Book Review
10 Feb 2019Today’s prompt: “Write a review of a novel or memoir you’ve never written.”
[Insert-your-name-here]’s posthumously published memoir “A Reason for Hope” is suffused with naïveté, both in its unsophisticated writing style and in the trusting nature the author displays in every single life choice.
The book is almost charming in its doe-eyed simplicity and optimistic outlook, but it is impossible to ignore our knowledge of what happened to the author after these words were written. It’s jarring to see [insert-your-last-name-here] describe Matthew Parker as “one of the most charming individuals I’ve ever met, with a wry sense of humor and a kind word for everyone.” Were this propaganda by the Church of Dagon, it would be downright offensive, but here, it’s just tragic. Parker is now synonymous worldwide with authoritarianism, the occult and wholesale slaughter, largely because [insert-your-last-name-here] and the other 26 people massacred in Eugene were blind to the warning signs.
Likewise, the reader is abruptly jolted out the narrative in the second chapter, where [insert-your-last-name-here] has written a meet-cute scene with – wait for it – Alex Wittington. Wittington, who is now a top tier member in the Church of Dagon’s org chart. The whole story of their relationship is an object lesson in not ignoring the red flags in your partner, whether it be mild emotional abuse or cult membership. The reader is left to wonder, could I ever be this naïve? Could I fall into the same traps?
Reading this book felt like watching a cliché horror film. You want to scream out to the characters, “Don’t go into the basement! Don’t trust them!” It never does any good, and it’s ultimately frustrating to watch their foolishness.
The book ends with [insert-your-last-name-here] staring out a plane window on the way to Eugene, Oregon, to meet their lover. The book’s publisher has already stated that this last scene was written before it occurred; the author had made plans to fly out to Wittington and included the imagined flight in the last few pages of the manuscript before sending it off to the publisher and heading to the airport.
“White clouds surround the plane, but all I can see is Alex’s smile,” [insert-your-last-name-here] writes. “I have a hope that lives in my heart, and a reason for hope, waiting for me in Eugene.”
There, but for the grace of God….