Customer Reviews

Falling into the Sun: A Novel

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Falling into the Sun follows a parental path that gives a startling view of what life is like for a parent on an incredible quest to save a child. It is during this journey seeking knowledge that will keep her son off of a path of destruction that Kate's own heart is strengthened and opened by an amazing series of events. Kate's struggles and trials with her son Josh may not be typical. However, the ultimate goal of finding the spirit within that will lead us to a greater knowledge is an inspiration to all who read Charrie Hazard's touchingly told story of a mother's deep love and search for answers.

Falling into the Sun bares the raw parental confrontation with raising a child who is more than a teenage problem, but one that shows raw violent, confrontation followed by remorse. Bedroom doors are locked at night to protect sisters. Only one who has lived this can truly understand what Hazard is describing. Hazard writes well emptying her inner thoughts to analyze the complex dynamics. You live the experience as you read it. It gave me the feeling that I am not alone in struggling with an out of control child.

This poignant novel is a doorway to a deeper dimension of life and spirit. Through an alchemy of science, faith and art, Charrie Hazard expands a reader's understanding of mental disorders, personal relationships, ambition, love, life and afterlife. If you turn each page with an open heart and mind, you will witness two neighbors' interconnected tumble into separate destinies. Buy it. Read it. Return to it through your years. "Falling into the Sun" soars.

Kate Nardek's life is both tender and searing to the mind and spirit of any sensitive reader - just like reality! Severely traumatized by seeing her neighbor, Michael, immediately after his suicide, Kate is tormented by visualizing him in almost every aspect of her life. Her awareness of his presence undergoes several phases, the first being overwhelmed by the presence of evil's dark power within and without one's person. While Kate doesn't seem to be getting over this horrific event quickly enough to satisfy her husband and family, she is also tormented by her son, Josh's increasingly violent outbursts which at the moment are confined to destroying physical objects but are bordering on threatening physical violence. It's enough to make a person crazy, and Kate wonders whether she's really losing it and whether her family will fall apart in the process.

But the poignant beauty of this book, alongside its acutely mental and spiritual challenges, is enjoying the earthy but transcendent process Kate and her family experience. Kate's journey is guided by a wise and delightful godmother and dear friend, Jean; a rather unorthodox priest, Father Nick; an "old soul" psychologist, Dr. Galen; and a psychiatrist. Kate faces her own inner darkness, her son's unspeakable and frightening diagnosis and her own father's true illness belied by his obvious alcoholism.

"Free-falling into the hands of the God/Goddess" is a wonderful process Kate learns to live in day by day, one that is not a pie-in-the-sky new age-ish type of spirituality but instead one that embraces every facet of kind and cruel daily living. What would it be like to embrace every single event with a realistic awareness that each moment is a gift? Kate's process is contagious to the reader, forcing each one to ask similar questions and embrace limitless possibilities.

This is Charrie Hazard's first foray into a memoir-type fiction. Falling into the Sun: A Novel is a very auspicious beginning for this very talented, sensitive writer, one to watch closely in the future!

So very well done, Ms. Hazard! This story will etch itself in every reader's mind and soul for years to come, a reminder that life and death are so much more than human understanding conveys!

What a wonderful switch from what I would normally read -- ridiculous romance novels to take me away for a while. Well this book was something very different. It made me think. The main character is real. She could be any of us with her troubles and insecurities. In this story the reader will experience the strength of human spirit. I admire the courage and love of a mother trying to help her son. Each person that reads it will come away with their own message and their own "take" on life. I think any reader will finish the book feeling inspired. I just loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone!

Falling into the Sun: A Novel Charrie Hazard's "Falling Into the Sun" tells of Kate Nardek, a woman pushed by her neighbor's suicide into reconciling her marred and distorted, imperfect self--revealed in what she sees as her failings as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, as a human being--with the perfect image of God, in which she was created but lost somewhere along the way.

In control in the classroom, Kate skillfully engages her reticent college students into thinking and conversing deeply about the origins of evil. But when evil assaults her through her neighbor Michael's suicide and her own son's increasingly violent behavior, Kate's façade of control crumbles and the unresolved "big" questions that for years she has half-answered, then stuffed inside, come spilling out.

