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bethkostur's review
3.0
Good - read it straight thru - just not as gripping as I thought it should be
jenlouden's review
2.0
I took a writing class from Hope Edelman once many years ago and liked her immensely but the woman who shows up in most of this memoir I found myself seriously disliking. I skimmed most of the book just to find out what happens at the end, which did redeem the story for me to some extent. I learned so much reading this about what not to do in a memoir - I don't think there was enough of "ordinary reality" first so the weird behavior of her daughter Maya both didn't feel scary to me but more like a child with hasn't been raised with many limits. That probably isn't true but as a reader, I never got to see Maya and Hope functioning. I did get to see Hope portraying herself as a HYPER helicopter parent, which was so painful to watch/read. Her awareness stays too near the surface and she's too defended as a narrator. Another lesson as a writer: that probably was true of her when the events in the story happened ( I sure remember being a overly anxious mom at that age) but weaving in more of the older wiser narrator now would have been a huge help. The story content overall was very thin for me although, again, perhaps a different lens and focus would have changed that. For example, Hope portrays going to Belize as a big adventure, a big stretch. I laughed out loud. Everything the family does is arranged by a travel agent, they stay in nice places, and Belize, back then and where they went, was pretty safe (not true now) The scene near the end, when her daughter's doll turns up in another child's arms made me cringe. It feels like she turns an embarrassing encounter with an asswipe dad into a reflection of her spiritual growth. To end on a positive, the book is amazingly well written and a textbook example of weaving in research and a larger cultural picture to a personal story (although the result of said weaving also felt strained and fell flat for me.)
marc's review
2.0
Eh. Memoir of a writer mother's anguish over her 3 year old daughter's imaginary friend and odd behavior over a 3 month period, and the trip to Belize over the Christmas holidays that cured the child and her family. I usually love memoirs, but this one seemed more of a travelogue of Belize, the travel nightmares of C. America, and the odd trip to shamans mixed in.
kellyhager's review
4.0
This is a memoir about Hope, her husband, Uzi (no, not named for the gun) and their daughter, Maya.
Maya's three and has an imaginary friend, which is perfectly normal for someone her age.
Except the friend (Dodo) is a little odd. Maya will hit her mom and then say that Dodo made her do it. (Not "Dodo did it!" but "Dodo made me do it!") And when Maya gets sick, she won't take her medicine because "Dodo doesn't want me to get better."
Hope and Uzi start to get a little freaked out so they make arrangements to visit a shaman while they're on vacation in Belize to get rid of Dodo.
I don't believe in demons, evil spirits or possession, but I can't say I think that the problem is psychological, either. (Really, while most three-year-olds don't want to take medicine, I can't imagine any refusing because they don't want to get better.)
Very good book and very fascinating. It's scary in parts (like I said, I don't believe in demons/spirits, but Dodo is a creepy thing, whatever it was) but it's mostly about the lengths that a mom (and a dad; I don't mean to discount Uzi's part in this) will go to protect their child.
(Also, I want to go to Belize now--an unexpected benefit of reading this.)
Maya's three and has an imaginary friend, which is perfectly normal for someone her age.
Except the friend (Dodo) is a little odd. Maya will hit her mom and then say that Dodo made her do it. (Not "Dodo did it!" but "Dodo made me do it!") And when Maya gets sick, she won't take her medicine because "Dodo doesn't want me to get better."
Hope and Uzi start to get a little freaked out so they make arrangements to visit a shaman while they're on vacation in Belize to get rid of Dodo.
I don't believe in demons, evil spirits or possession, but I can't say I think that the problem is psychological, either. (Really, while most three-year-olds don't want to take medicine, I can't imagine any refusing because they don't want to get better.)
Very good book and very fascinating. It's scary in parts (like I said, I don't believe in demons/spirits, but Dodo is a creepy thing, whatever it was) but it's mostly about the lengths that a mom (and a dad; I don't mean to discount Uzi's part in this) will go to protect their child.
(Also, I want to go to Belize now--an unexpected benefit of reading this.)
brizmus's review
4.0
Lovers of memoirs; anyone looking to find a sense of hope in a difficult world; anyone willing to believe in the possibility of everything.
What I Have to Say: This was an amazingly beautiful, hopeful book that ignited my love of travel and adventure while at the same time reminding me how beautiful it is to have the option to choose to believe in whatever we please.
