Rare Bird - Book Review

Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love

Anna Whiston-Donaldson

ISBN: 978-1-60142-519-5

RELEASE: Sep 9, 2014

LENGTH: 224 Pages

PUBLISHER: Convergent

               Anna Whiston-Donaldson masterfully tells of the gut-wrenching struggle of attempting to deal with all of the pain, sorrow, anguish, and even jealousy which comes with the death of a child in her book Rare Bird. The book opened some wounds of mine that have been repressed for decades. In my case the roles are reversed. I was a boy of 12 who had just lost his Mom at age 44. I became jealous and even envious of other kids who had a mother still living. Why them, and not me? It would have been good to have had this book back in 1963.

                Whiston-Donaldson pulls back the veil of her tears and gives glimpses of raw emotion in the life of a woman who had been dipped in tragedy. She allowed her son and daughter to play in the rain one evening, and her son (Jack), never came home. As one might expect this book will put you in the passenger seat on a journey filled with expectation, and joy which is met by disbelief, grief, and sadness to the nth. It is difficult to read at times, especially if you have experienced familial death at a young age. The story is written almost flawlessly as one would expect from a teacher-turned-blogger. It is a true emotional assault that she lets the reader share in her pain. The story of an average couple with a son and a daughter and how their world is torn upside down by the effects of one deluge of rain. You will sense the pain through her mind’s eye.

                As her son Jack’s favorite verse in the Bible says, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Mat 19:26). Her faith in God and the support of her family and friends made it an easier path to walk. I thought it was a fantastic read. I give it 5 stars.

 I received a free review copy of this book from Blogging for Books  for my honest review.