Finding Fish

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Finding Fish is the extraordinary memoir of a young man who grew up in a daunting environment. Born to a single mother in prison, Fisher matured despite the savage discipline of a foster home and the sexual assault of a female neighbor.

BookPage

Finding Fish, compellingly read by Alton Fitzgerald White, is [Antwone Fisher's]story, told with candor and without self-pity.

Denzel Washington

Finding Fish reads like a great work of fiction, moving me alternately to tears and laughter, sorrow and joy, and making me forget at times that the story is in fact astonishingly true. Antwone Fisher's journey is truly a triumph of the spirit, the story of a boy born into circumstances that few of us could withstand, yet who not only survives, but goes on to remarkable success beyond most of our dreams. In a voice that is authentic and raw, Antwone tells of the power of finding one's voice as an artist and a human being. I hope this book is embraced by readers of every color and age.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

An unflinching look at the adverse effects foster care can have on a child's life, this stunning autobiography rises above the pack of success fables from survivors of America's inner cities. Born in the 1950s to an underage single mother serving time in prison for murder, Fisher was placed in the home of a staunch minister and his wife, who appeared to be a loving couple to the series of foster care workers who monitored their home in one of Cleveland's working-class neighborhoods. Writing in a deft mix of elegant prose and forceful dialect, Fisher is especially adept at dramatizing the tactics of control and intimidation practiced by his foster mother on the abused children in her care, such as crushing Fisher's self-esteem by calling him worthless, shaming one girl after she began her period and making the boys bathe with Clorox. (Fisher supports his detailed recollections with excerpts from the actual foster-care records.) An added bonus is the author's vibrant recreation of several key black neighborhoods in Cleveland during the golden age of the Black Power movement, before the areas disappeared under the aegis of urban "renewal." If a major feature of survival memoirs is their ability to impress readers with the subject's long, steady climb to redemption and excellence, then this engrossing book is a classic. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA

Once people called him Baby Boy Fisher. Later he was Twonny, Nigga, or Fish. Now, he is Antwone Quenton Fisher, successful screenwriter and producer. He was born in a prison hospital facility to a seventeen-year-old single mother. Caseworkers moved him from an orphanage into a succession of two foster homes in which he endured thirteen years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. A reform school offered the shy and withdrawn child a measure of stability before he was plunged into the horrors of homelessness and life on the fringes of crime. A fortunate chance to enlist in the military set his life on a positive path. The United States Navy became the family he never had, nurturing and developing his extraordinary talents for poetry and storytelling. Screenwriter of Double-O-Soul and Jelly Beans, ultimately this throwaway child became one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood. Detailing life from abandonment through despair to triumph, this book is a powerful and poetic autobiography as gripping as any novel. Fisher manages to avoid self-pity and anger as he describes in matter-of-fact and moving narrative how a flawed and over-stretched social welfare system almost destroyed a child. Give this rich and extraordinary book to older teens who will laugh and cry with Fish as they share his journey to self-knowledge. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2001, HarperCollins, 340p, $25. Ages 15 to Adult. Reviewer: Jamie S. Hansen

Library Journal

Fisher's early life could have destroyed him: born to an unwed mother in a juvenile facility and a father who was killed by another girlfriend, he was sent to an abusive foster mother who eventually threw him out. Fisher found himself on the street, but he was lucky. He had a teacher who encouraged him to reach for his goals, social workers who tried to help, and other mentors who saw the good in him and forced him to try harder. Fisher is a phenomenal writer who tells his story in a straightforward fashion, using beautiful language. Listeners will get caught up in tales of his foster siblings and neighborhood friends; they will root for him to overcome his encounters with drug dealers; and they will cheer his success and the love he has found with his birth family and his wife and daughter. Alton Fitzgerald White does a fine job helping to bring the young Fisher to life. The author himself takes over the reading at the end, relating what led to his starting a new career as a screenwriter. An excellent production; for all libraries. Danna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Producer and screenwriter Fisher debuts as a memoirist of first rank with his moving and unsparing story about growing up an African-American ward of the state in Cleveland in the 1960s and '70s. A foster child from day one—Fisher was born in prison to a single mother, and his father was shot and killed by another girlfriend—the author came to live with the Pickett family, an older couple with grown children who boarded other foster children primarily for financial gain. Subjected to routine physical and emotional abuse by Mrs. Pickett (and sexual abuse by a neighbor),"Fish," as he was called, coped by keeping his thoughts and feelings hidden and living for the brief, unexpected moments of kindness and understanding from teachers and social workers. Deeply shy and lacking self-esteem, he escaped the foster-care system just before his 18th birthday, only to face the harsh reality of homelessness. It was not until he enlisted in the Navy that Fish learned to trust himself and others, to experience friendship and love; he even gained the courage to revisit his childhood home and find the extended family he had never known. While in the service Fish also discovered that he had a gift with words—and it is precisely this talent that breathes pleasure into what could be an unremittingly depressing tale. His observations about the changing neighborhoods of Cleveland or the just-out-of-reach efforts of those who tried to help are rendered keenly and poignantly, and his superb narrative choices and control bring the grim realities (as well as interior emotional pivots) of his life into sharp relief. A striking and original story of the journey from troubled childhoodtoself-awareadult, Fisher's account strikes the universal chords so often missing from contemporary memoir. Film rights to Denzel Washington/20th Century Fox; author tour