Since I began to blog over two years ago I’ve received many emails asking me to review books. None grabbed my attention as quickly as one from Red Hen Press to review author Pete Fromm’s newest book, "If Not For This." Pete, a four-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award, and the author of "As Cool As I Am" (later made into a movie of the same name starring Claire Danes and James Marsden) wrote a gorgeous, heartbreaking yet uplifting story that captured my heart.
This story spoke to me on so many personal levels, because the protagonist, Maddy, resonated with me. It’s a love story, and a story of courage and inner strength that takes us on a personal journey set against the backdrop of the wild rivers of the American West. (It's also a peek inside the mind of a writer and the writing process.)
As a special treat, Pete agreed to write a guest post for my blog. I hope you enjoy it!
When I set out to write, well, a big fat love story, MS was the farthest thing from my mind, just as I guess it is for most people before those first twinges of numbness or dizziness.
Many years before, I’d written a story of a couple getting married at dawn along the banks of the Snake River, every one of its braided channels and tributaries wreathed in mist before them. Maddy, the bride, told her own story; feisty, funny, a realist hooking her ship to a romantic’s, knowing full well what she was doing.
Impossibly strong and young and invulnerable, they climbed into their raft and pushed off into happily ever after.
But, years and years later, I began to wonder about that happily ever after, began to wonder if all that can get in the way of such dreams as they play out in real life. I thought about writing their love story, following it through the years, the decades, finding out what happened to them in all those foggy, branching turns of the river, how they handled the long, dry gravel bars, the giant boat eating waves, all the wicked logjams of life.
At the same time I was working with a student, a feisty, funny young river runner who was starting to have some twitching and dizziness fears. She and Maddy, my own young river runner, seemed so alike that they blended, and as she started to whisper around the edges of MS, I dove into research, peeling back the layers until I diagnosed Maddy, saw this huge logjam before her, this thing that would condense what age and life does to us all, focus it laser sharp into the life and love of this couple.
My student, it turned out, dodged MS, but I was already writing every day, pulled into Maddy’s story, waking up in the wee, wee hours, just to get up, see what would happen next, which was pretty much what she did herself.
And, what I found, was that she continued to live as she always had, in present tense, headlong, refusing to be daunted or defined by a disease.
I found myself cheering for her and Dalt more than fearing for them. I never put on the rose colored glasses; there were troubles, difficulties; physical, mental and emotional. But there was also joy, elation, laughter, and, above all, their rock solid love. Their relationship was sorely tried, but the light refused to go out. Instead it burned all the brighter. They had children, raised them to be just as wild, just as fiercely independent and undaunted. They had, as does everyone, a life, but one maybe better than most, maybe more truly lived.
Shortly after finding each other, in the hubris of youth and health, they called themselves The Luckies, like their own brand of superhero.
Yes, Maddy has MS, but her story is not about MS, it’s about family and love and marriage and change, and what we sign up for and what we don’t, and how it all becomes a part of who we are.
And, despite everything life throws in their way, Maddy and Dalt never stop thinking of themselves as lucky beyond belief. Neither did I.
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Here’s another treat! For a chance to win your own copy of "If Not for This" simply leave a comment below. Contest ends October 17.
NOTE: I received a free copy of this book. As always, all opinions expressed here are solely my own.
Sounds like a wonderful story! I would love to read it!
I hope this one becomes a movie too, it looks so good. Awesome trailer.
"Yes Maddy has MS but her story is not about MS..." Li love that!
Thanks for the guest post! I would LOVE to read this big fat love story!
Thank you so much Cathy for introducing us to Pete Fromm's great book, and thanks so much to Pete for letting us know a bit of the story behind it. I can't wait to read it and am crossing my fingers I win a copy. But if I don't I know what I will be buying for myself for an early birthday treat! Thanks again!
Cathy, I enjoyed reading this. You always have such interesting posts....and what a great way to review a book--having the author step in. Nice!
I am very interesting in reading this book. It sounds like a good book from the brief summary and sonething i c Iuld relate to also. I too have MS but I am trying so hard not to let it define me. I have been so very fortunate to find someone to share my life with at the age of 50 after being a divorcee for quite a few years. I struggle with reveiling my disease to people because of how it does tend to define you. I decided it is better to be honest upfront with someone I was becoming intimate with. He surprised me when he decided that it truly didn't define me. I sure was happy and relieved by that. I wound up having to leave my job after working there for 16 years and he is still standing by me. I was just talking to my social worker very recently about how grateful and happy I am to have this man in my life. Just sharing our lives day by day but also being understanding when harder days come. He is helping to keep me strong still. I am interested in reading about Maddy and Dalt's story and how their relationship is and about her struggles and how she defines her own life.
