of Hollywood's most sought-after screenwriters.
A tumultuous and ultimately gratifying tale of self-discovery written in Fisher's gritty yet melodic literary voice, Finding Fish is an unforgettable reading experience.
Thank goodness Antwone Fisher's story has a happy ending--otherwise, his searing memoir would be nearly unbearable to read. His father was killed by a gunshot blast shortly before he was born in 1959; his 17-year-old mother gave him up for foster care. Unfortunately for Antwone, his foster mother was as successful at browbeating and demeaning her many wards as she was at lying to the Child Welfare authorities. His working-class African American neighborhood in Cleveland became purgatory for a sensitive, intelligent boy who quickly turned into a withdrawn underperformer at school. In Fisher's blow-by-blow account of his childhood, his sexual abuse at the hands of a female neighbor is hardly more horrifying than his foster mother's relentless cruelty--especially because respectable, churchgoing Mrs. Pickett justifies it all as due to the boy's wicked faults. Readers will be relieved when she dumps 15-year-old Antwone back at the Child Welfare office, even though he will endure homelessness and a scary spell of criminal employment, before an 11-year stint in the Navy provides him with a way forward. Grim though his tale is, Fisher displays throughout it the grit and stubborn integrity that kept him sane. He musters up some understanding (not forgiveness) for the dreadful Mrs. Pickett, and his eventual meeting with his burned-out mother is painfully poignant. He certainly deserves the beautiful wife and cute two-year-old daughter, cooking pancakes for him in the book's closing and redemptive scene. --Wendy Smith
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