An uplifting account of a mother’s spiritual connection to her son.
Landry (The Fall of Atlantis, 2012, etc.) remembers the teenage son she lost and catalogs the messages he sends from the spiritual beyond.
On Aug. 7, 2009, Tim Landry lost control of the truck he was driving, was propelled through the window, and died. He was 19. The author heard the sorrowful news while vacationing with her husband on their boat, and her life irrevocably changed. Following the funeral, she attempted to return to quotidian affairs and vowed that her traumatic loss would not define her family’s future, refusing to succumb to her deadening grief. And then it started: Tim began to appear in the dreams of those who loved him. His sister Kelsey dreamed that he suddenly appeared to participate in a game of billiards. Randy, one of Tim’s friends, dreamed of waking up to find Tim standing above him watchfully. Tina, Tim’s hairdresser since he was 5, received a message from him through a psychic. Confident reassurance was a recurrent theme in the communications Tim conveyed—an extension of the kindness he showed those around him before his accident. He even dispensed counsel. Two of his friends, Jillian and Sarah, had a fight, and Tim visited their dreams on the same night, urging them to reconcile. Landry, a licensed hypnotherapist who has been studying the spiritual realm for more than 30 years, deeply reflects on what she believes is Tim’s new life on a different plane of existence. She finds consolation in the imperishability of his soul. The tender, elegant prose conveys both the anguish Landry experienced when her son died and the joy of knowing he continues on in whatever form. Not all readers will find the evidence she offers for his communications persuasive—a glitch in her car might simply be that and not an electrical disturbance caused by her son. Also, the spiritual cosmology she describes is a little fuzzy—apparently mankind is entering a golden age where light overtakes darkness. Nonetheless, this is a moving remembrance beautifully told.
An uplifting account of a mother’s spiritual connection to her son.Pub Date: July 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-5004-8538-2
Page Count: 98
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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