Book Stop Corner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”





Ethel Rohan, an Irish author, has penned an extremely heart touching story called The Weight of Him that revolves around an obese father's loss over his elder son who has committed suicide, and his journey to deal with grief and heal over the loss of his loved one lead him on a path to weight loss but sadly that pushes him away from his dear family and his wife. Set in an idyllic back ground of Ireland, this deeply moving story is going to inspire the readers dealing with loss and grief thoroughly.


Synopsis:

In The Weight of Him Billy Brennan undergoes an unforgettable journey in a startling attempt to resurrect his family and reignite hearts, his own most of all.

At four hundred pounds, Billy can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food's colors, textures and tastes. The way flavors go off in his mouth. How food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy's beloved son Michael takes his own life.

Billy determines to make a difference in Michael's memory and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign, to raise money for suicide prevention--his first step in an ambitious plan to save himself, and to save others. However, Billy's dramatic crusade appalls his family, who want to simply try to go on, quietly, privately.

Despite his crushing detractors, Billy gains welcome allies: his community-at-large; a co-worker who lost his father to suicide; a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda; and a secret, miniature kingdom that Billy populates with the sub-quality dolls and soldiers he saves from disposal at the toy factory where he works. But it is only if Billy can confront the truth of the suffering and brokenness within and around him that he and others will be able to realize the recovery they need.

Told against the picturesque yet haunting backdrop of rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him is a big-hearted novel about loss and reliance that moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we take the stand of our lives.


Billy Brennan, a 400 pounds man working at a toy manufacturing company, has recently lost his eldest son who took his own life leaving behind no clue or reason for his parents, family and peers as to why he committed suicide. And owning to his immense grief and loss over his dear son, Billy decides to host a organize a fund raiser for suicide prevention and in order to do so, he will loose half of his weight. Even though, previously, he has been repeatedly warned by his doctor as well as by his family to lose some weight in order to avoid an early death, he never paid much heed to those warnings before mainly due to the fact that food always comforted Billy. But now to deal with loss over his son's suicide, Billy is determined to shed his body weight, but sadly, his journey to weight loss pushes him away from his family and parents, who want him to deal with loss and grief in a quiet manner. But can Billy achieve his goal, and ultimately get over his loss, with a few supporters and with a family which is growing estranged with every passing day?

This is a brilliant book, but sadly the story has quite a handful of flaws that marred the charm of this book. Nevertheless, I found this book to extremely emotional and inspiring enough to make me forget about those fatal flaws. And I would suggest everyone to read this book, especially to those who are dealing with loss and grief over the death of any near and dear ones. The story will motivate the readers to look at the positive side of life and to deal with pain courageously and emphatically. The message of the story line will wrap the readers into its warm embrace and will give an assurance to handle life in a confident manner.

The author's writing style is really eloquent and evocative enough to move the readers deeply with the emotional flow of the story line. The narrative is articulate and compelling enough to keep the readers engaged into the story line. Also the dialogues are painted in a realistic manner, hence the readers will be able to relate to the plights of the characters. The pacing is steady and sways smoothly with the flow of the story line. The author has covered a lot of realistic everyday and sentimental issues through this story that she has sensitively portrayed through her main character's journey to weight loss and fighting obesity and grief.

The backdrop of Ireland is magnificently painted into the story line. The author has brought alive a rural and contemporary Irish town vividly with the strikingly descriptions about the streets to the flora to the culture to the flora to the food to the life of the common folks, and it surely will make the readers visually imagine Ireland right before their own eyes while reading this book.

The author has developed the characters in this book really well, and with enough realism so that their honest demeanor strike the souls of the readers in a right way. Sadly some of the characters lacked depth thoroughly, especially, some of the important secondary characters will come across as too hazy and unclear in the eyes of the readers. The main character, Billy, though, has been portrayed very strongly and with enough depth and back story to make him look real, humble and understanding in the eyes of the readers. His personality will inspire the readers, especially his strong determination towards a positive goal will effect the readers in a best possible way, and no doubt, he is bound to leave an impression in the hearts of the readers.

In a nutshell, this captivating, encouraging and highly absorbing book is a must read for one and all, as it narrates a beautiful yet heart breaking journey about death, weight loss and grief.


Verdict: A thoroughly inspiring read!

Courtesy: Thanks to the author herself for giving me an opportunity to read and review her book.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author Info:
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Ethel Rohan lives in San Francisco. Her stories and writing often center on the body—its joys, secrets, memory, urges, splendor, and horrors. When she writes, she’s stolen away.
Rohan’s first novel, The Weight of Him, published from St. Martin’s Press, February 2017, and from Atlantic Books, June, 2017. The Weight of Him won the inaugural Plumeri Fellowship and was named an Amazon Best Book.
She is also the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut Through the Bone, the former longlisted for The Edge Hill Prize and the latter longlisted for The Story Prize. She wrote, too, the award-winning chapbook Hard to Say (PANK) and the award-winning e-memoir single, Out of Dublin (Shebooks).
Rohan was longlisted for The Sunday Times EFG 2017 Short Story Award, winner of the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, and shortlisted for the CUIRT, Roberts, and Bristol Short Story Prizes. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, World Literature Today, PEN America, The Washington Post, Tin House Online, The Irish Times, and The Hairpin, among many others. She has reviewed books for New York Journal of Books, and elsewhere.
Her stories have also published in various anthologies including Funny Bone: Flashing for Comic Relief (Flash Press, 2017); Eclectica Magazine Best Fiction Vol. 2; (Eclectica Press, 2016); THE LINEUP: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press, 2015); Winesburg, Indiana (Indiana University Press, 2015); DRIVEL: Deliciously Bad Writing by Your Favorite Authors (Penguin: Perigee, 2014). She is also a contributor and associate editor to the anthology Flash Fiction International (W.W. Norton, 2015).
She has taught writing or was a featured author at Book Passage Corte Madera; San Francisco State University; San Francisco Writers’ Grotto; San Francisco Writers’ Conference; Green Mountain Writers’ Conference; Listowel Writers’ Week, Belfast Book Festival, The London Short Story Festival; The Abroad Writers’ Conference; Los Gatos-Listowel Writers’ Week; the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival, among others. She received her MFA in fiction from Mills College, CA, 2004. She is an emeritus member of San Francisco Writers’ Grotto.
Visit her here



Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US
• Amazon India