Half the Way Home

A New York Times Notable Book: An extraordinarily moving portrait of the complexities and confusions of familial love (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times). From the author of King Leopold's Ghost, Half the Way Home is a compelling memoir about a complicated father-son relationship. Adam Hochschild never used the words Dad or Daddy, just Father. The only son of Harold Hochschild-the head of a multinational mining corporation-Adam always felt as though his father remained purposefully at a distance-a demanding, immovable pillar to be respected and sometimes feared. Here, in lyrical prose, Hochschild recounts his privileged upbringing at his family's estate in the Adirondacks, his coming-of-age in the tumultuous 1960s, and his enduringly conflicted relationship with his father. But as a boy grows into a man, times change and perspectives shift, and a chance for reconciliation emerges from the space between. Hailed by Studs Terkel as an exquisite memoir of a boy growing up, Half the Way Home is ultimately the story of a father and his son, and the unexpected peace finally made between them. It is a primer on the upper class and on class itself, a series of meditations on the burden of wealth to the liberal consciousness and even a commentary on what it means to be a Jew in America. . . . This is a fine and moving book (People).