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Finding Fish: A Memoir
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
EAN: 9780060007782
ISBN: 0060007788
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: December 01, 2001
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: December 18, 2001
Studio: Harper Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
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African American neighborhood in Cleveland became purgatory for a sensitive, intelligent boy who quickly turned into a withdrawn underperformer at school.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
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Finding Fish
Finding Fish, by Antwone Fisher, is a passionate and heart wrenching look into the life of the author as a ward of the state. Thankfully, he escapes the terrors of his childhood and eventually finds success. Fisher writes with a distinctive voice. He is able to convey the emotions of the young boy he portrays in the memoir, rather than telling the story through the voice of an adult. The memoir is an honest, and shocking, look into the world of an orphan without anyone to protect him. His father ... Read More
Rating:  - FINDING FISH carries a profound impact...
and taught me something. It taught me how much we all share--the need to belong, for family, to search, to question. This book is unexpected tender and this boy's journey impacted my own journey, my own questions of family, of accceptance.
~Carol D. O'Dell
Author, MOTHERING MOTHER
Kunati Publishing, April 2007
Rating: - A magical child matures and we get to be in on it!
At first I resisted this book because it seemed to be written by an adult looking over his childhood from a very mature place. However, late in the book it is a revelatory experience to find that this is exactly what happened when an unfair accusation concerning Antwone at age 25 during his Navy experience 'caused' him to buy a dictionary, a thesorus and learn writing almost from scratch at this age. He soon found that he couldn't stop. Later he wrote this book that has become a best seller very ... Read More
Rating: - Good Book!
Finding Fish was a good book. I first learned of Antowne Fisher a few years ago when he appeared on the Montell Williams show. After hearing his story on the show I immediately wanted to go out and buy his book to find out more about this wonderful young man but could never find the book. A few years went by and then a movie of his life was made. After seeing the movie, which I thought was very good, I decided that the movie did a good job of telling his story and that I no longer wanted to purchase ... Read More
Rating: - FINDING FISH
Wow..if you thought the movie was thought provoking..
the book is beyond that!
This book covers Antwone's childhood, where in the movie,
we only saw a taste of it.
This book tells the story of a little boy who beat the odds,
and used his innate ability to survive, extreme verbal, emotional
sexual and physical abuse.
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