Is there a God? If there is, then why doesn't He/She DO something? Why do we suffer? Why do our children suffer? Why, why, why? What, in heaven's name, does God want from us? Tell us the answer, please, so we can just do it, and then get back to living our lives.

Only, as Kate discovers, "our lives" is what God wants. Not the life we think we "ought" to be living. The life God intended from the beginning for us to live.

This first novel by Charrie Hazard is an impressive debut. Hazard deftly draws us into Kate's life, Kate's self, and into Michael's life, Michael's self, then compels us, scene by scene, to watch the painful deconstruction of both selves and of the worlds those selves think they control. Hazard makes us think past our cloudy assumptions to a place in the sun where self opens itself to letting something, someone greater reveal a vastly larger picture than we have seen before.

That's not to say the novel is perfect. Then again, nothing in this world is. Maybe that's the point.

Falling into the Sun was different from most books I read. It was highly religious, and mostly Christian, but it lacked the "my way is the right way" orientation of Christian fiction. Even though it talked about religion much more than many books labeled Christian fiction, the altar call, the overt or subtle urging by the author for the reader to adopt (or maintain) a certain faith wasn't there. As noted in the product description, this is the story of how seeing a neighbor's suicide scares a mother into getting her son the help he needs to deal with his mental illness. The main character, Kate, is an Episcopalian and talks with her priest are an integral part of the book. He approaches things from a Christian perspective, though at times he refers to, or affirms Kate's reference to God as "Her", but this isn't a book about feminist spirituality either; rather, Kate is a searcher, she is trying to find God and meaning in the sorrow and pain in her life, and unlike what is often seen in Christian fiction, this book offers no easy answers; hope, but no "find Jesus and your life will improve".

The afterlife, particularly as it relates to the suicide victim, also figures into the story. At various points in the book we hear Michael, the suicide victim, speak to us using italic print. While there are a couple of different ways his fate could be interpreted, I think reincarnation is the most obvious.

When people are physically ill we don't hesitate to send them to doctors. As a general rule, we are pleased to leave the doctor's office with a prescription for our child--it means the doctor knows what's wrong, and has a way to help, if not fix the problem. Mental illness is completely different. Seeking help is seen as a sign of weakness; of being unable to cope. Do we consider cancer victims "unable to cope"? What about those with broken bones, or gallstones? When doctors offer psychotropic medications, we ask "Can they do without it?" Kate has all those feelings in this book, but finally realizes that her son needs help. If you are a parent struggling with whether to seek mental health help for a child, I'd recommend this book.

All in all, it was a good read. If eclectic spirituality in others bothers you, it might not be the book for you, but if you can enjoy reading about beliefs different than yours, or if your spirituality is on the non-conformist side, I think you'll enjoy this book.

As an adult child of alcoholic parents, this book went layers deep for me. It's amazing how Charrie Hazard managed to uncover and lay bare pain from my childhood in this amazing book. After all, once the beast rears its head, where then can it hide? As a child, family secrets are to always remain hidden, but later in life, those same secrets can destroy you. Charrie, in the telling, captured so many of my childhood memories. This book is full of life and hope and caring and I applaud her for this extremely well written, and thought provoking, novel. It was absolutely excellent.

This is that most rare of books: the kind you want all your friends to read because you know it will change their lives for the better, just like it did yours. This is the real deal, a beautifully written story about a woman's spiritual struggle through the heartbreak of family addiction and mental illness. The plot is gripping, the characters full and compelling, and the themes uplifting. Don't miss this. It's way more than just a good read; it's a revelation.

Do you ever wonder about the nature of good and evil? Do you believe that everyone has a chance at redemption? Do you think that there is a higher power in this world, a loving force that guides us, cares for us, and sends us the help we need when we most need it? If these thoughts ever enter your daily thinking, you must read this book. Charrie Hazard's novel is one of the most beautiful, gripping and moving stories of spiritual growth that I have ever read. While dealing with the topic of mental illness and its effect on the families of the afflicted, this is no self-help book. This is a fictional and yet deeply enlightening exploration of the place of faith, hope, and love in overcoming the painful and seemingly uncontrollable aspects of life. When you finish this masterful work, you will not be the same person you were when you picked it up. I didn't just read this novel--I experienced it, and it has changed the way that I look at the world, and myself. What more can we ask of any work, or any writer?