The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs follows the upbringing of a young black man named Rob as he moves from an impoverished childhood on the outskirts of Newark, NJ to the halls of Yale University and finally, to his untimely and unsolved murder. Hobbs' book is a work of nonfiction in seventeen chapters. The title itself tells the reader that the story will end with Rob's death, but the circumstances of that death and everything leading to it comprise the meat of this true story.

Rob was raised solely by his self-sacrificing mother Jackie, as his father away in prison. As a child and young man, he was charismatic, witty, and motivated. He cared for those around him, which earned him a place in the community—among those of benign and malignant intent alike. With so many local young black men following a pattern of drug use and fathering children they couldn't afford to care for, Jackie was determined that Rob would have more choices in his future. She worked endlessly to fund his education at a private school.

His academic performance through high school earned the attention of a benefactor who ultimately pays his tuition at Yale, where Rob studies both biochemistry and molecular biophysics. Despite his academic excellence, Rob still relies on selling marijuana in order to take care of those close to him. This is important for several reasons. Even though school provided a way out of his chaotic community, he continues to provide for the people he cared about growing up. His decision to sell marijuana also places him in a precarious position. He stands to lose the headway he's gained through his education and acting on behaviors his mother hoped he would avoid. In addition to dealing marijuana, he also uses it to self-medicate for anxiety.



Meanwhile, while Rob is in his early twenties, his father, still imprisoned for murder and other crimes, passes away. At Yale, Rob uses his knowledge to create a new, popular strain of marijuana. Unfortunately, this draws the wrong kind of attention to him and despite his good will with his community, Rob rubs some people the wrong way and ends up getting shot. He dies from his injuries, but at the end of the book, the murder is still unsolved. Without coming to any conclusive determination, Hobbs interviews those who knew Rob the best to try to determine who shot him and claimed the life of such a bright young man. Hobbs interviews over three hundred people, but still doesn't know who is responsible for Robert Peace's death.

Before he died, Rob graduated from Yale University with honors. Jeff Hobbs, the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, was one of Rob's roommates at Yale. The book was the runner-up for the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and received positive reviews from critics and readers alike. The book made it to the national bestsellers list. Robert Peace was 30 years old when he was murdered in 2011.

There are many themes brought to life by this story. The most prominent is that potential is a powerful thing, but useless if the opportunities don't exist to nurture it. Rob had enormous potential, both academically and socially. He was also compassionate, driven by a desire to take care of the people he cared most about. However, he was unable to break free from the needs to earn the kind of money that only drug dealing could provide. Because of this, all of his academic success is for naught. When he uses that potential to create a strain of marijuana that produces high demand, he ultimately pays for that success with his life.



Another important theme in the book is social class and the ways different locations enforce these classes in different ways, with different rules. The book demonstrates how there is a necessary adjustment period when transitioning from one location to another, and how that transition period can be precarious. For Rob, no matter where he went, he had to work harder than others around him—either to escape the poverty of his childhood neighborhood, or to excel among the ultra elite at Yale University. This can lead to relying on the wrong strengths, or relying on one particular strength too much, which can ultimately lead to one's downfall. For Rob, that meant always seeking to care for others, and using his book smarts to create a product that eventually led to his death.