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Loading... Disaster Falls: A Family Storyby Stéphane Gerson
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is such a tragedy. To lose your 8-year-old son on vacation while rafting and later finding out it could have been prevented if the rafting company cared more about safety than profit is heartbreaking. This family learned how to go forward and live without their son in the physical world when tragedy can pull a family apart. ( ) Disaster Falls is a tragic story about loss, grieving, and healing. It's a parent's worst nightmare. I found myself crying throughout the book and the story felt so real to me. Everything they endured can be felt as the words feel as though they're just pouring out of him. As a parent, I think the emotions are so strong because you put yourself in their shoes, and glimpse the agony and terror they live with. I almost wished the story was told in chronological order, but it makes sense in the end. 3.5*** Thanks to Netgalley and the author for a copy in exchange for an honest review. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book.This is a beautifully written memoir by a father whose 8-year-old son, Owen, dies in a river rafting accident in Disaster Falls, Utah. The author tells his story in pieces, not starting the book with a full account of what happened on the river. His grief is so well described that I could begin to understand a parent's pain after a child's death. Part of the story is the author's own experience with his father's death (after Owen's death), and how many of his emotions came full circle. This story will stay with me for a long time. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. There is no owner’s manual for grief. Stéphane Gerson calmly shares the story of his family during the five years following the accidental death of an eight year old child. Parts of this book are tough to read. Sometimes I had to put it down. But after starting the book, I needed to know how this family had moved forward, coping with the unimaginable. The description of the accident itself unfolds as does memory, in flashbacks and remembered premonitions, second thoughts and comforts, clinical facts and suppositions. It nestles amidst the story of a family of four, suddenly a family of three, struggling to make sense of how to go on with their lives individually and, by conscious agreement, together. Some of what happened after Owen’s death was predictable, some unexpected and seemingly odd - until the reader remembers that each parent, sibling, classmate, and friend experienced this loss in a unique way. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. As I lost a child, the book was very sad for me. It was very hard and personal to me of the reality of death that we are unprepared for in our life.It was a very honest look at the family and their mourning the loss of the son. This real story of their next few years was very honest look at the family. This was an actual story. no reviews | add a review
Biography & Autobiography.
Family & Relationships.
Nonfiction.
On a day like any other, on a rafting trip down Utah's Green River, Stephane Gerson's eight-year-old son, Owen, drowned in a spot known as Disaster Falls. That same night, as darkness fell, Stephane huddled in a tent with his wife, Alison, and their older son, Julian, trying to understand what seemed inconceivable. "It's just the three of us now," Alison said over the sounds of a light rain and, nearby, the rushing river. "We cannot do it alone. We have to stick together." Disaster Falls chronicles the aftermath of that day and their shared determination to stay true to Alison's resolution. Gerson captures the different ways of grieving that threatened to isolate each of them in their post-Owen worlds and then, with beautiful specificity, shows how he and Alison preserved and reconfigured their marriage from within. Blending family history (including the "good death" of his father, which offers a very different perspective on mortality) and the natural history of the river, he provides an expansive, unflinching meditation on loss, our responsibilities toward our children, and the stories we tell ourselves in the wake of traumatic events. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumStéphane Gerson's book Disaster Falls was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.8509792Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Marriage and Parenting Family Biography And History North America West Coast U.S.LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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