Review: Abandoned Not Broken by Rob Johnson

An adopted child finds inspiration and determination from family, friends and mentors and grows into manhood successful, well-liked and respected, in the moving memoir, Abandoned Not Broken: The Passion and Perspective to Discover Your Purpose.

Robert Dunckley was the third child of a single mother. His father disappeared not long after the seemingly happy partnership with his mother, and a caring great-grandmother stepped in with financial support. With her oversight, the little boy was taken in by his loving babysitter, Pat Johnson, who soon adopted him, giving him her surname and two older siblings.

Through trying circumstances, young Robert always found friends, leading to membership in a local church youth group. Regular participation with that group became his passion; within it he would forge relationships that have lasted throughout his life. Johnson was soon working for a man he called Mr. Reds, owner of a thriving pizza shop, giving him a long-term passion for such work.

A tender teen romance led Johnson to propose to his girlfriend Heather on live TV; there ensued a genuinely happy marriage that is still going strong. The couple and their three children were sometimes pinched financially, and at times, Johnson’s dedication to his own full-time pizza business kept him away from family more than he liked. But with support from friends, a strong faith, and drawing on his own inner reserves, Johnson has overcome many barriers.

Johnson writes his memoir with verve and confidence that comes from a feeling that he had even as a child – that he is special. Being adopted, when he could so easily have been left to be raised by “the system,” gave him the sense of being picked, like a promising athlete, for the A team – a perspective that is not usually found about adoption, which gives the book a refreshingly unique point of view. His romantic and somewhat frantic plan to propose to Heather in front of Queen Latifah and a live audience is just one of the many engaging incidents that reveal his true grit even as a teen – each moment written with straightforward prose, but also eloquence in conveying emotion. Tracking and happily reuniting with his birth father is another example of Johnson’s perseverance and good intentions.

The net results of Johnson’s firmly held aspirations – contented home life, well-ordered business ventures, and a fervent belief in God’s plan “for a better tomorrow” – give proof of his campaign slogan when he once ran for county office: “Be the Change.” Though he lost that election, he had a victory celebration anyway, pleased to recall that he had managed the campaign with integrity. Again, the focus on loss, rather than only triumph, illuminates Johnson’s honest and inspiring perspective, which elevates the book from memoir to self-help, as the subtitle suggests.

Now in mid-life with his children in school, he gives back through his pizza business, serving up to 400 school lunches a day. He is a church elder and teaches a faith-based youth group of the sort that once significantly benefited him. He is well aware that his early life could have presaged failure and despair, but he was led to, or moved willingly toward, experiences that opened a positive, successful path. This book, then, acts as a kind of manual of the work Johnson is doing in his everyday life, which will be most effective for religious readers, but there is plenty of wisdom and insight for other readers as well.

Uncommonly forthright with a unique perspective on many areas of life, Johnson’s reminiscences serve as a useful guidebook of encouragement and motivation for young people struggling with issues of self-worth, and adults looking for ways to mold their success into community and church activism.