Review by Angel Ackerman
Sheridan Voysey is a well respected and, if one can trust his memoir, talented Christian broadcaster. His book Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams into New Beginnings (Thomas Nelson, 2013) seeks hope and renewal after a 10-year journey through the trials of infertility—a journey that does not end with children.
The book is well written, provokes thought on the nature of God, and handles some very private and real issues for Sheridan and Merryn Voysey as they work toward building a family. Yet, the chronology is choppy and presented in a few paragraphs at a time. After all, Voysey is condensing 10 years into 200 pages. At times, his efforts to stay succinct and on topic lead to subsections that are simply a paragraph or a few lines of a prayer that represents a month or more of time. I appreciate economy of words, but the disjointedness kept me from building a bond with the main characters.
The book fully tackles the support system inherent in religious practice, asks questions about God and family, and follows a strong married couple through the creation and destruction of their dreams–in vitro fertilization, a false pregnancy, applications for adoption and watching the people around them build families, Yet, it felt sanitized, and I felt like I was being kept at a distance, not allowed to share the grief, the depth of the emotions or the physical and emotional strain. I would have an easier time believing that the main characters had a “resurrection” if I had been allowed more involvement with their respective emotional states.
WHO SHOULD READ
Anyone interested in faith during the difficulties of life; anyone who is seeking to rebuild themselves or their family after the death of a dream; people considering adoption and fertility treatments.
RATING
3.5 out of 5 stars
Angel Ackerman is a recovering journalist having spent the first 15 years of her career as a reporter and editor. Thanks to her experience in weekly and daily newspapers, she can write about anything from prostate cancer to concrete houses with school board and municipal meetings in the mix. She has served on the boards of her local public library and Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. She holds two bachelors degrees: one in English and French from Moravian College and another in International Affairs from Lafayette College. For fun, she writes paranormal fiction set in the Paris high fashion world. Her family includes one sweet and gorgeous little girl, her creative but absent-minded husband, three cats and a tortoise, who also thinks she is a cat. Occasionally she runs away from home to exotic locations like Paris, or Tunis, Tunisia, thanks to a friend with frequent flier miles.
