mark brueckman

Good plot but too much rambling filler. Not sure how people can finish this book, parts of it seem like meandering stream of consciousness.

The most accurate predictor of succeeding is affluence - primarily where you live and how wealthy your parents are. At the age of five, poorly educated children will not catch up to affluent educated children. Being "gritty" is a nice feel-good story, but will not make up for the limitations of poverty. I knew a woman who told me when she was in junior and high school, her family bought her extra copies of her textbooks so she would haven't have to carry them home and worry about forgetting them. Most families don't have either the money or insight to buy extra copies of textbooks for children. That is not grit, it is affluence. Another "good story" psychology book that justifies wealth inequality in the country. Gritty through a minimum wage job is not going to make you a millionaire hedge fund manager.

Over-rated. I have read this book twice, in high school and many years later as an adult. The writing style is very good, but the story is uninteresting. Basically a bunch of mean drunks snapping at each other and acting stupid. There are so many books better than this. I think Hemingway’s short stories are much better than this book. I suppose when this was written, his style and the subject matter of drunks in Paris was something new, but to me, this book is a vast disappointment.