Let It Go (Chris Williams)

Why I have this book: I was familiar with this story from the news, and when I heard about the book, I wanted to read it. We bought copies for our family at home and for each of our married children.

This book is painful to read. I don't think most of us can imagine losing four members of our family in one moment. The author lost his wife, his unborn son, his daughter, and another son when they were hit by a drunk driver. He and his six-year-old son survived the crash, and his oldest son was not with them at the time. So, in case I made that too confusing... their family of six (plus one on the way) became a family of three in an instant.

I had classified this book as a book of forgiveness, a religious book. However, the cover says "A Memoir"... and it is that. A memoir which shares the deep and personal spiritual experiences that helped this family work through a horrible tragedy. Reading the book is spiritually intense and very sad in parts. Other parts do seem more like a memoir.

The last part where he describes meeting his second wife and the birth of their two children was a bit of a letdown for me. I guess that is because it was more of the "memoir" side and less of the spiritual journey (which is why I was drawn to the book), and as a memoir, it didn't really share much about that adjustment for their family. He mentions it a bit, how his oldest son had to adjust to the new family arrangements, but it's kind of glossed over. He has every right to protect his family's privacy, of course... it just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the book. Maybe it was because I took a few hours break and came back to it, or maybe it was because it went from dealing with the loss of his family to a new marriage fairly quickly (in the book, I mean... I never could quite calculate how long it was in real life.)

All in all, it was a great book. Very heartfelt, very inspirational, very touching. I think it inspires self-reflection, and encourages readers to turn to Christ and strengthen their bond with Him. His testimony of Christ and the plan of happiness is powerful. When the world wanted to applaud him for his forgiveness of the teenage driver who caused the crash, he gave the credit to the power of Christ.

There is a lot in this book (even though it's only 160 pages long.) I recommend it highly.

Clean, although there is some description of the injuries his family suffered and from a fatal accident the author was involved in as a teenager himself.