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Finding Fish: A Memoir
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Customer Reviews
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.
Rating:  - Catching Motivation
In the novel Finding Fish by Antwone Quenton Fisher, Mr. Fisher chronicles his rough upbringing and his rise through adversity. In this nonfiction book Antwone's mother gives him up for adoption at age 17 and his father was shot to death. He was placed in the care of the Pickett's a family consisting of a reverend and mean mom. The general theme of the novel is that although times may be tough, one must overcome them and in the end become stronger because of the adversity. One must also believe in himself and realize he can achieve a lot. A great example of this is displayed on page 127 when it states, "Her honest, careful words are the equivalent of lightning bolts and thunderclaps. Outside I shyly accept her praise, but inside I'm flying with the birth of revelations. It's the first time I've ever realized that there is something I can do to make a different for myself. Not just me, but anyone. That no matter how often someone says you can't do something, by simply working harder and trying, you can prove them wrong and actually change you circumstance. This lesson is a piece of gold I'll keep tucked in my back pocket the rest of my life. Antwone suffers having a low self-esteem, stemming from the abuse he receives as a child. Antwone does an amazing job of overcoming the obstacles of his childhood to better his life.
Antwone grows up in the foster home with Dwight, a brother to him, Flo, and Keith, the golden boy. Dwight and Antwone are constantly beaten and looked down upon, even being called niggers by the family, who happens to be black themselves. Mizz Pickett favors Keith because of his lighter skin and is seen of as royalty. This is shown when Keith gets an abundance of presents on Christmas but the other children get absolutely nothing. Antwone is physically and mentally attacked by the Pickett's constant hatred for the children. Mizz Pickett also lies to the case workers and describes that Antwone is a horrible child, one that lies constantly. In reality however, he is a very good child that is socially scarred due to the horrible upbringing. Mr. Pickett wasn't as bad as Mizz Pickett shown on page 66 when it states, "Sometimes I think Reverend Pickett only gives us whuppin's because Mizz Pickett nags him so." Antwone grows up lonely and shy due to the abuse but in the end due to the encouragement of other improves his life, displayed by entering the military. Antwone overcomes many obstacles and hatred towards him and ends up alright in the end.
Mr. Fisher's writing style was unique and very good, giving the reader a sense of realism, like he is really there. It was a very well written book and is very motivational giving everyone who reads it a feeling that they can do anything they put their mind to. It is very sad to see what he goes through and Mr. Fisher goes into extreme detail. Finding Fish was a very well written novel and I recommend it to anyone.
Rating: - Fish: The Boy Who Overcame the Odds
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.
Rating: - Finding fish review
The book Finding Fish written by Antwone Fisher is a heart felt book. It tells the story of a young man who goes through trials with not only himself and friends, but with his abusive family. This book will show how easy most of the world has it and how many take things for granted. Young teens should read this book because it relates to many of the situations that we go through daily. It shows that also children that who are going through the same thing are not alone. This book has taught me that life can be so much worse. I thank the author for written this book because it can change people lives.
Rating: - Finding Fish, as deep as the Ocean
Finding Fish is a very inspiring book for all of you that feel like you have nothing and feel like you will never amount to anything in your life. This book is about a young boy, Antwone,that grew up in a bad evironment and ended up moving from a foster home to orphanage type homes, to the street, and finally went to the marines.He went through so much, but managed to make something of himself.
Antwone went through a very hard life, and conquered many hardships in his life. For example, when he was a young boy and living with the picketts, he was abused in many different ways and he made it through all of the pain and the put downs. They always told him how worthless he was and that he would never amount to anything, and he believed them, until he got out and realixed what he could really do. He grew up not having too many friends and always struggled to fit in, until he got to high school, and knew how to stand up for himself. Even through all of his pain and misery, Antwone never used any kind of drug to try and take the pain away, for example, when he was younger and on the street, he dealt with a bad guy that was a pimp and a drug seller and he had chances to try it, but he never did.
As Antwone went through all of these different homes, he met many bad people and some people that tried to help him out. Even with all the bad people around, he stuck to the good road, and decided to become a Marine, because he had nowhere else to go. When he was in the Marines, he learned of many good traits that he had despite all of the times that the Picketts told him he was worthless. For example, his majors at the Marines wrote that he:
"...performs duties in an orderly
and professional manner. Has a
forceful attitude that gets hings
done. Very impressive in uniform
and civilian attire."
In his last report, his Major said:
"SH2 Fisher is always impressive
in uniform. He had an excellent
written and oral command of the
English language. He fully
suppports the Navy Equal
Opportunity programs. Petty
Officer Fisher has tremendous
potential and excellent qualites."
After all of this, he turned his life around and did better for himself. He made it through life becoming a writer and making his money.
I am positive that no matter who you are, you will find at least on thing, if not more, to relate. This book is very blunt and deep in the way that they describe everything that goes on and happens in his life. I think that this book is so incredibly good and I would give it a 20 out of 10. It is always interesting and there is never a time where it is just not interesting. Everyone should read this book at least once in their life.
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