Barbara P. (gotchagal) - , reviewed on 9/2/2009 + 97 more book reviews

Honest and amazing stories of real families. Po Bronson takes us on an extraordinary journey. It begins on a river in Texas, where a mother gets trapped underwater and has to bargain for her own life and that of her kids.

Then, a father and his daughter return to their tiny rice-growing village in China, hoping to rekindle their love for each other inside the walls of his childhood home.

Next, a son puts forth a riddle, asking us to understand what his first experience of God has to do with his Mexican-American mother.

Every step, and every family - on this journey is real. Bronson explores the incredibly complicated feelings that we have for our families. Each chapter introduces us to two people - a father & his son, a daughter & her mother, a wife & her husband - and we come to know them as intimately as characters in a novel, following the story of their relationship as they struggle resiliently through the kinds of hardships all families endure. From their efforts, the wisdom in this book emerges, hard-earned. Po Bronson shows us that we are united by our yearnings and aspirations: Family is not our dividing line, but our common ground.

These stories are real, tender, heart-warming and each one could be our own - stories of people who have survived tremendous hardships in their families and who managed to create a better experience today. Collectively, these stories show us something utterly profound and yet beautifully simple: what's really involved in loving someone.

Beautifully written and very moving. You'll enjoy it and find that more loving thoughts about your own family will fill your heart after you've read about the families whose lives Bronson has shared with us.

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