Hard Lessons
 Hard Lessons Hardback Cover | |
| Author | Michael Leahy |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date | December 8th, 1988 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 310 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN: 0-316-51815-8 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Hard Lessons is a 1988 nonfiction book by Michael Leahy. The book follows the lives of six Beverly Hills High School students, class of 1986, and deals with the challenges and anxieties of teenage life in modern America.
Characters
- Andy: a slight, nervous boy, sick with the sense that he has fallen hopelessly behind his peers and has already lost the race for good grades, entrance to the top colleges, stature, girls--a future.
- Hillary: an insecure beauty who, though a promising model, feels crowded and dwarfed by Beverly's social extracurricular, and academic pressures, not to mention the anxiety generated by her mother's doctor-boyfriend, soon to be a member of their household.
- Steven: a student with aspirations to be a wealthy man and Republican party media consultant--a baby kingmaker--who must first navigate the perilous waters leading toward another semester of A's and, he hopes, an Ivy League college acceptance.
- Kelly: a lonely girl who avoids mirrors and eats most meals alone with her housekeeper, whose principle contact with her real estate agent-mother comes in late-night long-distance phone calls, and whose overwhelming obsession lies in becoming svelte enough to compete with Beverly's nubile social butterflies.
- Paul: an overweight, funny, self-deprecating boy with an enigmatic and troubled best friend and self-absorbed parents who know their son dimly at best.
- Melinda: the model toward which the others aspire; a pleasantly attractive maverick who is academically successful, socially respected, and dependent on no cliques for stature or affection.
Bibliography
- Leahy, Michael. (1988a) Hard Lessons, Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
- Hailey, Kendall. "Down and Out at Beverly Hills High HARD LESSONS Senior Year at Beverly Hills High School by Michael Leahy", The Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1988. Accessed April 12, 2008.