Today's breakdown is for "The Lakefront" by William Schumpert:
This week's review will be broken down into two parts due to an unusual circumstance involving the author of this book, please read to the end.
Part one:
The story in this one gives you a purposeful fuzzy atmosphere as you're reading, almost fever dreamish. While written well, a lot of the time I felt a little confused and lost with the plot. I think it was intentional, but it had me so disoriented that I couldn't land where it was headed or what was happening most of the time. I like being unable to call the ending, so it worked in this book's favor. I felt that this one gave off a strong Silent Hill feel in description of scenery and the creature descriptors. I enjoyed the writing despite the tale itself not being quite for me due to the chaotic nature of it. I think Schumpert is a gifted writer and plan to see what else he has out in the near future. It was easy to see William's talent from the first page.
3/5 stars.
Part two:
While I was tagging this book as my current read, I was contacted by William Schumpert's mother, below is what she sent me:
"Christopher, I am Ginny Schumpert, William Schumpert‘s mother. I was looking through his Facebook postings from today and I saw that you are reading his book.
Right now, William is in the hospital. He has been here since December 6. William is a childhood brain tumor survivor, and became shunt dependent because of it.
His shunt began to malfunction and had to be replaced. Unfortunately, this is a case of neurosurgery gone bad. It’s one of those fields that if it goes bad, it goes worse. Since December, he has had eight shunt revisions. It has left him cognitively depleted in many ways. He will be going to an in-house hospital rehab floor to learn a lot of things. Then he will be living with myself and his dad.
Please finish reading his book and let the world know what you think of it, good or bad. This was an accomplishment in his eyes to get this book written. I’m prejudiced, but I think he’s a fine young man! And he’s a pretty good writer too. .
If he is able to understand that he has written stories, I will certainly let him know that you read his book, Christopher. Thank you so much for your interest."
So if my review made his work sound intriguing, or his mother's words touched you in any way, I ask that you give him a shot. I would love to see him recover and have a multitude of support behind his dream.
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