Review: A Story of Hope and Forgiveness
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
When I first started reading The Wooden Chair, I was immediately engaged by the little girl singing in the crowded marketplace, alone and unattended. Undaunted by her solitary situation, the child sings her heart out for coins. A woman police officer comes upon the child and wonders where the mother of this four year old is. It's a question that persists throughout the story for the reader and the child, Leini.Unwanted, unloved, ignored, belittled, and humiliated, Leini struggles to overcome not only her disability that becomes blindness in one eye, thanks to this selfish mother, but her feelings of rejection and need for approval from the same person. Over time, mother becomes Mira, when Leini can no longer begin to call her that sacred name after yet another hurt from this woman, who is also an anorexic and alcoholic. If not for her father, grandfather, grandmother, and uncle, this child would have had no affection in her life.The child grows into adulthood, graduates from college and attends graduate school in psychology, ultimately with a focus on alcoholism and addiction. In seeking this degree, she moves away from her homeland of Finland to Switzerland, where she meets and marries the man of her dreams. Bill is an orphan, and in many ways, Leini is one, too, having been deprived of the most important factor in one's childhood, unconditional love from the woman who birthed her.When Leini discovers she is pregnant, she decides to see a psychiatrist about her nightmares. Supportive as always, Bill agrees it is a good idea and encourages her to go. Therapy, she finds, is not fun when you are on the receiving end. The psychiatrist makes Leini work to find her own path through the morass of her childhood, enabling the strong child to grow into the strong woman who has been waiting beneath.Leini at times struggles with her own attraction to drink, and after two children and a call from her father begging her to come home and visit, she falls back on the wine bottle. Her husband, Bill, is a lawyer, but may well have been a counselor, too. He calmly tells her he doesn't like when she drinks too much and agrees to go home with Leini. She has not seen her mother since the birth of her first child and the terrible rift that ensued. Leini is determined to face her mother and stand up to her.I don't want to give the plot away. As I read the book, I wondered, "How did she (the author) know all this about MY life?" I, too, had a cold mother who didn't want me. I, too, was neglected, abused, and exploited. I, too, had a grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin who gave me unconditional love--yet did not protect me from this abuser. And, ultimately, I too traveled the spiritual path looking for closure, and as much as I could, forgiveness. This was not an easy read for me. I re-lived some terrible moments in my life as I read the Wooden Chair. But in the end, like Leini, I rose victorious, intact, and healthy, loving and loved.This book is an important read for anyone affected by the disease of alcoholism and the ravages the addiction causes to the alcoholic and the family of the alcoholic. It is a story of strength, hope, wisdom, and the healing power of forgiveness, and I give it 5 bright and shiny stars covered with tears.