W
William J. Axe
June 19, 2015
which I love and hate to criticize
I wept through this book over a three day business trip. I was a 68 year old man, sitting in the window seat on a cross-country flight, using drink napkins (I only had coffee!) to wipe away the tears and blow my nose. (On Southwest, which I love and hate to criticize, we were packed in to tightly to reach for my handkerchief.) In the evening, in the motel I was sobbing. In my house, as I finished the last 150 pages on my return, I was sobbing so loudly my family came to check on me! Whatever the author intended--and his story is not really, sad, it's merely a true story, an honest one--it touched unmourned issues in my own life like no other book I've read. I doubt another reader would have this experience. I'm not sure I would if I read it again. It's insightful and touching, truthful and non-judgmental--even those who do terrible things--and there are a number of them--don't elicit our hate. The author doesn't go for that revenge motive. One merely looks on, perplexed, at the needless violence of abusive parents or street gangsters or unfeeling employers, and feels a loss for the tortured psychological development that made them what they are. And one hopes for healing and forgiveness in each situation. For those who've suffered needless hate, this book may be a healing read, or it may seem far afield--not all of us, after all, have rich relatives. But anyone who has suffered will at least feel a resonance in their own experience and be touched for the better.
