Will I love Random Family?

If you, like me, believe in the universality and power of ordinary people’s lives, then this book is essential. LeBlanc spent 11 years reporting it, practically living with the people who would become its main characters and who she followed as they sold drugs, went to prison, got pregnant, committed murder, and went on with their lives.

The only downside to reading this as a fellow journalist is that it is so awe-inspiring as to be intimidating and makes you want to hang it up and do something else.

Random Family is a family saga; the story of two couples and their friends and families struggling to survive in the Bronx and upstate New York.

The author, Adrian Nicole LeBanc, spent years living alongside her subjects, which allowed her to paint an extraordinarily intimate portrait of the web of gangs, drugs, parenthood, poverty, and prison that dominated their lives.

I play a small role in the story, as I represented one of the people depicted in the book in a lawsuit brought against a prison guard.

Reading the book was, therefore, a personal revelation—illuminating the rich and complex context… show more.