2006-05-08 19:37:2878J
Finding Forrester -- A Book/ Movie Review
A 16 year-old colored high school kid with great talents in both fields of writing and shooting hoops.
An old, worn-out writer, who had disappeared in more than 30years, with one pulizer-winning book published tens of years ago for people to remember him by.
Some neighborhood in Bronx that even police didn’t bother to go in the middle of the night.
Lessons being taught both ways and a friendship beyond anyone could imagine……
Jamal Wallace, with his big brother, raised by a single mom lived in South Bronx. Thanks a bunch to his mom, Jamal and his brother stayed out of trouble while many others in the same neighborhood had some issues toward drugs and gangster stuff.
Jamal stayed in a lousy, over-crowded high school. He didn’t want to get attention or stand out in school work because nobody cared a damn about grades. It would be weird if he did so; instead, he deliberately managed a C average, just enough to pass and just enough to keep a low profile. He had another way to fit in, to earn his reputation, and to get recognized between his bros. It was basketball. He was not only good at it, but literally born to be a player as well. He had the size, the speed and what it takes to stay hot in the game; he could shoot in a wide range, get past his opponents in no time for a layup, and pass the ball to his teammates for an open shot. In short, he was a natural and knew his game.
However, what he was capable of doing was far better than that.
Besides shooting hoops, he’s got another gift, writing, that somehow helped him manage his life despite his lame surroundings. He loved reading and began to write at the ago of 14, the year his father left the family. He was too young to find a way out and his head was full of questions toward life, family, and his shitty neighborhood. He didn’t know how to deal with this so he locked himself up and did the reading and writing secretly, without anybody’s attention.
He could run from his intelligence but he certainly couldn’t hide from it.
One day his teacher found out, through SAT test, that Jamal was far more intelligent and the school he stayed right now just couldn’t provide what he needed, not a least. She called for help and that move caught attention from a fancy private school in Manhattan, which, after close evaluation on performances on grades and basketball court, provided not only a way out, but also full scholarship (So much so, Jamal’s mom didn’t have to worry about the tuition fee). What made Jamal even more significant was that whether he decided to study there “academically” or “physically”, it was totally okay with that fancy private school. He was just that good in both fields.
In the meantime, he met someone by accident that changed his life.
That one he bumped into happened to be one of the greatest writers in the U. S. history. Though he published one book only, it was quite enough. His name was William Forrester, a writer seeming being widely discussed forever, even having disappeared for tens of years. He ain’t always so shy; he’d been active once. But after he suffered from the lost of his beloved brother, he’s changed. And his grief was so overwhelmed that he ducked and hid in the Bronx where people could hardly imagine, thus never gonna find him, and locked himself up from the outside world.
His blocked, self-pity world was reopened surprisingly by a 16 year-old colored kid, Jamal Wallace. Jamal entered his world by asking him to improve his good but unpolished writing. From then on, a friendship became to develop bit by bit, even the sense of “family”, though they weren’t aware of it.
They were each other’s best friend afterward, and William was even like a father to Jamal. He not only taught him how to write or how to take and respond life in different perspectives, but also how to win girls’ heart.
【The exact words are, “The key to win a girl’s heart: An unexpected gift at an unexpected time”…… guys should always remember that!!!】
What Jamal did best was not reopened the world for William, but took him out of the self-whining hell, helped him let go and continue the journey and went along with him.
I’d thought that friends can never replace the function of family. However, the case of Jamal and William really made it. Though it’s fiction, this story just makes me believe that color, age, background or how much one earns…all those things don’t matter at all. What’s important is that whether people can connect with one another, can really communicate with each other. If they do, the line between family and friends would become thinner and thinner.
An old, worn-out writer, who had disappeared in more than 30years, with one pulizer-winning book published tens of years ago for people to remember him by.
Some neighborhood in Bronx that even police didn’t bother to go in the middle of the night.
Lessons being taught both ways and a friendship beyond anyone could imagine……
Jamal Wallace, with his big brother, raised by a single mom lived in South Bronx. Thanks a bunch to his mom, Jamal and his brother stayed out of trouble while many others in the same neighborhood had some issues toward drugs and gangster stuff.
Jamal stayed in a lousy, over-crowded high school. He didn’t want to get attention or stand out in school work because nobody cared a damn about grades. It would be weird if he did so; instead, he deliberately managed a C average, just enough to pass and just enough to keep a low profile. He had another way to fit in, to earn his reputation, and to get recognized between his bros. It was basketball. He was not only good at it, but literally born to be a player as well. He had the size, the speed and what it takes to stay hot in the game; he could shoot in a wide range, get past his opponents in no time for a layup, and pass the ball to his teammates for an open shot. In short, he was a natural and knew his game.
However, what he was capable of doing was far better than that.
Besides shooting hoops, he’s got another gift, writing, that somehow helped him manage his life despite his lame surroundings. He loved reading and began to write at the ago of 14, the year his father left the family. He was too young to find a way out and his head was full of questions toward life, family, and his shitty neighborhood. He didn’t know how to deal with this so he locked himself up and did the reading and writing secretly, without anybody’s attention.
He could run from his intelligence but he certainly couldn’t hide from it.
One day his teacher found out, through SAT test, that Jamal was far more intelligent and the school he stayed right now just couldn’t provide what he needed, not a least. She called for help and that move caught attention from a fancy private school in Manhattan, which, after close evaluation on performances on grades and basketball court, provided not only a way out, but also full scholarship (So much so, Jamal’s mom didn’t have to worry about the tuition fee). What made Jamal even more significant was that whether he decided to study there “academically” or “physically”, it was totally okay with that fancy private school. He was just that good in both fields.
In the meantime, he met someone by accident that changed his life.
That one he bumped into happened to be one of the greatest writers in the U. S. history. Though he published one book only, it was quite enough. His name was William Forrester, a writer seeming being widely discussed forever, even having disappeared for tens of years. He ain’t always so shy; he’d been active once. But after he suffered from the lost of his beloved brother, he’s changed. And his grief was so overwhelmed that he ducked and hid in the Bronx where people could hardly imagine, thus never gonna find him, and locked himself up from the outside world.
His blocked, self-pity world was reopened surprisingly by a 16 year-old colored kid, Jamal Wallace. Jamal entered his world by asking him to improve his good but unpolished writing. From then on, a friendship became to develop bit by bit, even the sense of “family”, though they weren’t aware of it.
They were each other’s best friend afterward, and William was even like a father to Jamal. He not only taught him how to write or how to take and respond life in different perspectives, but also how to win girls’ heart.
【The exact words are, “The key to win a girl’s heart: An unexpected gift at an unexpected time”…… guys should always remember that!!!】
What Jamal did best was not reopened the world for William, but took him out of the self-whining hell, helped him let go and continue the journey and went along with him.
I’d thought that friends can never replace the function of family. However, the case of Jamal and William really made it. Though it’s fiction, this story just makes me believe that color, age, background or how much one earns…all those things don’t matter at all. What’s important is that whether people can connect with one another, can really communicate with each other. If they do, the line between family and friends would become thinner and thinner.