The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

The authors follow their earlier works, including The Pact (2002), with an examination of what it has taken for them to overcome fatherlessness, maintain close ties, and achieve their ambitions. Friends since childhood in Newark, the three had in common poverty, fatherlessness, and personal drive. In separate sections, they recount the effect of fatherlessness in their lives, from learning to tie neckties and shave without a father's guidance to navigating the lures of street life to developing relationships with women. Through the negative examples of their own fathers, they bonded to offer support and guidance to each other. As men, they reconnected to their fathers and allow them to speak for themselves about the social forces and personal choices that caused them to abandon their sons. Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt conclude with suggestions for how men however challenging their lives can maintain connections with their sons and stop the cycle of fatherlessness that cripples so many. A heartfelt examination of the effect of fatherlessness on young men and a plea for change.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2007 Booklist

In this affecting follow-up to The Pact, Davis, Jenkins and Hunt ("The Three Doctors" as they call themselves) turn from their shared friendship to the more tenuous relationships they shared with their absent fathers. Focusing again on their childhood and youth, they each reflect separately on the effects of growing up fatherless in inner-city Newark, N.J. Whether missing lessons as basic as shaving or tying a necktie or as serious as developing self-confidence, all three conclude that they would have been more prepared for the obstacles they faced growing up if they had had a stable father figure. Instead, they had to turn to the streets for answers, which included distorted views of women and masculinity. The authors offer little new information about growing up without a father. However, some of their suggestions ("find a mentor" and "realize fathering isn't just financial," for example) do bear repeating, and in the context of these three young men's lives, they gain further relevance. The book includes chapters written by the authors' absentee fathers, who, refreshingly, do not make excuses for their shortcomings but give insights into their failures-including their own lack of a father figure-and provide an understanding that humanizes them and enables their sons to forgive them. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

As recounted in The Pact, inner-city youngsters Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt agreed to get one another through life and into med school. Now they're doctors, yet they still recall what life was like without a father. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.