Review of Still Here - By the Grace of God

[Mutai Marshal]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Still Here - By the Grace of God" by Gary Kazaks.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Still Here - By the Grace of God is Gary Kazaks' account of his crazy trip through life. His memory goes back to when he was only six months old. He details his life in New York and the lengths to which his family went in order to survive.

Gary's family struggled to make ends meet. His parents did not finish school and moved from job to job. The family had no concrete skills they could rely on. Thus, Gary learned how to deal with the situation. His family spent time on the road trying to chase stability. This kind of lifestyle brought with it adventures both friendly and difficult. They almost went hungry and even nearly became homeless. Throughout this book, we learn what brought them to such situations.

What I loved most about this book was its candid storytelling. The author uses simple language that is easy to follow. Events such as falling in love at eight years old were interesting. I loved that the author was free to tell it as it was. I also loved the poems at the beginning, middle, and at the end of the book. The poems helped to show the author's flexibility. The transition from continuous prose to poetry was impressive.

The book had several typos that were hard to ignore. There was also a random story about a cockroach family in the book that I struggled to find its context. These issues were the dislikes I found in the book and the reasons why the book did not earn a perfect score. I also deducted another star because the story did not leave me in awe. I expected to learn more about what became of the author in later years.

I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars due to the reasons explained above. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about inspirational stories of survival against all odds. The language used is clean, and the book can be read by any age group.

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Still Here - By the Grace of God
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[Joe Alex 2]

The candid storytelling and the inclusion of poems throughout the book made some sense, especially how the author transitions between prose and poetry. The survival story and the early life experiences, along with how he navigated challenges, seem interesting. However, the typos and the random cockroach story mentioned raise some doubts. I really would want to know more about his life beyond what’s shared to decide if it’s worth reading.

[patricia MGBEMENA]

Gary's family had to go through a lot and that fact that his parents had to move to job to job and they almost became homeless really makes me want to read and find out how it all unfolds.