Review: The Storyteller

The Storyteller
By: Sharon Tillotson
ASIN: B003ZUYQJ8

Summary via Amazon:
An ordinary human being finding her life purpose... With a little help from her soul...

Sarah is a Soul who is trying to guide Suzy along her path of rediscovering herself... Or is it redefining? Reinventing? Sarah thinks it might be better defined as remembering, but it's only Suzy who is concerned about the semantics. Sarah just wishes Suz would get on with it. A rather spirited Spirit, Sarah often finds herself rolling her eyes at Suzy's antics and the walls she has built up following the death of her husband. Sarah knows the body/mind/spirit energy who is currently housed in the human called Suzy has faced far more difficult challenges than the one she chose for this reincarnation. Storyteller is the most common role this body/mind/spirit has chosen for its human lives and Sarah chooses to tell the story of Suzy's spiritual awakening as it unfolds, interweaving compelling stories of past lives and how these individual energies accomplished their shifts in awareness.

There are three such interwoven stories beginning in 10,000 BC in Eastern Europe where a young apprentice storyteller named Luza is thrust into her awakening by the death of her mentor/shaman and a natural catastrophe.

The next story Sarah reveals takes us to 5000 BC and the American Southwest, into the life of Chu-Tze, a healer who milks snakes to aid in her treatment of children. Chu-Tze must overcome the unbearable loss of her husband and children and find a way to the ultimate forgiveness.

Sarah then tells the tale of Zhumbee, a prince in East Africa at the time of Jesus. Zhumbee's grandmother takes the prince on a journey to meet this mysterious prophet whose words he holds in his heart as he leads his city-state to its glory.

Suzy's journey takes the reader from the lush shores of Seattle to the deepest heart of Africa where humanity is said to have made its first appearance.

Quick Note:
Please keep in mind this review mainly covers the main story line rather than the three interwoven short stories. While I didn't care for the main story line, I greatly enjoyed the short stories.

Review:
The Storyteller is a new age tale about a middle aged woman seeking enlightenment through the trials placed before her. The protagonist, Suzy is a comfortably well off woman who lost her husband suddenly which triggers her to "rediscover" herself. What makes this book unique is its stretching of the first person point of view, Suzy is not the narrator, rather the story is told by her soul, Sarah. This view is both interesting and off putting. The reason I find this off putting is that although Suzy is herself, Sarah is her as well. What makes this even more confusing is that Suzy refers to her own soul as Sarah rather than as herself. Personally, my soul is me not separate from me so I wouldn't see it as separate from myself and I also wouldn't refer to it by another name. Once one gets past this disjointed concept, the view is very interesting. Sarah is experiencing Suzy's life along with her and they both share their differing thoughts throughout the story.

As we are reading about Suzy's story we get to read about her past lives through Sarah. Sarah interjects these to explain different concepts that Suzy is revisiting in her current incarnation. While these interjected stories are interesting and the motifs are mostly thematically correct, they cause a jump in view that derails Suzy's story. After the first story, Suzy's story barely recovers and before too long you have the second story. By the time I hit the third story, I didn't want to hear anymore from Suzy about her new age principles or love life. Overall the short stories were more interesting to me than the overarching story line. I think the author would have been better off releasing these as short stories rather than interjecting them into this book.

Suzy's story really only deserves a brief mention and thus that is all it will get. Her story was interesting in its span as she did travel from Seattle to the African bush but most of her "trials" seemed stilted and staged. Her characterization was flat and did not inspire me to sympathize with her after the first half of the book. I did however sympathize with the characters in the short stories as they felt more realistic. Her love life is a mess of on again off again relationships because she can't decide if she is into the men in her life or not.

What made this book impossible for me to finish (and I tried to force myself) were the huge errors in the continuity, poor grammar, flat characterization, slow pacing, and the disjointed storytelling. As far as I can understand the author, Sharon Tillotson was trying to convey as many new age concepts as she could while still telling a story. This made me not only disinterested, it annoyed me. I finally couldn't read anymore after finishing up to 85 percent of the book (according to my kindle). So this book rates a 0 for Did Not Finish because I didn't just lose interest. However if Ms. Tillotson were to release her short stories separately I would recommend those but they aren't worth the 5.95 this book is selling for on Amazon. I would buy it only if it went on sale. If you do see the short stories released in the future check them out they were very enjoyable.

Analysis: War Is Kind

War Is Kind
By: Stephen Crane

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

                Hoarse, booming drums of the
                        regiment,
                Little souls who thirst for fight,
                These men were born to drill and die.
                The unexplained glory flies above
                        them,
                Great is the battle-god, great, and his
                        kingdom--
                A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow
        trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

                Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
                Eagle with crest of red and gold,
                These men were born to drill and die.
                Point for them the virtue of the slaughter,
                  Make plain to them the excellence of killing
                And a field where a thousand corpses
                        lie.

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind.

Analysis:
With all that is on the news these days and that many of us know those that are in the military, I figure this poem is applicable to how a lot of us feel. Stephen Crane was a journalist and had seen many conflicts. He had even tried to enlist but due to his poor health he was not accepted. Although this poem was written in 1899 this critical view of war still resonates with many of us today.

The first part of stanzas one, three, and five are trying to console the survivors of these fallen men but also taking care to not glorify their deaths. Stephen Crane makes note to show the ugly deaths these men faced so that we understand the savagery and cruelty which war inflicts. He tells these survivors to not weep. I think this is an interesting part of this poem because why shouldn't people weep for their lost ones. You can take this a couple of different ways but to me it seems that through all the ugliness we are not to weep, for war supposedly has a purpose. This purpose is always vague at best.

In stanzas two and four, Stephen Crane goes on to describe the war and it's "purpose". The men who we are introduced to in the odd numbered stanzas are called to war and glory by their "battle-god". Their purpose as far as war is concerned is to "drill and die" until the last man standing can claim victory and "glory". This victory leads only to a field of corpses.

Finally, in the last stanza, we are faced with the Mother burying her son with his "bright splendid shroud". What consolation does this shroud bring when war has taken everything. Her son received the "glory" of a battlefield death and what good has that served? As I mentioned above, what victory is there in a field of corpses.

Reflection:
This poem causes me to reflect on the current state of affairs in our country as well as many others. Why are we in war? What purpose does it serve these days? What of our "battle-god[s]"? Do we have any say in these conflicts? Or are we merely meant to "drill and die" so that our country may have "glory"?

Keep in mind I am in full support of our military men and women. I believe in having a military to protect and defend us. I do not believe in policing the world, which is what our country has done via the UN since after World War II. We nearly lost an entire generation of men during Vietnam. With Desert Storm, The War on Drugs, The War on Terror, and now the "Conflicts" in yet more parts of the world. I can't help but think what purpose are these wars actually serving. And while we fight these wars, what of our homes? Our culture is so focused on the bright and shiny convenient things in the world rather than things of substance. We are polluting our planet. We are eating poisons. We are forgetting how to communicate unless there is an electronic device involved. I can continue but I think you catch my drift. When I read this poem these are the things that come to my mind.

To me, this poem is a call to action. We as a people need to face the harsh realities of our wars. That real men and women are putting their lives on the line out there and it's not make believe. We need to take a stand and help them survive even if we don't always agree with our "battle-god[s]". We need to take a stand and tell our "battle-god[s]" that there is no glory if there is no home to come back to. Every person in a family (whether you are blood related or not) makes up a home and it isn't the same without each and every person there. Our families make us strong, which makes our country strong. So I say bring our men and women home to fix our own mess of a culture before we start "helping" others fix theirs via the kindness of war.