A spiritual account that’s too idiosyncratic to resonate with many readers.
In this debut memoir, Hunt, a teacher, describes direct communication with God.
The author, who states that she doesn’t belong to any organized church, considers herself an ordinary person who has an extraordinary relationship with God. Ever since her father’s sudden death when she was 7, she says, God has taken on a paternal role in her life. The connection is unconventional, as she describes it, because it involves God sending the author personal messages. Often, she says, these messages are delivered in “fantastically vivid” dreams that furnish Hunt with “premonitions.” She asserts that she was able to foretell the deaths of her mother and aunt; in her mother’s case, Hunt says that she heard a voice in a dream that disclosed the timing of her passing. Occasionally, she says, a message from God gently reminds her to take better care of herself; she writes that once, after hours of reading traumatic news stories online, she saw a message flash across her screen: “Lisa, stop. Don’t go any further.” The author also states her belief that God personally intervened when she needed help; for example, when she experienced car trouble, an unfamiliar woman pulled over to offer assistance and encouragement, and Hunt was certain that had God sent her: “At a time when I was feeling fearful and helpless, I sincerely believe God sent one of his angels to stand with me during this uncomfortable time.” Hunt’s memoir seems like more of an extended essay than a full-length monograph, and it focuses singularly on her spiritual experience. Her prose is unfailingly clear and its tone is as casual as a friendly chat. The story that she tells is unlikely to convince a large number of readers, but her professed aim is to bear witness, not to persuade. To that end, she successfully conveys her message that God is involved in every aspect of her life: “No matter how small or insignificant the events seem, the circumstances surrounding the events allowed me to see God’s hand in what was happening.”
A spiritual account that’s too idiosyncratic to resonate with many readers.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-7294-4
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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