Time Travel Thursday

5 Flames

Good Evening My Fellow Book Dragons,

I hope these lovely Spring evenings are finding you well. This evenings Gem came to me in a roll of surgical bandage. It’s white surface turned red in my claws and then it unfurled and the red was the color of the words on the bandage. Shocking red.

This is first time Dragon Feeder, Howard Shulman’s heartbreaking memoir, “Running From the Mirror”.

Howard is born perfectly normal. A beautiful boy with perfect, soft baby skin. Three days later, due to neglect on the part of the hospital, Howard’s perfect baby face is attacked by flesh eating bacteria. He is left badly wounded physically. This is 1961, the hospital does all it can, but the treatments are harsh and cannot stop this monster. Howard is abandoned by his parents. He is truly alone from the get go.

We see how Howard navigates the world around him. His surgeries with Dr. Gratz, a doctor who will enter his life many times in the next 18 years. We watch as Howard’s world expands from a barred crib to a house with a foster family. From foster family to his search and eventual meeting with his biological family. This book never stops moving once you start it.

I loved the honesty of this book. Howard was born in 1961. The book is a time capsule of memories. It is not gross nor self pitying, it just is in that way that my own memories come to me…good, bad or indifferent. They just are. In other words, Howard tells it like it is. If someone doesn’t make this into a movie, they are truly missing a golden opportunity at a hit. Howard’s story needs to be out there.

I read this in a day and a half (darn sleep) and I felt exhausted at the end because I get into the books I read. I can’t imagine how Howard felt at the end of writing it.

Whether you like memoirs or not, I implore you to read this one. You will understand your fellow man better. You may even understand yourself better. To Mr. Shulman, I say, “Thank you.”

He has given us a story of frustration, rage, pluck, love and, more than once, breath holding anxiety.

I remain, as always, your humble Book Dragon,

Drakon T. Longwitten

Many thanks to Sandra Jonas Publishing for the review copy. As always my opinions are my own.