Beware, "Enrique's Journey" is written in a journalistic style, not a literary one. What it does do, is to hammer and hammer -relentlessly- on day to day experiences of a seventeen year old poverty stricken boy, who feels he will find the meaning of his life by getting to his mother who left him at the age of five. Its up to you to determine whether he does or not. It also shows the unconscious need of all of us at an early age to gain the needed prompt affection and esteem only a parent can give. His mother has left her children to work in the U.S. and to send money "home," so her children will have a better life. The author leaves it up to you to decide if this ethic is the right thing to do. Although (her point of view is implied,) she leaves it up to you to decide what would be the right thing to do. It does not promote a certain political or ethical view point. It only tells a story, with granted, unpleasant, hard to stomach, graphic facts at times, but gives a personal -journalistic- account of what a child could go through when this kind of situation is handed to them, by no fault of their own. What would you do, relying solely on your own wits, no mentors, with next to no education, and no financial means to speak of? No right or wrong answer is implied here. The book is meant to initiate mature, genuine thought only. If action is taken, all the better. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the subject of man's inhumanity to man.