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MATTHEW AARON GOODMAN earned a B.A. degree in literature from Brandeis University and an MFA from Emerson College. He has been a student of writing at the 92nd Street Y, Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, and the Vermont Studio Center. Working hand-in-hand with formerly incarcerated men and women, he created The Leadership Alliance, a community empowerment project that unites community leaders and volunteer partners. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York.
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HOLD LOVE STRONG
Touchstone – April 14, 2009 Get to know Matthew Matthew on BookTV Matthew on WritersCast In this poignant tale of self-discovery, a young man struggles to survive the New York City housing projects in the face of familial, communal, and personal devastation. Born to a thirteen-year-old in the bathroom of his family’s small apartment, Abraham Singleton enters a world laden with the obstacles inherent in an impoverished community. In spite of the crack epidemic and the HIV crisis that ravage their neighborhood, the Singleton family — cousins, an uncle, an aunt, Abraham, and his mother — is held together by Abraham’s heroic grandmother, whose deep faith and stoic nature have always given them a sense of wholeness and hope. But when the family goes through several harrowing losses, not even his grandmother may be strong enough to lead them through. At the center of this story is Abraham, the youngest of the Singletons. Deeply intuitive and cerebral, he is determined to thrive in a place that has destroyed the dreams of those around him. College means opportunity, yet it also means leaving behind those he loves. Abraham’s journey into adulthood will break his heart but ultimately offer the possibility of redemption. In this haunting, lyrical, and evocative novel, Matthew Aaron Goodman composes a paean to the power of family and belonging in the African-American community. Hold Love Strong is a spellbinding coming-of-age tale about love, hope, and the will to survive, and a stunning universal story about the incredible capacity of the human spirit. Praise for HOLD LOVE STRONG “Matthew Aaron Goodman’s Hold Love Strong is a powerful and poignant story of the gallant Abraham who struggles on the night side of American society yet exudes a light of genuine hope…”—Dr. Cornel West, author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters “The urgency of reading Matthew Aaron Goodman’s work is that he complicates what is too often made unrealistically simple: our understanding of ourselves and our neighbors. That he does so with such profound beauty only makes the experience of Hold Love Strong ever more incredible…”—asha bandele, author of The Prisoner’s Wife and Something Like Beautiful “What a poignant book. The younger generation offers a wonderful writer!”—Nikki Giovanni, Poet “Matthew Aaron Goodman writes with tremendous heart and gorgeous lyricism. He loves the characters whose lives he chronicles, loves them in all their flaws, through all their missteps. He’s with them, celebrating their glories in ecstatic, ebullient riffs, and mourning their defeats with an unflinching compassion…”—Thisbe Nissen, Author of The Good People of New York and Osprey Island “Goodman delivers a commanding investigation of love, family and freedom set in a New York City housing project…Goodman manages to pull together a vibrant canvas of project life, perfectly capturing the pain and magic of living despite narrow opportunities.”—Publishers Weekly “…[Hold Love Strong is] told exceptionally well in the lyrical first person voice of a sensitive and perceptive youth.”—Booklist “At once intimate and epic, Hold Love Strong shines light on a world too often distorted or ignored. Goodman plumbs us into a narrative of devastating pain and searing tenderness, and he does so fiercely, with prose as bright and sharp as a blade.”—Carolina De Robertis, author of The Invisible Mountain “I am so over the moon about Hold Love Strong…this could be the book of the year.”—Martha Frankel, author of Hats & Eyeglasses: A Memoir “A hard-edged novel with a sweet but unsentimental interior…”—Kirkus Reviews “Goodman’s relevant and enlightening debut novel belongs somewhere on the shelf between Richard Wright’s Native Son and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, both for its social importance and literary beauty…A brilliant read.”—Amanda at Inkwood Books in Tampa, FL “So powerfully written, so honest and truthful and compelling, that I had to constantly remind myself that it was fiction…absolutely impossible to put down. Hold Love Strong is a gritty, realistic, amazing gift of a book that is told with unbelievable truthfulness and talent that promises great things to come. I can’t stop talking about this book, and I know that I will be thinking of it for weeks and months to come. It is a difficult but necessary read that gives life and a voice to a community that is all too often overlooked, and I’m confident in saying it will be one of the best books of the year. 5 out of 5.”—The Book Lady’s Blog “With prose so poetic and intoxicating each page makes you want to cry and shake your head in disgust all at once…Hold Love Strong proves that ethnic diversity is no barrier for intimate authenticity.“—Amber “Matt took a huge risk and seriously triumphed with a very intense, real, funny and touching book.“—James Hannaham, author of God Says No “Goodman’s respect and love for the people he works with comes through strongly in this wonderful and compassionate book.“—Writer’s Voice “The race of the writer was inconsequential; it was the beauty of the prose and the heartbeat of every word that made me want to know what this gifted writer looked like…This book is a classic, written so masterfully that it will inspire its reader in more ways than one.“—Michigan Citizen “This strong debut adds new punch to the coming-of-age genre by focusing on a young boy in a NY City housing project…An inspiring read.“—Sacramento Book Review “Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman is an extraordinary novel for its voice, its vision, and its promise…much more than a social commentary on failures of our society: it is a testament to the will to survive and to surpass. The book is fiction but every word of it rings true“—Nina Sankovitch of The Huffington Post and Read All Day “Flat out one of the best books I have read in a long time.“—Livewriters/WritersCast “I’ve heard it said that writers tend toward tragic stories rather than triumphant stories because the latter are harder to pull off convincingly. Goodman does not appear to suffer from that problem. Hold Love Strong is a wonderfully executed triumphant story.“—Gently Read Literature |
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