Review: I FOUND THIS BOOK DISTURBING
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2012
I read this book for free.  I was skimming through the best free books list, and downloaded one or two which readers had rated excellent.  The first two books I read, I was surprised how any avid reader could have rated them with 5 stars. For this reason, I wasn't expecting this book to be any better.  When early on in the story, our hero ended up back in time, I honestly thought, Oh no, another rubbishy read.  I have since waited three days to write this review.  I needed to think about it seriously, because, as other readers have already mentioned, it opens a new concept of thought.  The reason that I found this book disturbing is because my Father had serious psychological problems.  The lives of my Mother, and I as a child, were absolute misery for years.  We endured both physical and mental torture over a period of time, which was impossible to forget.  Probably the worst part being that when my Father was on a high or good frame of mind, he was a good companion and warm person, who suddenly, for no apparent reason, turned into a person that filled us with dread.  For this reason, my sympathy has always been with families afflicted in the same manner, rather than with the patient.  My Father died eventually from a brain tumour, which nobody deserves to die of.  I had no bitterness left by then, as with maturity I realised that it was a sickness.  However, I cannot cope with people that have similar problems, and have found throughout life that the first characteristic I looked for in a friend or partner, was a rational mind.  I don't think that I would have read this book, if I had realised the content.  However, once I started it, I couldn't put it down.  Yes, I found myself routing for Simon, held by the excellent prose and description of characters and scenes. This book fills your imagination, and draws so much empathy from the reader.  Even now, I'm still confused, is mental illness caused by disturbing childhood experiences, or can these illnesses be explain clinically, as another error in our DNA.  Why are some of us so badly affected by childhood experiences, while others simply move on with their lives.  Should we medicate sufferers to protect the innocent?  If you read this book, you will be left, like me, with many questions unanswered.  Perhaps in the future more research will answer these questions for us. I would recommend reading this book by a truly gifted writer.