Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in New York City by Andrea Elliott

BATB score: 4/10 🍎

when life is truly not on your side - the minute you are born, you have drawn the short straw and life is forever against you

at the end of the day, it’s a really good story; you understand why innocent baby grew up gangsta, killing people, and ended up in jail and you feel the love the mother truly has for her children even when she have nothing to offer

Best for: daredevils - the book is so longgggg (525 pages with font size 10 est. minimum reading 20+ hours) covering 10 years with over 100+ micro-incidences

Best to: take a moment to appreciate the effort in writing this book - 10 years! From 2012 to 2021, of ethnography, more intensive than keeping up with the Kardashians, to document the life of this family of 9 (1 mom 8 children) through New York poverty

Best as: beyond ‘when life gives you lemons’, her childhood is ‘when life ONLY gives you lemons’ 🍋 🍋 🍋

BATB lingering thought: it’s as if governmental poverty support schemes are just good on paper, in practice, it’s like a joke meant to punish the unfortunates even more; I bet it felt good for Andrea Elliott to follow through this family’s hardships, have the space to go home, and be grateful that these problems are not hers - comparative suffering endorphin rush

Best quotes: “They feel the sudden, exquisite rush born of wearing gold teeth again - of appearing like a person who has, rather than a person who lacks.”

“To be found ‘eligible’ by the city’s homeless services meant that you had been found ineligible by your closest kin. The shelter was only open because your family had shut the door.”

“I think I might be the saddest happy person and the meanest nice person to ever exist.”

“We must remind ourselves that to enter another’s world as a researcher is a privilege, not a right; wresting with ethical dilemmas is the price we pay for the privileges we enjoy.”