In this memoir, Hope and her family travel to Belize on what starts off as a vacation but in the end turns into a journey of healing and faith. Her daughter is sick, and though she may not have previously realized it, her marriage is in a shambles. On their trip to Belize, Hope will be forced to test her faith over and over and over again. At on point in time in the book, she says "I still have no idea how it's possible to believe in the potential of something while simultaneously refusing it the right to exist, but it is." For me, this one phrase just about sums up the entire book. Hope believes in the possibility of everything, and she wants so badly to believe in more than just the possibility, to believe in the existence of everything. Throughout the entire book she struggles with this, trying so hard to believe for the sake of her sick daughter, whose imaginary friend is changing her personality in so many negative ways. Does she have a negative spirit attached to her?
At some points I found this frustrating. I also believe in the possibility of everything, but after that, I believe we can choose whether or not to believe. And, for the most part, I choose to believe. For example, no one has ever PROVEN that unicorns don't exist, so I choose to believe that they do. For me, it's more a question of choice than faith (is there a difference?), and it was therefore sometimes hard for me to see her struggling with something that seemed to me so obvious. Hope's book taught me, though, that, for most people, it's a question of faith. And Hope's struggle to believe in the power of having faith, and to learn how to have faith, is inspiring and powerful.
With each Shaman they visit, each new mini-trip they take, we see Hope's faith growing. We see her doing things she never previously dreamed of doing for the love of her daughter, Maya. And through it all, we see how this heals her family when she didn't even know it needed to be healed. No, Hope doesn't magically transform from a skeptic to a believer in just this one trip, but we see this awesome voyage making many profound cracks in her skepticism, and we see how just having faith gives us the power to grow.
Aside from the deep, emotional implications of this book, like I said, it also played on my love of travel. It takes place in Belize, and Hope does a great job of weaving on Shamanistic and Maya(n?) history. The book left me begging my boyfriend to agree to go to Belize with me for our next vacation, and I was excited to learn so much about the Maya Indians and their history.
"The Possiblity of Everything" is beautifully written and deeply touching while also being an incredibly enojyable, emotional, quick read!
What I Have to Say: This was an amazingly beautiful, hopeful book that ignited my love of travel and adventure while at the same time reminding me how beautiful it is to have the option to choose to believe in whatever we please.
In this memoir, Hope and her family travel to Belize on what starts off as a vacation but in the end turns into a journey of healing and faith. Her daughter is sick, and though she may not have previously realized it, her marriage is in a shambles. On their trip to Belize, Hope will be forced to test her faith over and over and over again. At on point in time in the book, she says "I still have no idea how it's possible to believe in the potential of something while simultaneously refusing it the right to exist, but it is." For me, this one phrase just about sums up the entire book. Hope believes in the possibility of everything, and she wants so badly to believe in more than just the possibility, to believe in the existence of everything. Throughout the entire book she struggles with this, trying so hard to believe for the sake of her sick daughter, whose imaginary friend is changing her personality in so many negative ways. Does she have a negative spirit attached to her?
At some points I found this frustrating. I also believe in the possibility of everything, but after that, I believe we can choose whether or not to believe. And, for the most part, I choose to believe. For example, no one has ever PROVEN that unicorns don't exist, so I choose to believe that they do. For me, it's more a question of choice than faith (is there a difference?), and it was therefore sometimes hard for me to see her struggling with something that seemed to me so obvious. Hope's book taught me, though, that, for most people, it's a question of faith. And Hope's struggle to believe in the power of having faith, and to learn how to have faith, is inspiring and powerful.
With each Shaman they visit, each new mini-trip they take, we see Hope's faith growing. We see her doing things she never previously dreamed of doing for the love of her daughter, Maya. And through it all, we see how this heals her family when she didn't even know it needed to be healed. No, Hope doesn't magically transform from a skeptic to a believer in just this one trip, but we see this awesome voyage making many profound cracks in her skepticism, and we see how just having faith gives us the power to grow.
Aside from the deep, emotional implications of this book, like I said, it also played on my love of travel. It takes place in Belize, and Hope does a great job of weaving on Shamanistic and Maya(n?) history. The book left me begging my boyfriend to agree to go to Belize with me for our next vacation, and I was excited to learn so much about the Maya Indians and their history.
"The Possiblity of Everything" is beautifully written and deeply touching while also being an incredibly enojyable, emotional, quick read!
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