Book Review: When all you have is hope

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So this book is really short and easy to read so I figured I would get through it in a week end and sure enough I did.

The book is less than 200 pages so you could probably finish it in one lengthy sitting or two medium ones.

The first half is quite interesting and gripping. We get a view into Frank's upbringing and his early family life, and he is brutally honest about it.

He recounts a life in which he was obviously very traumatized and troubled. I could not put the book down during this first half.

The second half is where it gets sort of murky. He vaguely describes how he got into the coffee business and how he founded second cup, some of the passages in this part are okay, we sort of get a feel for how he build his business, although most of the innovations were due to blind luck, or so it appears.

Then he sells his half of the company to his business partner Tom, after which the book loses focus almost entirely. The first half had us looking closely at this intimate portrayal of a man's life, then we back up by about 50 feet to see his business, then we back up even further and the structure of the second half falls apart rather drearily.

He jams a random chapter in his book about his wife, a random chapter in the book about kids in africa who have aids (I get it but what does this really matter in the context of his life?)

The book felt rushed, unfocused and uneven, and the great tragedies that befell him as a child, he did not in any meaningful way explain how those experiences helped him to become the man he would eventually become, and further did not go into enough detail as to how he overcame his alcoholism and his depression.

Nor did he explain how he was able to be intimate again after all the sexual abuse he endured as a young teen.

Its filled with holes and overall an unsatisfying experience, but has its moments.

3/5.