Walking Through Walls was beautifully written, Smith has a gift to rival that of any modern New York Times Best Seller. This memoir flows effortlessly; memories and anecdotes are skillfully interjected in all the right places. The story itself is very interesting involving interior design, foreign leaders, divorce, psychic healing and spirit guides. Whether you're interested in psychic healing or not, this book will not disappoint as it has so much more to offer.
On a personal note, I have to say that I tend to shy away from books with too much "spiritual" influence not focused directly on God. Walking Through Walls however is very unassuming in that it does not try to convince you of anything or convert you, it is simply a story well told. I give this book 4 stars. It was very nearly 5 stars but I felt the book hit a slow spot about 3/4 of the way through. That and Smith sometimes came across as a emotionally remote and a snob (blue tights and Mr. Coffee). Though growing up as he did who can blame him, and overall he is a likable person. ( )

interesting and very different. Actually well written but the subject didn't keep my interest. His father is a healer extraordinaire without touching or even seeing people. No one ofcourse, believes him. ( )

I looked forward to this book after reading the description on Amazon. It sounded charming and
funny. I looked for it to be an entertaining read. I found myself at the end of the book and still not caring about any of the family members.

As it happens I am a believer in energy healing and many things mentioned here in the book. It seemed to me that more often than not such things were made to look ridiculous. The family was composed of the oft confused Philip, who grew up to be rather self centered and spoiled. His mom who tottered through her days on high heels with her head in the clouds, pretending to be someone she was not. Dad seemed to have most of the redeeming qualities although it was he who was most often made to look silly, and frankly, he often was.

Sometimes a book can be redeemed by its underlying tone. The tone of Walking Through Walls seemed a little whiney to me. I am sure that this family was in reality much nicer than this book made them seem. I dislike giving books a review that isn't positive, and so I try to find at least one positive thing about these reads.
With this book, I am sure that there are those who will find it more entertaining than I did. It was nowhere near as depressing or shocking as Running With Scissors. It just turned out to be much like the oft mentioned brown rice. Rather dull. ( )

Philip Smith doesn't spend much time sanity checking the outlandish tales of his father and his ability to heal via telephone or speak to spirit guides. All this must be taken immediately on faith, which some readers might be able to do. I wasn't.

But even if you do accept what Smith writes about his father, you'll still be painfully bored at the countless variations of Smith's telling and retelling of the same exact thing. OK we get it, Smith's Dad healed people...but do we need to hear the indepth details about each and every healing.

Somewhere along the way Philip Smith lost sight of the story and instead defaulted into trying to do a blow by blow description of his father's life. He fails miserably in a book that will leave you feeling more trapped than uplifted. By page 200 I was desperately wishing it would end, and when I got there I was surprise at just how little time was spent on a fairly climatic event.

There are so many better memoirs than Walking Through Walls, I'd highly recommend spending your time with them. ( )