ARA Review by Angela Bardot of And Then I Met Margaret
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ARA Review by Angela Bardot of And Then I Met Margaret
In reviewing Rob White’s book And Then I Met Margaret it was only by reading through to the acknowledgements, that it started to make sense as to why this seemingly “always wanting to look and strive to be perfect” person would publish a book before completing the editing process.
The story line teaches us multiple life lessons, although while reading, I found myself distracted by the poor presentation of the book that Rob dedicated to his sister. Sadly, she passed away before completion. Perhaps I can only surmise, in hurrying to get the book finished the author was not concerned with grammatical errors, missing words and forgetting the woman’s correct name from one page to the next. Whatever it was, the author was distracted and so was I.
The individual life lessons were simple to follow and understand although some lacked the essence of credibility regarding Rob’s reference to those who enlightened us, by calling them Gurus. I quote the meaning of Guru: “Mentor, guide, expert, or master of certain knowledge or field. A guru is also one’s spiritual guide who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the guru has already realized”.
All of the stories are believably true events that take place over a large portion of time, giving an element of reflection that I liken to someone looking back over their life and taking snippets of experience from harbored memories of what changed the course of their life in some way and wishing to share these positive experiences with others so we may learn and appreciate the gift of this knowledge that Rob is imparting. It is as if he is saying "please take from it what you will, and I dare say from reading this book you will all glean something different, because I did".
It does take Rob a long time to get to Margaret who I assumed to be the core element of the book, but found myself wondering where are you, when finally there you were, so in answer to the namesake of this book – Yes Margaret, I am sure your red dress was lovely. I wonder did you have a realization of your Guru status when asking Rob what he thought of your dress? To you it might have been just a question about a garment, or perhaps it was a compliment you were seeking. To Rob White it was so much more. This epiphany, after all his awareness and enlightenment, certainly took an age for Rob to finally realize the world does not evolve around him. Imagine if he had never met Margaret in her red dress!
I have given this book a rating of 3 out of 5 due to the lack of editing and basic content. I liked the idea of the author comparing what he considered to be a correct statement at the beginning of each chapter, and then at the end of the chapter stating a different opinion, derived from the experienced event. I thought this was a unique adage by offering the reader an alternate outcome statement. The collection of stories are easy to follow and an easy read.
***
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