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    Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
    Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
    Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
    Audiobook7 hours

    Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

    Written by Rob Henderson

    Narrated by Rob Henderson

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER
    One of The Economist’s Best Books of the Year!

    In this “affecting…intriguing…heartbreaking” (Booklist) coming-of-age memoir, Rob Henderson vividly recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities, and pioneering the concept of “luxury beliefs”—ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while inflicting costs on the less fortunate.

    Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. But divorce, tragedy, poverty, and violence marked his adolescent and teen years, propelling Henderson to join the military upon completing high school.

    A “vivid, insightful, poignant, and powerful” (Nicholas A. Christakis, author of Blueprint) portrait of shattered families, desperation, and determination, Troubled recounts Henderson’s expectation-defying young life and juxtaposes his story with those of his friends who wound up incarcerated or killed.

    As he navigates the peaks and valleys of social class, Henderson finds that he remains on the outside looking in. His greatest achievements—a military career, an undergraduate education from Yale, a PhD from Cambridge—feel like hollow measures of success. He argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments, and he illustrates the ways the most privileged among us benefit from a set of social standards that actively harm the most vulnerable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateFeb 20, 2024
    ISBN9781797168289
    Author

    Rob Henderson

    Rob Henderson grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and the rural town of Red Bluff, California. He joined the US Air Force at the age of seventeen. Once described as “self-made” by The New York Times, Rob subsequently received a BS from Yale University and a PhD in psychology from St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and more. His weekly newsletter is sent to more than fifty thousand subscribers. Learn more at RobKHenderson.com.  

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    Reviews for Troubled

    4.5/5

    49 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Rob Henderson’s unvarnished account of growing up in foster care highlights one of the vexing problems in our society—focusing too much on economic outcomes while ignoring the importance of family stability.
    • 5/5
      Insightful look into what it's like to grow up in the foster care system. Rob shares his unique perspective with honesty. I think it's important to listen and not look away when we have the opportunity.
    • 5/5
      A rare and honest look at the hidden lives of so many children in a diminishing culture.
    • 5/5
      Your voice is refreshing, sobering (in the convoluted world of mixed signals) and hope-inspiring for those of us that are still trying to find our way. Any way. In the time I spent listening to this audiobook, I felt less alone and as if with a friend, as if with your childhood friends, watching and listening because your voice and style really invites us into the present of your interactions and thoughts. Engrossing is an understatement but I don't liken it to a fictional story because you weren't shy in letting us feel all you felt, which I felt vicariously. Maybe I'll need to listen a second time, but truly, thank you for all that you've made us have to think about and contend with. I certainly have my own problems with prioritizing family, understanding the influence of class and seeking status symbols uncritically. There's more I could say, but these are my quick initial thoughts. Thank you for your compassionate, wise and vulnerable memoir which I hope touches and brings positive change to many lives ❤️

      1 person found this helpful