Customer Reviews

This Is the Child: A Father's Story of His Young Son's Battle with Leukemia

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I read this book in 1 day because I could not put it down! From the 1st sentence, the author captivated me and made me feel part of his family through the end. The story is heart-warming and heart-wrenching at the same time. It is extremely well-written and shows the family with all of their flaws as well as their great strengths. I could not stop crying while reading this book and recommend it as long as you are prepared to leave a piece of your heart with the author and his family.

When my daughter was undergoing treatment for childhood leukemia in the late 1980s, I first read Terry Pringle's account, This is the Child, about his family's ordeal. Recently, I re-read the memoir in its Kindle format, and it portrayed the same poignant reality during my second reading, more than 20 years later. Pringle's first-person present-tense, detailed account brings suspense to everyday life with young children, as a family must undergo the distressing aspects of leukemia treatment and that treatment's uncertain outcomes. I have read numerous memoirs by people who have suffered through medical trials with their families. There is a temptation to whitewash the facts, to focus only on the distress, or to repeat far too many cliches and platitudes. Pringle's book suffers from none of these faults. Rather, Pringle presents the horror of diagnosis, the optimism of early treatment, the periodic returns to ordinary life, and the devastation of cancer's return, detailing his observations and reactions as well as those of his afflicted child, Eric. He also approaches the difficult dynamics of sibling rivalry, when the well child has to stand aside for the pressing needs of the sick one, as well as a parent's inevitable occasional impatience with the situation when the well child calculates his grievances and presents them unabashedly, seemingly oblivious to the drama being played out in his sibling's life. If you are looking for an honest account of what life is like living in a family that must deal with childhood leukemia, read this book. I have lived all of this myself, and Pringle represents it faithfully.

Cruel? Michael as a villain? This is not a novel neatly packaged to make everyone feel good at the end. This is REAL life! These are the feelings and these are the moments a father endures when his son is dying. I sooooo appreciated the level of honesty. There is no such thing as a perfect parent and I assume in times of great sorrow and great loss, we are all less than perfect. The angst and frustration are so clearly drawn for us here and I have no doubt that any parent who's lost a child will greatly welcome a little more truth and a little less fakery. Nothing more I could possibly say except "Thank you". Thank you Mr. Pringle for sharing your heart and letting others in this situation know that they are not alone.
My copy of this book sits in a hospice library and I know it has brought much comfort and a strange sense of camraderie at a time when one must feel so very alone.
-A

Eric Pringle, (1974 - 1981) was a bright, engaging boy who loved candy, cowboys, television and superheroes. He loved making up stories and playing with dogs. Creative and artistic, Eric loved to draw and was quite adept at drawing detailed cowboys. He enjoyed a good joke on his brother Michael who was 2 years his senior. In short, Eric (nicknamed "E") was a normal boy.

At 4, Eric was diagnosed with leukemia. His distraught parents and brother sought ways to make the treatments Eric underwent more palatable. One clever method they devised was to tell him that his medications were like "superheroes" that warded off the evil illness. Michael, to his credit continued treating Eric like a healthy sibling and the pair displayed refreshingly normal bouts of sibling rivalry.

I was not too fond of the author and I didn't like the way he would brush Michael off when Michael expressed resentment over the extra attention Eric was receiving. In one memorable scene, the author tells the resentful Michael to "shut up" and that he went outside to get away from the boy. Ouch! I also didn't like the way he criticized Michael for describing a nightmare he had had shortly after Eric's death in October, 1981. Nightmares were a normal response to the tragedy and trauma this child had undergone. A bright, imaginative child, it was only natural that this young boy's subconscious would conjure up frightful images after losing a brother.

The part that really soured me on the author was when he told a story with Eric as the hero and Michael as the villain. Although Michael outwardly took it in stride, one could not help but wonder what message such a story sent to Michael. I thought it was cruel to make him the villain in the story.

He enjoyed his "Any-M's," those miniature candy-coated chocolates which refuse to melt in your hands. He laughed with his brother and parents, often dressing up as a cowboy before galloping around the house, or giving mock-interviews to his dad's tape recorder. He smiled, when smiles were at a premium. Eric Pringle was a young boy battling leukemia, and spinal taps weren't as much fun as Star Wars figures--but he smiled anyway.

Terry Pringle's THIS IS THE CHILD is Eric's story, revealed through his father's emotional exploration of a tight Texas family. From a rattlesnake coiled in the dining room of a new house to countless I-Spy games during countless journeys to countless doctors in Houston, "E" takes it all in stride.

Here, as in subsequent novels THE PREACHER'S BOY and A FINE TIME TO LEAVE ME, Pringle is adept at depicting the minutiae of family life--the television shows (and everything else) that kids bicker over; the kids (and everything else) that adults bicker over. He i