CHASING TIGERS IN THE DARK

A debut autobiographical work offers a series of life lessons.

“I am a proud survivor,” writes Shaw at the beginning of her book, “having endured some of the worst traumas a person can face.” She has dealt with the loss of a parent, a cancer diagnosis, the trauma of rape, the death of her first love, a divorce, some near-death accidents, and chronic health problems, among other trials. In her chapters, she takes readers through the narration of her autobiography, from her childhood bond with her vivacious sister to her college years, cancer diagnosis, and the ordeal of chemotherapy (“It was a war and I felt like the enemy got the best of me more than once”). She recounts her recovery, graduation, pregnancy, and other events into later adulthood. Looking back at it all, she tells her readers that God is teaching people and giving them skills they can use when encountering adversities. In her own case, she writes, she became “a keeping the faith, on top of the world, utopian optimist survivor fashioned with rose-colored glasses.” Shaw’s decision to ground her motivational insights in stories from her own autobiography is a wise narrative decision; it puts an appealingly personal face on the hardships from which she’s drawn her life lessons. Her prose style is direct and energetic. Every period of her life, each with its own trauma, is narrated with a spirited immediacy—her accounts of her cancer and divorce are particularly effective. The downside of this immediacy is that it sometimes tempts the author to indulge in purple prose (“I was a changed woman with a devastating scar on her unsuspecting heart”). Still, the useful nuggets of advice woven into this uplifting narrative more than compensate.

A survivor presents a doggedly optimistic view of life and a collection of valuable lessons.