A teenager's journey

At the end of "A brother's journey", Richard Pelzer's mother and three brothers are moving to Salt Lake City, Utah. He has the choice of joining them - unwanted - or staying behind. But where can he live? What can he live on? Defeated - he follows them. So continues Richard's alcoholic mother's physical abuse of Richard. But gradually he is growing up - not just in years but stature. His mother cannot treat him in quite the same way and mostly it is with neglect. Richard runs away and tries to commit suicide several times, and he has a stint with a foster home. He turns to soft drugs, then hard drugs. Finally he goes to live with John and Darlene Nichols who try to show him some family love. At the age of 21 he gets a full time job and tries to learn to be a big brother to the foster parents' children. This is a story about someone who retains his religion and regains basic morals - despite everything going against him.