Growing up with an abusive stepfather who beat his mother and constantly reminded him that his daddy abandoned him, Chris Gardner made himself a promise: I’ll never leave my children. It’s a vow he kept despite a sea of setbacks that would have broken the spirit of any ordinary man.

In this painfully honest—yet hopeful—memoir, we see Gardner go from the highs of landing an apprenticeship at one of Wall Street’s toniest firms to the lows of life after a pink slip left him jobless and unable to pay his rent, from marital bliss to the nadir of being homeless with a baby in tow. Moving from one motel to another and finally to a shelter, Gardner never gave in to despair but chose, instead, to persevere, even when he and his son found themselves sleeping in the bathrooms of the city’s subway system.

Parts Finding Fish and The Pact, The Pursuit of Happyness appeals to the very essence of the American Dream—if you work hard and follow your dreams, wealth and happiness will await you.