Michael Ungar

This is the story of Joey, a victim of childhood abuse, a juvenile delinquent who graduates high school while in jail. We watch Joey struggle to comes to terms with his life with the aid of a social worker named John. As an adult, Joey becomes a social worker himself. He wants to really "see" his clients, and to help them in a meaningful way. Remembering vividly his own challenges with "the system", he burns down houses to cut through the red tape of securing better accommodations for clients, alters files to increase welfare payments and lies to his supervisor about home visits. When things inevitably go wrong, Joey is forced to explore the secrets in his own past that first brought him into the system.

The author is a social worker who has written nine nonfiction books. His knowledge of the welfare system shows as the book rings true in terms of situations and characters.

Different characters help others in various ways, raising quesitons about what helping someone really means to both the helper and the recipient -- a thought-provoking issue that this book raised for me.… (més)