The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: wonder child, sitting swing, The Sitting Swing, Irene Watson, Higher Power (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Named for a childhood swing the author remembers as being impossible to get moving because of the rose bushes directly behind it, Watson's memoir recounts her fearful, highly sheltered years growing up an only child to Ukrainian immigrants in 1940s Alberta, Canada. Watson writes from the hindsight of her 50s, living in a Quebec addiction-recovery facility, where she has checked herself in for 28 days, unsure whether she can stay married to a husband she considers as overbearing as her mother was to her. Gradually, Watson uncovers the childhood wounds leading to her personality crisis: until age six, she lived in a log cabin in the wilderness within a few feet of her prohibitive mother, who pined for her dead firstborn son. Watson was largely ignored by her farmer father, abused by cousins and neighbors, and unable at first to speak English at her schoolhouse or make friends. Denied expression and love within the family, she acted out and married a man who helped continue to make excuses for her lack of ambition. She undergoes a rigorous 12-step program and a systematic breaking down of her ego so that she can re-create herself. This is an earnest memoir, well structured, though the writing lacks rigorous urgency. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

Brave and inspiring, full of heartbreak and hope. -- Barbara Robinette Moss, author of Fierce

Irene Watson is no longer in hiding. -- Stan Biderman, author of Everything Changes

The Sitting Swing looks at one woman’s life as she seeks to escape childhood bonds and deal with her pain. -- TMC Reviews, October 2005 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Loving Healing Press; Revised edition (July 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932690670
• ISBN-13: 978-1932690675
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,297,381 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cleansing the memories, November 19, 2005

By	Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sitting Swing (Paperback)

Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE SITTING SWING as a simply told passionate telling of one person's wrestle with reality, & the consequences of her behavior patterns. While it's in dire need of a copy editor, it rang all my bells, as I love a good internal adventure, complete with a life-changing "Ahha!" &, by the way, THE SITTING SWING would never have been written had the author not had that "Ahha!"

This is a memoir which begins at the end, in a recovery center, where Irene Watson has gone to "understand". What, she's not quite sure. After all, she's a highly successful dynamo, with all the accoutrements of the child of immigrants dreams: career, home, family, friends.

Born into a tight-knit, Ukrainian-speaking Northern Canadian community & a family beaten down by guilt, shame & grief over the death of their first born son, Irene's world was smothered by old world immigrant culture & by her mother who kept her close to home, segregated from the new culture, & the target of aggression by male cousins, & scornful townspeople.

THE SITTING SWING is a lively & frank record of one person's adventure into the realm of self-discovery, memories, responsibility for one's own life & the art of taking it back. Taking it back from forgotten childhood events & lessons that unconsciously drive us into deadends, into rages, into obsessions with control, into immoderate use of drugs & drink -- anything to soothe those dreadful pangs of helplessness, insatiability & a boring, troubled & empty future.

While in dire need of a copy editor, THE SITTING SWING is a must read for anyone struggling with bad memories & a hopeless present.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A insightful story, October 13, 2005

By	Jill M. Mayfield - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sitting Swing (Paperback)

The Sitting Swing is an insightful story. Ms. Watson lets you look inside her mind as she faces her childhood demons and adult struggles. With an honest voice she goes through the healing process and shows us all that it is never too late to change and never too late to heal. A well-written book that will appeal to just about anyone.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully touching story of self-discovery, July 15, 2007

By	Lynda. Fitzgerald "If Truth Be Told, June 2007" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sitting Swing (Paperback)

I picked up and began reading The Sitting Swing with some reluctance, but only because I generally read fiction. Still, the cover was arresting, the title thought provoking, and I had heard wonderful things about Irene Watson. What a treat I had in store!

Although this is a memoir, The Sitting Swing reads like quality fiction. I was immediately immersed in Irene's story of her childhood, and her fine story-telling ability and description allowed me to enter with relative ease the alien world of a childhood in a 2-room house in Canada.

Born of immigrant parents, an emotionally unavailable father and an oppressive mother, Irene had none of the advantages most children her age as she entered school and began her journey to adulthood, including the facility of language. She felt like a victim, and she was; and even though she rebelled to some extent, she mostly suppressed her feelings until she had no idea who she was. I think many of us have done that to some degree.

The Sitting Swing tells of Irene's discovery of that missing person, and it tells it with candor and sensitivity. I could relate on every level to her voyage of self-discovery. It was a two-box-of-Kleenex read, but it ends with a message of hope that will stay with the reader long after the book's pages have yellowed with age. I can only hope Irene will turn at least some of her energies to fiction, because what stories she can tell!

Bravo, Irene! You gave us a beautiful book.