Helpful Score: 1
There are many, many nonfiction "rags to riches" tales that inspire, and true stories of abused and/or neglected individuals who find success (think The Glass Castle and Educated and Hillbilly Elegy), but Schroff's memoir is a bit different, a bit more; it's an account of both. Her book is as much her own story as that of a young boy, Maurice Mazyck. Schroff details growing up with a kind father who turned angry, irrational, and physically abusive when drunk, which he was often as a bar owner. She weaves her family's story with that of her unusual and ongoing friendship with Maurice, whom she met on a New York City street corner when he was a panhandling child and she was a successful ad executive. He wanted change for food, she passed him by but reconsidered, she took him to McDonald's, and a friendship that continues until today was born.
The loosely chronological memoir is easy to read, with painful and heartfelt episodes throughout. Schroff reveals Maurice's troubled family life (a drug-addicted mother, absent father, ten or more people squeezed into a room or two, incarcerated uncles) as she describes their weekly gatherings and her many gifts to Maurice (outings at her sister's home, a new bicycle, cookie-baking). Along the way, she tells how their changing relationship, and others' skepticism about it, change her emotions, relationships with others, and ways of thinking.
At the end of the book, Maurice is still relatively young, so a reader will want to Google for updated information about him (which is available at the time of this review-writing).
A heart-warming, motivational, eye-opening read!
The loosely chronological memoir is easy to read, with painful and heartfelt episodes throughout. Schroff reveals Maurice's troubled family life (a drug-addicted mother, absent father, ten or more people squeezed into a room or two, incarcerated uncles) as she describes their weekly gatherings and her many gifts to Maurice (outings at her sister's home, a new bicycle, cookie-baking). Along the way, she tells how their changing relationship, and others' skepticism about it, change her emotions, relationships with others, and ways of thinking.
At the end of the book, Maurice is still relatively young, so a reader will want to Google for updated information about him (which is available at the time of this review-writing).
A heart-warming, motivational, eye-opening read!
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