3 out of 4 stars
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This book is a success. McDowell needs to be on the shelf of every bookstore and library. I believe it would also make a great motion picture. Author William H. Coles magnificently portrays the life of Dr. Hiram McDowell not only by description and events, but also in first person point of view letting the reader make their own opinions about the characters. At the start of the book, I had a hard time staying interested. But as I went on, the previous reading was worth it.
McDowell is a coming-of-age type book about the crazy dramatic life of a man named Hiram McDowell. Hiram has seemingly everything anyone could ask for including a successful career, nice family, multiple talents and recognized as a beloved philanthropist. He loves his life and what he made for himself, but as the book progresses, Hiram slowly learns what life is all about after lots of events and experiences along the way. The reader has the experience of knowing what Hiram is thinking as well as the thoughts of other characters Hiram comes in contact with.
I rate this book an overall 3 out of 4 stars. Coles has a real talent for painting a very detailed picture in the reader’s mind when describing something. Another great detail about the book and the writing is that the author has the intelligence to let the reader have their own feelings toward each individual character which I find is somewhat hard to do since most authors have their own feelings and reflect that in their writing. I did not give the book a perfect 4 out of 4 stars because there were some writing and grammar mistakes such as misspelled words, leaving a word out, inconsistency with spelling of names, writing “were” instead of “we’re”, “lay” instead of “lie”, and missing commas or quotation marks.
It is very impressive how the author seemingly never uses the same descriptive word or phrase more than once throughout the chapters. That had to be the best part of the writing for me. The thing I disliked most about the book was the dialogue. Not how the characters were talking, but how it was written in the book. There were lines and lines of dialogue going back and forth between talking characters but most of the time it was unclear who exactly was talking. It made the reading very confusing at times to where I had to backtrack to reread the entire dialogue section. Even then it was hard to be sure who was talking at what time.
I think this book appeals to an audience that wants to know about different life experiences and travel. It is not for the fainthearted. At least two major world issues are pointed out clearly in the book in detailed descriptions. Tragedies are written out in frank straight-forward wording that make it almost shocking to believe the event just happened.
I believe the author tries to persuade his audience to have a strong opinion on the worldly topics and issues he describes but to also express different perspectives of each character. So the author doesn’t specifically put blame on anyone but rather unfolds the story with truth and evidence like a documentary while also displaying each character individually. He does this without compromising anyone’s integrity and allows the reader to come to their own conclusion while also explaining the truths of the situations presented.
If you want a realistic story line with modern day issues and a unique perspective, you will love this publication.
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McDowell
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