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Journal According To John

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Fresh off a divorce from a marriage that barely lasted two years, John soon gets into a nasty bar brawl, leaving him much worse for the wear. Increasingly alarmed by his disastrous tendencies, his cousin, Maya, suggests that he begin keeping a journal, regularly documenting his thoughts and feelings. In so doing, she hopes that he'll come to a greater awareness of precisely what motivates him to come to the various self-destructive decisions that he makes.

John complies with Maya's request - albeit begrudgingly - and he initially scoffs at the notion that any attempts at self-analysis will yield fruitful results. As time goes on, though, he is enlightened to the full depths of his conscious and self-conscious behavior - chief among them the compulsions that stem from his strained (to say the least) relationship with his mother. Ultimately, his journaling takes on a life of its own, revealing long-suppressed pain and emotional scarring that he can - and will - no longer choose to avoid...whether or not it ultimately leads to the spiritual and psychological healing he so sorely needs, though, is all but guaranteed.

In Journal According To John, author Sheryl Keen has penned a powerful, insightful treatise on the complicated delicacy of the human condition. Though John's particular dysfunctional behavior emanates from a specific source, his general life story is representative of anyone who has suffered emotional damage over the course of their lives. As such, Keen takes the reader on a vicarious journey through the standard cycle of pain, damage control, assessment, and ultimate reconstruction - with which we are all familiar on some level. Regardless of how the damage is done in our lives, our reactions to it are often identical, and Keen's adept portrayal of John's journey through self-analysis - however personal it may be - skillfully displays that.

Edifying and entertaining, Journal According To John takes the reader on an eye-opening sojourn through the depths of the common humanity that unites us all. A can't-miss literary treat.


Linda Waterson
Apex Reviews