Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Cycles of the Ghetto

by Andrea Woods

 

Andrea Woods does a marvelous job of telling her story in "Cycles of the Ghetto". I wish her the best in breaking the cycle (and am positive she can do it too). It is my hope that she will write a follow-up book to "Cycles of the Ghetto". She has a promising career as a writer.

This is the true story of a family living in the heart of the ghetto in South Central Los Angeles. On top of the poverty in the ghetto, each possess his or her own cycle of ghetto living, within the ghetto.

Andrea's father left when she was three years old. For years she waited for him to come for her because he loved her...but he never came. He never sent support checks either.

Then DJ enters their lives. Her mother's boyfriend, he is addicted to crack cocaine. His addiction brings destruction to all of their lives. Every day is filled with drama.

Andrea is close to her brother and sister. Wesina has a different father than Andrea and Li'l Bobby do. Even though their mother was in the home she didn't act like a mother and Wesina became the mother to her younger brother and sister. She's the one who took care of them to the best of her ability. Way too much responsibility for a little girl.

They moved from motel to motel, apartment to apartment, anywhere they could find a place to stay.

Since her mother rarely bought soap or shampoo, opting instead to spend the money on beer and cigarettes, the children went to school dirty, wearing dirty worn out clothes, with uncombed hair. This affected their self-esteem and caused them to feel "less than" others. Andrea didn't want to go to school. She felt out of place with the other children and their nice clean clothes.

Things only got worse as her mother's alcoholism escalated. Instead of taking care of her children Andrea's mother spent her time chasing after her crack addicted boyfriend and begging him to come back to her. This on-again, off-again relationship between Andrea's mother and DJ lasted for twelve years. There were several men in between and Andrea's mother now had six children with at least four different men. At the closing of this book she was expecting the seventh.

Having come from a childhood full of different men, violence, drama, fights, dysfunction, abuse, and drugs, Andrea finds herself in the midst of an abusive relationship. But Andrea leaves her abusive husband and is determined to break the cycle of the ghetto and strives to find a better life for both herself and her daughter, Victoria.

The Book

Infinity
June 1, 2007
Trade Paper
0-7414-3831-3
Non-Fiction/A Memoir
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Connie Harris
Reviewed 2007
NOTE:
© 2006 MyShelf.com