The Pursuit of Happyness
Written by Chris Gardner
Narrated by Andre Blake
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street.
At the age of twenty, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving from shelters, ""HO-tels"", and soup-lines. Never giving in to despair, Gardner makes an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible to being a powerful player in its financial district. Here is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children, a story that appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.
Read by Andre Blake
Chris Gardner
Chris Gardner is the Chief Executive of Gardner Rich & Company, a multimillion-dollar brokerage with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. An avid philanthropist and motivational speaker, Gardner is committed to many organizations—particularly those related to education—and was recently the recipient of the “Father of the Year Award” from the National Fatherhood Initiative. A Milwaukee native, Gardner has two children and resides in Chicago and New York.
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Reviews for The Pursuit of Happyness
42 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this book, but beware, the movie this book is not.
Mr. Gardner had a hard upbringing. He was in and out of foster care or living with relatives. When he did live with his biological mother, he had to endure a insanely emotionally and physically abusive step-father. My heart broke for him during those periods of his life.
Later in life, Mr. Gardner became homeless and a single father. This period was also heartbreaking, yet Mr. Gardner kept fighting. I think that's the ultimate message of this book - never give up. Gardner bettered himself through education and hardwork and overcame. Every story is different, but this is definitely a case study on rising from the ashes.
Luckily for Gardner, his mother instilled in him a fortitude to continue and wisdom to survive. This book may be an inspiration for other people going through similar experiences. If Mr. Gardner can make it, so can you.
I hear many reviewers complain about the coarseness of this book; they say the profanity and situations are too much to stomach (sigh). I disagree. Mr. Gardner's life was no "tip toe through the tulips". Occasionally, using profanity as a descriptor is the best way to convey mood and setting; It isn't a lack of intelligence; it isn't depraved; it's keeping it real. It's a way to relate. I do not think the book should be judged on how clean of a life Mr. Gardner had; It wasn't clean; it wasn't pretty.
Overall, I would recommend this book. It's an inspiration, and in these pages, Mr. Gardner just let's it go and always keeps it real.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good book but not great. It was very slow and boring in many parts. Seems like he spent a huge amount of time on his childhood and not alot on his adult hood. I am still amazed that he went from rags to riches and give him credit for achieving that. Movie was just ok--left out alot from the book
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Good Read, But Not the Father of the Century I'd Heard He WasGardner's story is interesting and worth reading just to see the leap from where he came from to where he took himself.It was not, however, at all what I expected given the fanfare surrounding this guy as Father of the Century. I was surprised to find that the vast majority of their time on the streets was due to his choice to pursue his own stable of clients rather than work under an experienced broker.At least he's honest -- he openly admits that he cheated on his wife, that they were homeless because he wouldn't work for the established brokers, and that he gave his son to the son's mother and moved to New York City to make even bigger bucks (getting his son back a year or two later, I believe).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very interesting insight to a truly inspiring success story. Chris Gardner tells a very sad story of his life but shows that determination and will power can turn anyone's life around.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This was an incredible story of hard work and patience in the face of adversity. A lot to be learned here. I don't think his strong suit is writing books though.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was uneasy going into this book. The movie made Gardner to be an American hero, moving up from homelessness into riches. The full story as Gardner tells it is much more grim. I won’t itemize Gardner’s list of crimes, but it’s enough to say, I think, that the movie omits or glosses over most of the shadier events of his life. And, no, as you might expect, even with a writer helping him, Gardner is not good at setting down the story of his life. I was left with the feeling that Gardner is just a man who wanted to become rich and did so. His greatest accomplishment was to do this without tossing aside his kids when it would have been easy to do so.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was a real life rags to riches story! I loved every minute of it!