Last winter I joined my local library's book club. Sometimes we all read the same book but some months we just pick a topic or genre and we each get to share a different book. This month the genre was biographies. I chose to read The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner. It is now a major motion picture from 2006 starring Will Smith. The book starts off by describing Chris's childhood growing up in the 'hood of Milwaukee, WI one of the country's most segregated cities. It takes the reader through his struggles of growing up without a father and the cruel behavior by an ever present alcoholic stepfather. Chris finally makes his way into the military where he ends up station at a VA medical facility in San Francisco. In this bright California city Chris ultimately decided his life path is pointing toward the stock market and Wall Street, a high aspiration who has found himself homeless, on the street and with a young toddler son to raise as a single dad. The Pursuit of Happyness asks the question, "How far will you strive and how hard will you work to get those final results you know you can achieve?"
Not only did this book keep me wanting to read more and find out how Chris Gardner went from a homeless single dad to the owner of a multimillion dollar corporation, it also answered that mysterious question that the movie never even alluded to. Why is Happyness misspelled?
