Review: Connected With Me on a Personal Level
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2014
I've sat in these bars. I've met these people. I've felt lost among friends and embraced by strangers. Rick's Place may be considered an "experimental" book, but this is an experiment that happens in thousands of cafes, taverns, and dive bars all around the world. Lost wanderers mingle with those who have rarely left their bar stools, but there is no judgment, no significance, only the sharing of stories and ideas that can turn a rainy escape into a dingy bar into one of the most memorable experiences of your life. From the very beginning of this book, I knew that it would draw me in, and I was absolutely right. I have read some of Akley's other work, and am glad that I came across this sparkling example of his storytelling grace. He doesn't tell us about people; he shows us what their lives are made of. He doesn't allow us to peek in the window at their conversations; he puts us in the middle of them.Readers that have lived long enough to experience trouble, sadness, joy, disappointment, pain, loss, and hope will find reflections of their hearts in these characters. Akley is an anthropologist of emotion, and he does a spectacular job of honestly transpose his discoveries onto the page. It's rare that an author can write a sentence that literally hits me in the gut, as though he had drug those words from my own mind, but Akley did it a dozen times in this book. He is able to truly capture the essence of a place, the soul of individuals that most people would simply walk past without seeing. He embraces the overlooked elements of existence and raises them to the same glorious level as the things most people put on pedestals. Banality is beautiful, in his estimation, and I hope he continues to turn his eye outwards and share his vision with his readers. Another sincere and unforgettable gem from Akley.