"Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos is a story of one young man's struggle to become a writer.

"Hole in My Life" is the autobiographical story of Jack Gantos during his younger years. Gantos was a young man with little supervision who led a life that involved many moves and opportunities. This was a life quite unlike those of many other children. Living abroad for part of his childhood, Gantos learned how to navigate the world his own way. Once he returned to the states to finish high school without his parents, however, his lack of focus and his partying nature left him without a permanent home. He used his job at the grocery store to afford a room at the King's Court motel where he lived for the rest of his senior year. He dabbled in drugs, but when his friend Tim came to stay, he began to heavily use marijuana. Tim even talked him into selling the drug so he could earn money for college, but after he gave Tim $200 for his share of the weed, Tim disappeared. Gantos drove his way across Florida, stopping at all the historical writer's homes, hoping to be inspired, and finally rejoined his family in St. Croix. St. Croix, at the time, was in the midst of a race war, and drugs were readily available. Gantos and his father built crates for all the people moving off the islands fearing their safety, and Gantos found himself helping Rik, a customer who wished to have a box with a hidden bottom compartment made. Through this meeting, Gantos landed a job helping to sail two thousand pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York, for ten thousand dollars. His shipmate, Hamilton, was a grizzly man, and made difficult company on the trip. Gantos learned plenty about the sea and sailing on his way up the coastline, but several times, things occurred that made him fear for his safety, and his freedom. Once in New York, they met Rik, and sold and delivered the hash, but they were soon approached by the FBI. Gantos was tried in New York, and was sentenced to sixty days to six years, depending on behavior. In prison, Gantos saw a lot of violence, but he realized that the inspiration he needed for his writing had always been around him, if he had simply taken the time to look. He began to journal in a copy of a book he had, but on his release from prison, he discovered he was unable to take the book with him. Following prison, Gantos attended college, working nights as a security guard. He learned that stories of his childhood are far more entertaining than the blood and death stories of his prison life, and his writing career takes off. "Hole in My Life" is about one man's mistakes, and how he used those mistakes to learn, and to achieve his dreams, despite his setbacks. It is a great lesson for teens, not only about recovering from mistakes, but about taking the right paths in life to avoid mistakes entirely.