The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (2014) is a biography by Jeff Hobbs about his friend and college roommate Robert Peace.[1][2] Peace grew up in the city of Orange, near Newark, New Jersey and attended Yale University. While telling the story of Peace’s life chronologically, the book focuses on Peace’s relationships with family and friends as well as addressing American housing, education, justice, and banking systems that affected Peace’s life.[2][3]
 | |
| Author | Jeff Hobbs |
|---|---|
| Subject | Robert DeShaun Peace |
| Publisher | Scribner |
Publication date | 2014 |
Reception & Awards
editReviews
editDuring the book’s first week of release, it ranked #9 on The New York Times Best Seller List.[4] In the paper’s Books of the Times review, Janet Maslin called the book “a haunting work of nonfiction.” [5] and in The New York Times Book Review Anand Giridharadas called the book “mesmeric” and wrote, “[Hobbs] asks the consummate American question: is it possible to reinvent yourself, to sculpture your own destiny?…That one man can contain such contradictions makes for an astonishing, tragic story. In Hobbs’s hands, though, it becomes something more: an interrogation of our national creed of self-invention…” Writing for the Los Angeles Times Hector Tobar commented that “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace is a book that is as much about class as it is race. Peace traveled across America’s widening social divid, and Hobbs’s book is an honest, insightful, and empathetic account of his sometimes painful, always strange journey.” [6] The Boston Globe review stated that “[Hobbs] has a tremendous ability to empathize with all of his characters without romanticizing any of them.” [7] The San Francisco Chronicle asked, “Can a man transcend the circumstances into which he’s born? Can he embody two wildly-divergent souls? To what degree are all of us, more or less, slaves to our environments?…As Hobbs reveals in tremendously moving and painstaking detail, [Peace] may have never had a chance.” [8]
Awards
editThe Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace was named a People Magazine “Best Book of Fall,” a O Magazine “Best Book of 2014,” an Entertainment Weekly “10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2014,” a New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2014,[9] a finalist for the 2015 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography,[10] iBooks Best Nonfiction of 2014, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist in Biography & History.[11]
- Runner up for the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction[12]
- Winner Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest in 2014[13]
Rob Peace (film)
editA film adaptation of Peace's story entitled Rob Peace was released in August, 2024. Filmed in Newark, New Jersey, it is written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor with a cast including Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige, Camila Cabello, Michael Kelly, and Jay Will in the title role.[14]
References
edit- ^ "Obituary: Robert DeShaun Peace". Tributes.com.
- ^ a b Giridharadas, Anand (September 18, 2014). "Man Down: 'The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace' by Jeff Hobbs". The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
- ^ Hyman, Vicki (4 November 2014). "Newark shooting death of Yale grad Robert Peace becomes subject of national bestseller". nj.com. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ^ "Revisiting Robert Peace and Self-Invention". The New York Times. 16 January 2020.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (10 September 2014). "A Yalie's Promising Future Competed with a Darker Side". The New York Times.
- ^ Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-kc-jeff-hobbs-20140928-story.html.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "The Boston Globe". The Boston Globe.
- ^ Hobbs, Jeff (28 July 2015). The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1476731919.
- ^ "100 Notable Books of 2014". The New York Times. 2 December 2014.
- ^ "2015 PEN Literary Awards Shortlist". 10 April 2015.
- ^ "Best Books of 2014". Goodreads. Amazon. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Jeff Hobbs, 2015 Nonfiction Runner-Up". Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
- ^ "The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are ..." Los Angeles Times. 2015-04-19. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
- ^ NJ.com, Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for (December 22, 2022). "'The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace' movie filming in Newark with Chiwetel Ejiofor". nj.
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