I hear many reviewers complain about the coarseness of this book they say the profanity and situations are too much to stomach (sigh). This book may be an inspiration for other people going through similar experiences. Luckily for Gardner, his mother instilled in him a fortitude to continue and wisdom to survive. Every story is different, but this is definitely a case study on rising from the ashes. Gardner bettered himself through education and hardwork and overcame.

I think that's the ultimate message of this book - never give up.

This period was also heartbreaking, yet Mr. Gardner became homeless and a single father. My heart broke for him during those periods of his life.

When he did live with his biological mother, he had to endure a insanely emotionally and physically abusive step-father. He was in and out of foster care or living with relatives. I liked this book, but beware, the movie this book is not. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream. More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district. 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 among shelters, 'HO-tels,' soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. 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 StreetĪt the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine.

The pursuit of happyness christopher