Review of A Life's Journey : Choice and Circumstance

[Carissa Joan Simpson]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Life's Journey : Choice and Circumstance" by Robert Furmaga.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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A Life’s Journey: Choice and Circumstance by Robert Furmaga is a scattered collection of memories and musings of the author’s life. I had originally picked up this book because Furmaga said in the description that he had an autobiographical memory that allowed him to remember detailed images from early childhood. However, this self-diagnosis is rarely mentioned or utilized in the memoir. Instead, it becomes a disjointed list of the author’s memories with little to no aim.

My biggest critique of this book is its organization. In the introduction, Furmaga mentioned how the process of book writing began with recalling his memories. The memoir read as if Furmaga saw things that reminded him of random memories throughout his long life. Instead of organizing these memories into a cohesive narrative in the editorial process, Furmaga left the memoir as is, and the book jumped between periods and even different perspectives. This made the book incredibly difficult to read and enjoy.

As it stands, the book is split into four parts with an addendum. Furmaga alleged that the parts are organized as follows: early childhood, the beginning of his career as an engineer, memories of different people throughout his life, and profiles of family members that did not make much of an appearance in the rest of the memoir. I say “alleged,” because each part included memories and stories from different parts of Furmaga’s life. The parts are not as clear-cut as Furmaga stated in the introduction, which makes the author's journey difficult to follow.

Similarly, I would also like to highlight how Furmaga jumped between memories without taking the time to explain who each person was. For example, in the first chapter, Furmaga tells a story involving Rosemary, Wally, and Gerry without specifying who these people were. It isn’t until later that the reader learns that these are Furmaga’s siblings.

Because of the book’s detrimental lack of organization and cohesive narrative, I can’t rate this memoir anything higher than two out of five stars. You can tell how cathartic it was for Furmaga to write this book, and the nostalgia is dripping off every page. I felt as if I was listening to my grandpa telling his life story over the years. However, that doesn’t make for a quality and enjoyable read for someone outside of one's family. This book would greatly benefit from an editor who can rearrange this text.

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A Life's Journey : Choice and Circumstance
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[Joe Alex 2]

Reading this review made me think about how tricky it must be to organize a lifetime of memories into a cohesive story. It sounds like the author had a lot of personal moments to share, but the lack of structure made it tough to really get into the book. I can see how a more focused approach and clearer context for the people mentioned would have helped. This one might work better for someone who enjoys more free-form storytelling, but it’s not something I’d pick up based on this review.