A raw, heartfelt memoir of one woman’s spiritual evolution.
Debut author Lewis, a performance poet and actor, recounts her journey from self-hate to self-love, set against the supernatural backdrop of reconnecting to her abusive husband following his death.
After her boyfriend broke up with her when she was about to graduate from Berkeley, 23-year-old Lewis, a white woman from New Orleans, was open to a new adventure—and a new man. She decided to go out on a date with Truth Lewis, a sexy, muscular, tattooed black man with a mysterious past. He had children from a previous relationship and claimed to have served in the Army and to have worked on covert assignments for the government. Lewis was hooked: Instead of taking only a year off before going to grad school as planned, she moved with Truth back to her hometown. The couple lived in relative poverty at first but became affluent as successful entrepreneurs running porn sites during the early days of the Internet. They eventually got married, but the relationship was on a downward spiral nearly from the start. Truth wasn’t all he seemed and was soon physically abusing Lewis on a regular basis. His sudden death from an unusual heart condition set Lewis free from the abuse, but she was left a widow at 27. Relieved but still grieving, Lewis then encountered Truth in her dreams and in sessions with mediums, which helped her make peace with her own demons (which included a history of self-cutting and overeating) and embark on a new life as an actor, wife and mother in California. From the start, Lewis draws readers into her story, acknowledging her own flaws and desires while providing a surprisingly compassionate depiction of the troubled Truth. The author’s depiction of Truth’s return after death is left rather hazy, leaving readers wanting more. Similarly, Lewis provides scant detail about her subsequent acting career, her second marriage (in her bio, she lists that she now lives only with a daughter) and her stint in a mental hospital prior to meeting Truth. Still, Lewis has crafted a compelling tale that will resonate with anyone seeking to reconcile and move on from his or her past.
A raw, heartfelt memoir of one woman’s spiritual evolution.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-615-93441-9
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Anomaly Press
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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