UNBROKEN

In this memoir, Bailey recounts a traumatic youth and how she went on to find remarkable financial success.

The author was born in 1977in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, but largely grew up in a poor rural town nestled in Jamaica’s mountains. While her mother worked in the United States, she lived with her aunt Verona and uncle Breddah, who showered her with loving attention. Despite their financial straits—their house was a makeshift hut without a working toilet or air conditioning—she never felt deprived, she says. Her idyll came to an end when, in 1990, at the age of 13, she moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to live with her mother and stepfather; the latter, she says, was a singularly evil man who raped her repeatedly. Bailey tells of living a lonely existence during this period, which she poignantly recounts: “I was a shadow simply walking through life.” She found some solace in sports, however, and became a high school track star whose talent attracted the attention of college recruiters. She eventually attended and graduated from the University of Connecticut and later achieved remarkable success as a serial entrepreneur who started a recruiting business and a medical equipment company; she was a millionaire by the time she turned 35. Bailey’s account of surmounting many obstacles is astonishingly impressive, as is her forthright tone throughout. But her remembrance, in its second half, becomes less engaging as it chronicles her romantic travails in minute detail. The book also concludes on a conventionally sentimental note that some readers may find disappointing: “Like a soldier on the battlefield, I will fight to rise from the ashes of my struggles and soar even higher.” As a result, this recollection may be best appreciated by those who already know the author well.

A frequently engaging recollection of an admirable life, hampered by uneven execution.