Thank you for posting this blog about the book.
Wow, this sounds like a powerful story and wonderful book...and I'm sure it'll be a fantastic movie, as well!
and yeah, just because a character has ms, doesn't mean the story is about ms, every character, person, has things that define him but it's all just part of the story. the story is the story. sounds interesting. thanks.
Oh, this sounds like a great read. I really enjoyed the author's insights into the inspiration for his book. Can't wait to read it. The story is a perfect fit for An Empowered Spirit, too!
Sounds like a great book. I would love to win it! 😀
THIS is exactly how I hope my MS story reads to those who know me: Yes, Maddy has MS, but her story is not about MS, it’s about family and love and marriage and change, and what we sign up for and what we don’t, and how it all becomes a part of who we are. Exactly!
Love this, Cathy. Thank you for sharing.
I'd love to win a free copy but I'm putting IF NOT FOR THIS on reserve at the library where I work, just in case I DON'T win. (And if I do win, I'll donate my copy to the library's collection when I'm done reading it.)
What grabbed me was the river theme, but it seems that marriage, and relationships are also like a river, yes? It's what you signed up for, but not always what you expect. Some bumps, tricky places to navigate, and then a few blissful moments in between...to gather our strength and store our serenity for what's around the bend. Thank you for sharing Pete wand his writing with us.
I love to read a wide array of books (fiction, nonfiction, current, classics). I have been reading more books that feature people dealing with disability--and almost every family is touched with disability in one way or another. I started with interest in the resilience of older adults managing age-related issues. But I now see that the needs and the triumphs of older adults are experienced by people of all ages. "Average" and "typical" ends up being fiction for the more part. More people than I realize are finding ways to work around an exceptionality. I didn't know until I started looking! Thanks for bringing this title some attention.
Cathy, this book sounds wonderful!. One that I will add to my book list.
Loved this quote from the article (as did many, I see):
"Yes, Maddy has MS, but her story is not about MS, it’s about family and love and marriage and change, and what we sign up for and what we don’t, and how it all becomes a part of who we are."
Perceptive, coming from someone who does not have this condition, although as you pointed out, everyone is touched by 'something'. But I like that positivity, given that, MS does not define me either.
Thanks to you and Pete Fromm for sharing this.
Hi Cathy! This sounds like a great story and I ALWAYS like a free book. Please enter me in your drawing. ~Kathy
Now, I have to read it as I wonder how much MS disrupts the lives of the characters, and how love overcomes all.
What a beautiful story, Cathy! Thanks for sharing.
This sounds like an amazing story, and it's great hearing both your perspective and the author's. His philosophy is exactly you -- "Yes, Maddy has MS, but her story is not about MS, it’s about family and love and marriage and change, and what we sign up for and what we don’t, and how it all becomes a part of who we are." I think he's describing you! He must be a male version of an Empowered Spirit!
Pete Fromm is one of the most talented writers I have ever read.
You know I started blogging after losing my voice for several months from a complication of the severe Rheumatoid Arthritis I suffered from. I was home bound, isolated and depressed by my circumstances. On my site I list having RA as #2 in the about me section but in reality it's at the bottom. I am an Alzheimer's Caregiver, Writer, Wife, Mother, Grandmother and friend plus several more "things". As Cathy inspired me to do, I'm living my life on my terms mostly. It may slow me down some but I refuse to let it stop me. This book sounds amazing I've pinned and tweeted, thanks for sharing this.
The trailer alone has me weeping. Thank you.
This guest post is the perfect intro to the book (I think). He has me hooked, intrigued and motivated. I want to know more. I want to be one of the Luckies, not to be in their falling-into-the-abyss-of-love perspective of living, surviving, and overcoming. Most of this life seems to fall into that stuff we didn't sign up for... but it can't stop us from moving forward.
Thanks for this.
Love the idea of it! Hooray!
Avid reader here. MS dx in 2007 at age 45. Backyard homesteader wanna-be. The book trailer (I still haven't gotten used to video 'advertisements' for books...) and authors note guest-post on your blog make the book intriguing... might not be my type of fiction, but I think my wife would enjoy it.
I'd like to read this. I think I may be able to relate. I too, have always tried to live my life without MS as my defining characteristic. And 29 years of marriage is our love story! 🙂
As a 60 year old woman who happens to have secondary progressive M.S., I look forward to reading this book; the trailer is mesmerizing.