Praying for My Life
Marion Bond West, . . Guideposts Books, $17.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-8249-4705-7
The story begins in 2003 when West's 35-year-old son, Jeremy, crashes his car and is rushed to the E.R. A day later, his twin brother, Jon, is hospitalized with a potentially fatal case of flesh-eating bacteria. Jeremy, it turns out, is bipolar and often refuses to take his meds; this is his fourth accident in just a few weeks. Jon is addicted to drugs and has been kicked out of rehab. As she sits by her sons' hospital beds, West flashes back to their hyperactive childhood, their father's death at 47 of a malignant brain tumor, their grandfather's breakdown and her regrets over how she handled her sons' turbulent adolescence. It sounds like material for a country-western song, but West, a long-time contributing editor to
Reviewed on: 07/10/2006
Genre: Nonfiction