'Breaking Night' by Liz Murray - Book Review

Breaking Night by Liz Murray is a firsthand look into the world of inner-city poverty. Born to drug-addicted, mentally ill parents, Liz grew up largely neglected. More than a memoir, Breaking Night is an eye-opening account of the realities of poverty and drug use in our cities, what it does to children, and how difficult it is to break the cycle, to somehow overcome the lack of options that defines poverty. Liz's is a heartbreaking but unique tale that will stick with you.

Liz spent her childhood cold and filthy, her stomach often burning from hunger, watching her parents spend their welfare check on drugs. At age 9, she started pumping gas and bagging groceries for tips so she could buy food. With no rules or routines, she stayed up until the sky grew light and very rarely went to school, which eventually earned her a stay at a group home for troubled girls. By 15, she was living on the streets with friends, frequently hungry, sleeping wherever she could. Shortly after her mom's death, she decided there had to be a way to change her situation. She enrolled in high school, completed it while homeless, and was eventually accepted to Harvard.

For a middle-class person not intimately familiar with the day-to-day life of families living in poverty compounded by the issues of drug abuse and mental illness, Breaking Night is truly an eye-opener. Since Murray and I were born in the same year, I felt a connection to her. As I read what her life was like at 4, 9, 12, and 16, I was both fascinated and heartbroken to realize how starkly different it was from mine.

Though a heavyhearted story, Murray writes in an engaging way void of self-pity. She's tender in depicting her parents, saying they couldn't give her what they didn't have. Her unconditional love for them is as inspiring as it is surprising. Breaking Night is an important, inspirational read that might even spur you to action.