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Finding Fish: A Memoir
by: Antwone Q. Fisher, Mim E. Rivas

Used Price: $0.01
Collectible Price: $25.00
Third Party New Price: $3.75

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43092
EAN: 9780688176990
ISBN: 0688176992
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: February 01, 2001
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: January 23, 2001
Sales Rank: 945131
Studio: William Morrow

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Product Description:

Soon to be a major motion picture starring and directed by Denzel Washington, Finding Fish is the memoir of Antwone Fisher's miraculous journey from abandonment and abuse to liberation, manhood, and extraordinary success -- a modern-day Oliver Twist.

Baby Boy Fisher -- as he was documented in his child welfare caseworkers' reports -- was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. After beginning his life in an orphanage, Antwone was placed in a temporary foster home until, around age two, he was transferred to a second foster home. It was there, over the next thirteen years, that he endured emotional abandonment and physical abuse. Removed from this foster home not long before his sixteenth birthday, Antwone found fleeting refuge in a boys' reform school but was soon thrust into the nightmare of homelessness.

Though convinced he was unwanted and unworthy, Fish, as he came to be known, refused to allow his spirit to be broken. Instead, he became determined to raise himself, to listen to social workers and teachers who intervened on his behalf, and to nurture a romantic heart along with a scathing sense of humor and a wondrous imagination -- all of which sustained him with big dreams of a better day. Fatefully, just as Antwone's life on the streets hit rock bottom, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he remained for the next eleven years. During that time, Fish became a man of the world, raised by the Navy 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 well-paid, sought-after screenwriters. But before he ascends those lofty steps, Antwone's story takes us from the Navy to his jobs as a federal correctional officer and then a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood. In its climactic conclusion, the mystery of his identity is finally unraveled as Antwone returns to Cleveland to locate his mother's and father's surviving family members.

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.

Amazon.com 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

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- You think you've had it rough......
It's the story of a strong, smart man who had a very tough life as a child and it could have been a sad story but the way Antwone excelled at everything as an adult proves that you can rise above your environment, that anything is possible when you believe in yourself. Incredible story, very well written, hooray for you Antwone.

Rating:

- Well Told Memoir
So many other 5 stars have been written for this book that I don't have much else to say. I ditto every good thing that was said.

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 had been shot two months before his birth and his mom is in prison. Throughout his life with the Picketts,his foster parents, Antwone is forced through horrific events that are painful to read about. He is molested at a young age by a babysitter, beaten, mentally abused, and treated like a ghost. He becomes reserved and shy, lacking love and the comfort of a family. Even worse, his social workers are sadly oblivious to ... 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

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