Page 31 - James Caan - The Real Deal

Chapter 3

Breaking Free (1977)

‘ I had to prove to my dad that I could make it without him.

That was the only thing that would make sense of what I had

done. I had to prove him wrong. ’

honestly felt i had no choice but to go. If I stayed and
I joined my dad’s business, I knew I was going to be miserable.
Without the option of talking to my parents about my feelings, I
felt the only thing I could do was make plans to leave home. At
sixteen, I was so confused and desperate to break free that I wasn’t
thinking rationally. And that meant I was on a collision course
with my father.
It didn’t help that there was pressure at school, too. This was
my O-level year, and as the end of the spring term approached
I had to revise for my mocks. The desire to break free was
overwhelming.
I talked to my friends about my need to move out, and of course
they thought it was the coolest thing in the world. At first I thought
I could stay with one of them so that I would be able to remain at
school, but I was so restless that I wanted to leave school, too. I
had already decided that I was going to run my own business some
day, so what good would a handful of O levels do me anyway?

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