Book Review and Giveaway: To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz

on January 05, 2011

** this giveaway is closed **

Synopsis: Poverty has many guises: a lack of money, of course, but it can also be a lack of love or choice, pleasure or safety, faith or confidence or possibility. Poverty seeps into the soul and deadens the spirit. In To Have Not, Frances Lefkowitz reflects on her own life of poverties. A poor white girl from 1970s San Francisco, Lefkowitz tries to escape her upbringing through an Ivy League scholarship (to Brown University), only to realize that upward mobility is not all it s cracked up to be: being a Have Not and not having aren't necessarily the same thing. Crashing headfirst into boundaries of class, race, and sex, Lefkowitz emerges scarred but whole, humor intact. To Have Not speaks to anyone who has ever battled the feeling of being cut off from the world s abundance, and then settled, eventually, somewhere between resignation and appreciation for all they do have.

Author Info: Formerly the senior editor at Body+Soul magazine (now Whole Living), Frances is now the Good Housekeeping book reviewer and a freelance writer and editor. She also teaches at the Sun Magazine’s writing workshops and the Writer in West Marin program. Frances divides her time between Southern Maine and Northern California. Her hobbies are surfing and speaking Spanish, and she especially likes going to Central America, where she can do both at the same time.

Review: Having gone to university in San Fransisco, I left a major chunk of my heart in the city, so I was intriqued to see Lefkowitz' take on it. Her memoir is equal parts disturbing and mesmerizing.

Having lived in the area for so long and experienced people who were like her parents- not Hippies nor Beatniks- especially in Marin County- I understood where her parents where coming from. Having grown up in a military family and moving all my life due to transfers or being able to get into base housing (11 schools, counting pre-school, 3 states was my count!), I could relate to her constantly being moved around. The difference was my mother was a VERY strong individual, who wanted me to be strong and to be a fighter/survivor and ask Frances' says in her book, she did not have that, nor did her mother have it from her mother- which began the downfall of multiple generations- who could not dream, or see themselves achieving goals.

Having had a strong mother, there were many times when I had to put the book down, as I got so aggravated with Frances' mother's lack of parenting- But at the same time, I wanted to pick it back up to see if Frances made it past the issues from her childhood. It seems like she has finally gotten past alot and is very happy, and I hope this book was very cathartic for her! It is an interesting read and I highly recommend it, especially for book clubs or reading classes!

Giveaway:

Winner will receive this review copy of To Have Not!

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Contest will end on January 19th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on January 20th, and emailed. As soon as winner's info is received, I will mail their book to them directly during the following week!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Booksparks PR, for review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it either.