A Hole in the World: An American Boyhood | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Rhodes
Publisher: University Press Of Kansas
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 714407
Media: Paperback
Edition: Anniversary
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0700610383
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.78411043092
EAN: 9780700610389
ASIN: 0700610383
Publication Date: April 26, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
When he first published A Hole in the World in 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes helped launch and legitimate a decade-long publishing phenomenon--the memoir of abused childhood. In this tenth anniversary edition, Rhodes offers new reflections on the abuse he and his older brother endured at the hands of their terrorizing stepmother and negligent father. He also describes readers' powerful and moving responses to his book, considers his changing sentiments as the years have passed, and provides additional details on his brother Stanley, who remains the author's true hero in this moving memoir.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 You want the truth? Can you handle the truth? November 25, 2007
This is a story that tells itself because the events are so riveting and the prose so clear, there is not need for embellishment. And although it's more or less a straightforward memoir/narrative, it culminates in a wonderful epiphany for any reader who is eager to learn how someone can turn personal tragedy and hardship into a life of contribution. Recommended for humanities, cultural studies, and social science teachers looking for a text that can actually teach the essence of what being human and its trials and adversities is all about. That it is 'unavailable' is truly a travesty.
 Superb December 12, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a beautifully written memoir of childhood hardship, cruelty, and neglect. The author's candor and equanimity in examining a painful history is remarkable, as is the poignant outcome.
Another famous author belabours us with his supposedly-sorry childhood? November 16, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not exactly. If you arrive at this book as I did, mildly inquisitive after enjoying his two masterful, definitive tomes on nuclear weapons, you are in for one HELL of a ride.
This is a different book altogether, one that you will not put down. I find myself wondering how elder brother Stanley might have turned out if he hadn’t been the one to walk into the bathroom and find their mom dead with a shotgun in her mouth. Seems he turned out OK, though he didn’t go on to win a Pulitzer Prize.
And when the manipulative floozy moves in and besots their dad to the point where he just seems to vanish, and she starves them, and tortures them, what comes through is just what basic survival machines human beings are capable of becoming when necessary.
Yeah, sure – I had a rough childhood, and so did you. It probably haunts you still. To get an idea of how lucky you are, read this book.
But then, you probably have never won a Pulitzer Prize, and neither will I. If that was the deal being offered, I’d jump on it.
Rhodes' tale of survival and a brother's courage... November 16, 2005
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
I came to this book quite late, just finishing it a month ago. I read a few non-fiction books by the author and liked them quite a lot, so I grabbed this recently at my local Friends of the Library used book sale. Actually, since I am a domestic violence social worker, reading autobiographical accounts of various kinds of abuse experiences is part of my continuing education. Sad to say, I have read tales of abuse suffered in childhood which are even more disgusting than what Richard and his brother endured, and which lasted much longer than the two-plus years of horror the Rhodes kids experienced at the hands of a vicious stepmother. This is well-done, and the suffering depicted is probably understated...my sense is that Rhodes did not want to rub the readers' noses in his agony, but rather present a message that acting to protect the multitude of neglected and abused kids all around us sometimes does pay off in big ways. If you have an interest in the survival of a bad childhood, this one should be read, but probably would be even more powerful if paired with Dr. Laura Schlessinger's upcoming book, "Bad Childhood, Good Life" due to be published in January, 2006.
A silent cry that last a lifetime. May 19, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"A Hole in the World" was recommended to me by people that had read my memoir. I was astonished to see how much our childhoods were alike. Although my story involves being raised as an Old Order Mennonite, we both had childhoods filled with anguish and fear, the deprivation of a mother's love, and behaviors tailored to whatever you had to do to get through the day. And we both had an essential ingredient that helped us make it in life, and that was teachers that saw potential within us. Mr. Rhodes knew he had raw intelligence, and with the positive influence of his teachers, went on to become the successful writer and person we so greatly admire. He clearly cites his personal difficulties in his adult life for he did not know how to be a father, how to have a happy home. I think as the title of his book alludes, he will always have an ache that can't be filled. This is a book everyone should read for it shows the importance of good teachers and mentors. Their encouragement can say to a child that gets it no where else: You are somebody and you have value.
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