Monday, July 12, 2010

A Freak's Journey: The Life and Times of a Circus Runaway

Genre: Adventure/Fiction
Author: Steven R. Roberts

An amazing historical backdrop of one special strong-willed man.

A Freak’s Journey is an exhilarating look of the true life story of Jim Stockley as told to the author by David Wood.

The author begins this extraordinary man’s life in a dam project, showcasing Stockley’s hard-shelled personality. From there the reader is taken to the past, reliving every single emotional upset, victory, and people Stockley had met that - in some way or the other - helped to shape and demean him to the point of nearly breaking down his spirit.

Mr. Roberts descriptive details of the 1930s and onward jump at you, drawing you immediately to the world he’s penned. His opening line:

Did you ever meet a guy who had a good job and you couldn’t for the life of you figure how he got it? hooked me; a simple question but one that has an enormous meaning. This emotional connection maintained evenly throughout the read, never once disconnecting me from the main character, and let me explain: I love to read novels about present day affairs, never have been interested reading anything that happened before my time. However, the author did a superb job with his descriptive details, mixture of dialogue that truly exemplified Stockley. But more than that – and this is why I loved this book – the novel contained virtues, loyalty, heartbreak, family situations, friendships, a battling court case to prove one’s innocence, and hardships that any reader at one point in their life will be able to connect and sympathize with.

Anyone that has experienced anything like this will truly dig deep into this novel and appreciate the storytelling talent of Mr. Roberts. I highly recommend A Freak’s Journey with no hesitation.

Lea Schizas, AllBooks reviewer. www.allbookreviews.com

Prepub review.

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